There’s nothing worse than deciding to go from “prototype” mode (using headers and pins so that stuff can be moved around) to “final” mode where everything is soldered in place to make it a neater package… only to find that in the process you’ve broken the timing crystal attached to the RTC, and can no longer access it to fix it. Believe me, I tried. Couldn’t get the teensy back off so I could fix it.
Oh well, I see Pixelmatix has a new version of the Smartmatrix board, with an integrated SD slot. I’ll just have to wait and get one of those.
Err, that’s tough. I haven’t had the courage to solder any of my teensys down directly to a board. So far I’ve always soldered two lengths of female headers for the teensy to plug into even though it makes it considerably higher off the board.
Well, I’d just gotten two more teensys, so I figured I’d make the one in the clock permanent. Oh well, I’ll just remove the clock portion of it and move on for now.
I suggest adding a battery backed RTC module. You’ll get more accurate time keeping and can use what you have already. Here are two Canadian sources for modules with the accurate DS3231:
My local electronic shop had a Grove rtc module, based on the ds1307. It’ll do for my purposes. I just have to replace the battery holder with one for a cr2302.