Jed's note: I forced the team to start coming up with posts. First up is Paul, the hardware engineer of the group, and his tips

While working on the hardware/firmware of Gary's e.point, I came across a few problems (Mostly in the early hours of the morning)

1. Things generally do not work when they are not plugged in.
2. PICs cannot be programmed telepathically.
3. 555 timers cannot be programmed at all.
4. Making a change in code does not automatically update the PIC's firmware.
5. Uploading firmware without first compiling is not useful.
6. 230V destroys PICs and most other components.
7. 8 bit integers cannot store the value 0xFFFF.
8. ACKing ACKs is not a good idea.