Here is a paper from the Electronic Industries Alliance describing the standards for surface mount tape. We found it interesting that all surface mount tapes use the same pitch and diameter of the holes in the feeder mechanisms. The pitch being 4mm, and the hole diameter 1.5mm.
We finalized 6 new designs and sent off a box of PCBs. Several test a new header-less programming pad we’re working on.
We researched various feeder mechanisms for pick n place machines, and posted about them. Which also provided some material for app notes.
The protoboards received another update. We added mini USB B breakouts to all of them. We’re also working on a smaller header-less programing footprint for our boards.
In relation to the previously posted Resistor cutting robot, here is a DIY mechanized surface mount tape feeder. The project is mostly made from CNC milled plastic. It’s open source so all the design files are available.
This is a simple proof-of-concept of a SMT tape-and-reel part feeder design. The main parts are a stepper motor and feed sprocket to advance the tape, two walls with guide slots, and a simple slider mechanism to allow the feeder to accept tapes of varying width. Please note that it does not (yet) include any mechanism for peeling and disposing of the tape covering. Suggestions and innovations in this area (as well as all others) are welcome!
On our Shenzhen trip we were joined by the Oomlout team. While discussing a reel-to-strip cutting robot, Aaron mentioned that he has a resistor cutting robot.
It’s built from laser cut MDF and acrylic, with a bunch of servos attached to load and cut the resistor tape. The project is open source, so all the design files are available on their site. We really like the menacing look of the blades.
Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. This post was announced on Facebook, and on Monday we’ll send coupon codes to two random commenters. More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday.
Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week:
Continue reading “Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters”
A limited number of DEFCON 20 “Human” badges are available from HackerStickers. The badges, described in an earlier post, are essentially a Parallax Propeller dev board and are being offered for $40 (plus shipping.) Each badge comes with 6 batteries, 2 PS/2 connectors, and 1 VGA Connector. These are the same badges given to attendees at last summers DEFCON 20 conference in Las Vegas.
Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week. Free PCB Friday is coming up soon.
Coming up:
Bus Pirate v3.6 universal serial interface is back in stock at Seeed Studio. This is the updated v3.6 in a standard PCB footprint. You can get a simple laser-cut acrylic protector for this board for only 3 bucks.
Bus Pirate is a hacking multi-tool that has the capability to interface with most IC bus protocols used in the electronics industry today.
Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
Being cultural ambassadors, we always try to spread the best the internet has to offer. On this trip the .:Oomlout:. team brought a ghastly 80s formal photography pose as an alternative to the more traditional peace sign. Yes, it’s FACEFRAME! Here’s but a few of the FACEFRAME! poses we collected on this trip.
More FACEFRAME! pics below the fold.
We edited the first of four interview videos from Shenzhen and Tokyo. Responded to email backlog that extended to October and sent out thank-yous to everyone from the most recent Geek Tour.
We posted a few of the best FACEFRAME! pictures in the forum.
We finished QFP protoboards v1.1 in all available pitches. Files and gerbers are uploaded to SVN.
Picture courtesy .:Oomlout:.
We caught up with Mitch from Hackvana in Shenzhen, China. Mitch has spent the last year and a half sourcing parts in the giant Huaqiangbei electronics wholesale market. His goal is to harness the resources in Shenzhen for hardware hackers around the world.
Like many hackers, Mitch was annoyed by how much time it takes to source parts for a project. But unlike most of us, he decided to do something about it. Mitch moved to Shenzhen a year and a half ago in a bid to establish a connection between hackers across the world with the largest electronics market in the universe.
Continue reading “WORKSHOP VIDEO: Interview with Mitch from Hackvana”
Our mission to Shenzhen, China was two fold. We wanted to walk and map the huge Huaqiangbei electronics wholesale market. For a more in-depth review of the market check out our previous Global Geek Tour of Shenzhen, China.
All our projects are built with parts from this market, understanding it better helps us reduce cost and increase the speed of production. Our second objective was to ship a small (100kg) palette of tools and components back to our workshop.
The market divides nicely into quadrants by two major streets. For five days, in collaboration with كازينو اون لاين الكويت, we walked the market building by building, floor by floor. We noted the major buildings related to components and kiosk hardware. There’s a ton of retail electronics, cell phones and accessories not related to components, so we avoided these to concentrate on the things we found most interesting.
Continue reading “Shenzhen Hua Qiang Bei market visit report”
Cypress Semiconductor, manufacturers of the line of Programmable System-on-Chip products known as PSoC, are hosting the first annual PSoC World virtual conference, on December 12th and 13th, 2012.
“PSoC World is something truly new and exciting that Cypress is doing for all of us PSoC developers. It will give us an opportunity to see how-tos from PSoC experts, learn about the use of PSoC in applications such as industrial control, user interface and power supervision, and interact with PSoC ecosystem partners like ARM, Arrow, Redpine, and Macnica.
Just for registering for PSoC World Cypress will enter you in a drawing for a free Amazon Kindle. Also, the top 50% of attendees who spend the most time in the, “embedded environment” (the conference), on December 12-13 you will be entered to win one of 10 Sony digital cameras, Kindle Paper Whites, Leap Motion HID interfaces, and one of 100 PSoC 5 LP development kits.”
Continue reading “PSoCWorld virtual conf December 12-13, 2012”
Here is a guide on how to make your own Ferric Chloride etchant. It’s a relatively simple process that only requires some iron, hydrochloric acid, and air. As the process uses acids please be careful, and do this only if you feel comfortable with it.
Get 20g of iron. This can be in the form of nails or steel wool. It’s best to use iron that’s rusting, that indicates it doesn’t have other metals like zinc or chromium that’s normally used to prevent rust. To the iron add 100mL of water and 100mL of 12M hydrochloric acid. The iron will start reacting with the acid to produce hydrogen gas and ferrous chloride. If the reaction is proceeding too slowly for your liking you can heat up the mixture. A flask of cold water on top is useful to reduce evaporative losses.
Side note: If you already have access to hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide you might be better off just using that for etching. Here is an instructible on how to mix it up, and why it might be better then Ferric Chloride.
Via PCBheaven.
We would like to warn anyone that ordered free PCBs, that are now out of stock, that they will soon be removed from our free PCB drawer. Download the documentation while the links are still available. Documentation will still be available on our wiki, but it might be more difficult to find.
This comes as preparation for more for-sale PCBs, and even the possibility to purchase free PCB coupons for an absolutely astronomical price.
We’re finally at full complement in the workshop. Today we fought the backlog of forum support and emails that accumulated over the last few weeks. Videos are being edited, pictures assembled, and impressions are being evaluated.
Here is an open source surround sound dock for Apples i-devices. It features the standard Apple connector, has two 1W speakers, and an external output for headphones. It’s uses the LA2610 analog surround sound processor and an ATTiny13 microcontroller.
The Amp Hour electronics podcast with Chris Gammell (San Francisco Maker Faire video, Beers with Bunnie interview) and Dave (EEVblog) will have Ian on next week. We’ve worked on this for a while, and now it’s finally happening!
If you have a specific topic or questions post then on the reddit question list for the next show.
Benjamin Lunt writes to inform us of a small hardware HID project which for which he’s developed a PCB. The device design was created by Joonas Pihlajamaa (Jokkebk) and posted on CodeAndLife where it’s very popular. Joonas’ device is a small USB HID keyboard device that types a password stored in EEPROM every time it’s attached. As shown above, a new password can be generated just by tabbing CAPS LOCK a few times (4 times to start password regeneration and one tab for each password character generated, 10 is the default password length). The design is based on an ATTiny85 and a few resistors and zener diodes.
Ben went on to develop the PCB design be found on his website. Additional docs and pics can be found at CodeAndLife.
Via the contact form.
Kenneth builds an enclosure and power supply for a “cheap” rubidium frequency standard. Rubidium standards are used for high precision clocks, and time keeping with a drift of only 6ms a year.
Normally, rubidium standards are very expensive, but it is possible to find these modules on eBay for $50-$100 as they come out of decommissioned equipment (such as cell phone towers, which need this level of time stability). On a hobbyist bench like my own, these standards are useful as a very good time base to calibrate other oscillators against. They’re also useful because 10MHz is the standard time base used by bench test equipment, so this standard can be used to drive frequency counters and spectrum analyzers via their time base ports so that they are more precise than with their stock internal 10MHz oscillators.
