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Topics - startracer

1
USB serial LCD backpack / Nokia LCD USB backpack free PCB built
Not sure if this is the right group to post in but it is a LCD backpack so I'll give it a go.

This is my second build of a free PCB. The first one was a USB IR Toy. This one was a lot harder to solder due to the fine pitch components involved. I was really nervous about the PIC and especially the Nokia connector. Efter ordering the components from a local source and digi-key, I finally received all of them today and got to work.

Not much to say about the resistors and capacitors, diodes and such. They are relatively easy to solder. I bridged one of the inductors since I could not get my hands on it and it seemed mainly to be a little noise suppressor for the LCD voltage supply. The PIC was a little bit shaky at first but after making sure I had complete support for both my hands it didn't take too long to solder. My biggest concern was the Nokia connector, which has an even finer pitch than the PIC. It did take a few turns to get it right. The main problem was that the solder hadn't made contact with the leg and pad. It seemed so under the magnifier but there really wasn't any contact, so after running back and forth between my computer and soldering iron a few times it was finally correct. Of course I didn't notice this until after I hade connected the board to my computer and done a lot of troubleshooting but at last I could run the test software and see the beautiful "colour-flipping" and the passed self test. The next test was to see if I could get the demo to work, and it dit. The Dangerous Prototypes logo appeared nicely on the LCD. Everything worked!

I'm not sure how I am going to secure the LCD to the board but I guess that some double sided adhesive tape will do the trick. I also noticed that the MC34063 get very hot. Not sure if it is supposed to do this. Any suggestions from anyone out there?

Here are some pictures. Funny thing. I edited the Dangerous Prototypes logo and uploaded it using the demo software and the darn thing came out mirrored =) Is this an artefact of the demo program or is this the normal way it displays images?

Any way, this was fun to build and a bit of a challenge. I really think I want to get a microscope or something with higher magnification before I build anything like this again.

Thanks Dangerous Prototypes!

/Magnus, Sweden.
2
USB Infrared Toy / USB IR Toy v2 Free PCB built
I was lucky enough to get a coupon for a free PCB and I immediately set my sights on the USB IR Toy. Some components were a bit hard to find, in Sweden any way, but after having discovered that Digi-Key has a swedish page there was no problem anymore.
The 0603 components were easier to solder than I thought.
After finishing it and programming it with the bootloader I could not get it to download the firmware so I flashed the whole firmware with a PICkit3 instead, which probably was just as easy.
The last components I ordered were the IR receiver and the IR detector and it was a painful wait. But today I finally got them, soldered them as fast as I could, connected the board to USB (I had already checked that it was working before I got the IR components) and hit the "t" to run the self test. The "V215" it returned was awesome. Now I really have to get this thing a worthy place in my home control network.

Thanks for making this awesome gizmo!

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3
Bus Pirate Support / Linker problem
Hi!

This might be a n00b problem but I haven't got that much experience with the inner workings of MPLAB, but since I reinstalled MPLAB and the C30 compiler a few days ago (I scrapped Vista in favor of Win7) it always says at the end of the compile, when it starts the linker:
--------------------
pic30-coff-cpp.exe: 24FJ64GA002.gld.00: No such file or directory

pic30-coff-cpp.exe: warning: '-x c' after last input file has no effect

pic30-coff-cpp.exe: no input files

c:program filesmicrochipmplab c30binbin..bin/pic30-coff-ld.exe: cannot open linker script file APP 24FJ64GA002.gld.00: No such file or directory

Link step failed.
------------------------------------------------
I didn't have this problem before the reinstall. Is there something I am missing? Where does the ".00" come from?
If I add the ".00" to the end of the linker script filename it works, but it also removes the file afterwards so I would have to copy the linker script and rename it before each compile, which just seems wrong.
Any help is appreciated.
/Magnus

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