Part Ninja DIY build

[mikelelere]

Hi,

I've just finished building the Part Ninja v1 on a perf board. It's a little nice tool, and it's great for identifying different BJTs and MOSFETS apart from other parts. As shown in the picture, I've not implemented the auto shut-off circuit (I do not need it anyway). Currently, I'm trying to figure out how to add ESR measurement capabilities to the board. I'll keep you posted...

[arakis]

Nice one :D Plz do share your findings

[mikelelere]

I've populated the free Part Ninja v1 PCB I received from Dangerous Prototypes. Unlike the one I built from scratch in a breadbord, this one can also be used to probe and identify tiny SOT-23 transistor too! I do love this little handy tool. Thanks DP for the free PCB!

I'm still working on adding ESR capabilities to the Part Ninja I built in the breadboard. I'll post here any progress.

[arakis]

qool build, thanks for sharing.., btw keep in mind that if the version you got is not v1c the battery power option will not work...

[mikelelere]

Yes, I knew in advance that the battery power option would not work unless the board was v1c, Thanks for the info anyway. However, there was no v1.c PCB version left in the free PCB drawer. What are the differences between v1.b and v1.c? Perhaps I can "patch" the build to get it working with the battery...

[arakis]

Yes, I knew in advance that the battery power option would not work unless the board was v1c, Thanks for the info anyway. However, there were no other boards left in the free PCB drawer. What are the differences between v1.b and v1.c? Perhaps I can "patch" the build to get it working with the battery...

I messed it up preatty bad, so the patch would look like a big mess of wires...(other diffrences are only related to the silk, it's no longer upside down compared to the LCD....the v1c battery power hasn't been tested yet or implemented in the firmware, so you're not losing much....

[mikelelere]

Thanks for the info, Filip. I'll follow your advice and will leave it as it is. It is working great, and frankly, I'm unsure whether I would be powering it from an external battery, it was just for fun ;-p

BR,

M.

[JanW]

I just wanted to show off my new Part Ninja, built on perfboard:



...testing a BS107 low power MOSFET.



I used a DIP40 package variant of the '4550, it's completely hidden below the display module. Everything is held together by M3 bolts.



The connections were made with enamelled copper wire AWG 28. The lacquer is burned off by tinning it with a very hot soldering iron (400 ° C). The fumes are pretty aggressive, I guess a fume extractor won't help much, you'll need a gas mask :)

I've left yome space for future additions.

BTW, I've made some component changes to fit what I had laying around: I used a LM385-2.5 shunt reference with a 4.7 k series (current limiting) resistor instead of the original Maxim part and a LP2950 voltage regulator.
Jan

[arakis]

great build, You could have also just used 2 same resistance resistor to make a voltage divider for the reference... as the charging is made through VCC, and since VCC fluctuates, the VCC/2 would do just as good of a job as a fixed reffrence..

Great to see the project built. Let us know if you run into any bugs..

[presslab]

Nice job! This is a pretty awesome project.

[Speleobot]

Sorry to ask such a n00b question, but where is the PIC code hiding? Can't seem to find it in the SVN and thought I would give this protoboard version a try.

[arakis]

Sorry to ask such a n00b question, but where is the PIC code hiding? Can't seem to find it in the SVN and thought I would give this protoboard version a try.

Hi, the code is in the Part-Ninja folder of our SVN
http://dangerous-prototypes-open-hardwa ... art-Ninja/