Mini Down Under - SMD Tutorial Project, USB--> DMX512

[mrpackethead]

Hi, At the Melbourne Mini, we will be having an 'introduction' tutorial into Surface Mount Construction. And its not just going to be theory, we will be actually building something. The project is something we can finish in a couple of hours, and is reasonably priced, so hopefully we can have a high degree of participation. Theres a few of the crew that have some experience already and thats certainly going to help! I hope that by the end of the session, you'll be walking away with a functioning USB-->DMX512 adaptor, that you can go and use in your 2010 show. The DMX Adaptor is an ENTEC Pro compatible device so it will work with vixen ( and many other bits of software ). Thanks to RPM for some inspiration on this project, much of the design is based on his project with some modifications.

I'm been taken back by the enthusiasm towards the tutorial, I hope by the end of it, you see its not something to be scared of, and it will open up a whole world of possibility to you.

COST:
The cost for the tutorial will be $A25, which will cover the cost of the PCB, the components, and some consumables ( solder paste, liquid flux etc ).. You can pay this to me at the event.

Things that will be useful if you have them
I don't want you to rush out and buy these thigns if you don't have them, but i'm sure that we can find enough tools to use..

(a) good soldering irons with sutiable tips. ( Preferably a temp controlled one ). I'll place a link to some suitable ones.. The tip makes *ALL* the difference!
(b) solder wick.
(b) component tweezers ( for picking up smd components )

If you have any specalist SMD tools, and its not too hard to bring them, then thats great ( hot air rework, smd oven etc etc, pick'n'place machine ) then by all means bring them, but if you've got that stuff then you're probably not needing the tutorial! )


Programming: The chip is a ATMEGA, I have one programmer, I'm sure there might be one or two more out there...

Can you please register your interest below, so i can make sure that we have enough components and boards to keep everyone happy.

In the next few weeks, as time progress's, i'll publish the schematics, code and pcb files for you so you have a look and get familar with it.. For a start heres, a pic of the pcbs.



CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS: ( copied from other thread, if i've missed you sorry, please scream, it looks like at least 3/4 of the crew are keen so far.)..

Total so far (15)

Toodlepipsky
Scorpia
Klanger
Aussiephil
Dave Burrows
Daviddth
Matt Edwards
PolarBear
Micheal Sullivan
Edward57
Aususe
Scorpia.
Goldie
Xcenntric
Micheal Sullivan
tuppet.

[dirknerkle]

MPH, your mini is going to be sooooo cool! I just wish I didn't live 15,000 miles away... (sigh...)

[toodle_pipsky]

Yup, count me in. :) Thanks mph.

[scorpia]

MPH,

Sounds like a good plan, I have an older weller solder station that should work ok so i will bring it as well as some solder and tools etc.

I dont have a true AVR programmer but i do have 2 x buspirates which are supposed to be able to program AVR chips with the right setup. I will try and investigate this between now and then and see if i can get my latop to work for this. Hopefully it will help with programming if there is more than one programmer.

Peter

[lightman]

Man.... I wish I could come! But like Dirknerkle.... a bit too far.

Great idea to actually build something at the mini. Very cool mrpackethead...very cool indeed!

Regards,
Lightman

[klanger]

Yep I'm in, thanks MPH

[mrpackethead]

Man.... I wish I could come! But like Dirknerkle.... a bit too far.

Great idea to actually build something at the mini. Very cool mrpackethead...very cool indeed!

Regards,
Lightman

Well the idea is not copyrighted, please feel free to do it at a mini near you!

[RPM]

MPH,
Not to nitpick, but I noticed the silkscreen shows a DC-DC converter part # of NKE1205.

If this is USB powered, shouldn't this be a NKE0505? 1205= 12V in & 5V out,
where 0505= 5V in & 5V out.

Either way, great looking board. I really like the idea of building them at a Mini!

Robert

[Matt_Edwards]

Not sure if your calling for a list of Aids but here goes anyway.
I will bring:

850B hot air reflow station
937 Soldering iron, 0.35mm solder, tweezers, solder wick
AVR ISP Mk2
AVR ISP Mk1
Laptop with Studio 4 loaded

I can also bring if requested

AVR SKT500
AVR Dragon
2x Crappy USBTinyISP ( these don't work with 64bit Win7)

If I get my oven finished in time, I will bring that too.

[daviddth]

I'll bring:

Laptop (Not sure if I'll take just mine or both as Sue's runs the show lol)

Temp controlled iron - will pick up more tips this week

Solder, heaps of solder wick (I have a lot stacked about)

Some of the LED ropelight in 3 & 4 color, and single color LED bits for us to see (From Santas LED Lights)

A couple of LED Floods and light strings used in Vixen demo's, as well as one of the 3 transformer boxes for controller, DC supply and 24V AC.

Various programmers & stuff

[mrpackethead]

MPH,
Not to nitpick, but I noticed the silkscreen shows a DC-DC converter part # of NKE1205.

If this is USB powered, shouldn't this be a NKE0505? 1205= 12V in & 5V out,
where 0505= 5V in & 5V out.

Either way, great looking board. I really like the idea of building them at a Mini!

Robert

Very observant :-) Hang over from reusing parts in Eagle. Doh. Yes, in deed it would be a NKE0505, but i'm using an equivalent part and yes it is 5/5V. The boards are left over from another project i'm working on, and they are not perfect, but plenty good enough to work for what we need to do.

[mrpackethead]

Does someone have an aircompressor they can bring.. Just a little one would suffice.. I'd love to bring my liquid depenser but i need an airsupply and thats not somethign i can fly in!

[aususer]

'pressor: Got your back with my baby one if a better offer doesn't come past (we've got one in the warehouse worse case).
Remind me closer to date.

I'm in on the build if you didn't catch my mini-thread entry..

[aussiephil]

Raises hand to get more practice :)

[mrpackethead]

And this is what you guys might be doing after the mini.

erb6-i54tbo

[Matt_Edwards]

I have a small Air Brush Air Compressor I can bring. What fittings do you require?

[Goldie]

l'm in too

l'll bring 2 variable soldering irons
Solder
assortment of tweezers

[mrpackethead]

And as they say on the cooking show..

" heres a couple that I prepared before the show " ( better make sure that this actually works huh! )

[smartalec]

And as they say on the cooking show..

" heres a couple that I prepared before the show " ( better make sure that this actually works huh! )

i thought you could only bake the smd to solder them, i never would of thought to use a soldering iron an solder all the pins at once.

1 question, how do you get it so the solder does'nt bridge out to the other tracks?

[mrpackethead]

1 question, how do you get it so the solder does'nt bridge out to the other tracks?

Firstly the solder mask repeals the solder.. but mostly its technique.. the above video is from someone who is *very* good at it, but a bit of practice and you're all good.

Having the right tip on your soldering iron makes a lot of difference as well.

[smartalec]

Firstly the solder mask repeals the solder.. but mostly its technique.. the above video is from someone who is *very* good at it, but a bit of practice and you're all good.

Having the right tip on your soldering iron makes a lot of difference as well.

so you mean chuck out the fine tips an go for chisel head tips for smd work?

[polar bear]

I am confused i thought we were blinky flashy, all this talk about ovens makes me think more master chef :wink::wink:

[Xccentric]

MPH, Please add me to the many who want to make this project.

Regards
Andrew

[Michael Sullivan]

Yer I am in for sure and will bring my Iron etc.

[mrpackethead]

the dongle got fired up last night, programmed and it worked second time around ( after the fuses got set correctly ).

[scorpia]

It Just occured to me that if we are building all these usb-dmx dongles i really should bring along some of my dmx pixels for testing. might make it easy if we had something to make go blinky flashy :)

[RPM]

the dongle got fired up last night, programmed and it worked second time around ( after the fuses got set correctly ).

MPH,
I'm pretty sure you know this, but you may want to warn users that since the processor is soldered in place when assembling their dongle, to be very careful when setting the fuses or they can possibly "brick" their dongle.
Atmels can be a pain in this respect. An alternative solution would be to pre-program them with an adapter before soldering them in place.

Robert

[mrpackethead]

MPH,
I'm pretty sure you know this, but you may want to warn users that since the processor is soldered in place when assembling their dongle, to be very careful when setting the fuses or they can possibly "brick" their dongle.
Atmels can be a pain in this respect. An alternative solution would be to pre-program them with an adapter before soldering them in place.

Robert

If they do brick it, they can always learn the fine art of desoldering SMD.. :-) Some low melt is the goer

[n1ist]

If you just botch the clock select, you can recover the part in place, with just a 1MHz or so source. The only real risk is if they set RSTDSBL.
/mike

[RPM]

If you just botch the clock select, you can recover the part in place, with just a 1MHz or so source. The only real risk is if they set RSTDSBL.
/mike

If the RSTDSBL fuse is set, you can still recover the part, but you would need to apply 12V to the reset pin to do it.

Disabling the SPIEN on the other hand, would be bad as it would disable all serial programming of the chip. Once this has been disabled you will only be able to program it with a parallel programmer, which means removing the chip... which will more than likely damage an SMD part.

Robert

[n1ist]

I forgot about SPIEN. As for removing the chip, it's not too bad with hot air, at least for the TQFP32.
/mike

[tuppet]

this sounds great! I can't guarantee I'll be able to do this until there is an idea of a program for the mini - I'm helping to organize a ball on the Saturday night and may need to skip the afternoon :(

Until then, please put me down as a tentative yes. It sure would be nice to be able to prove my lecturer wrong in saying that students can't do SMD soldering cos it's impossible to do by hand... I suspect he just didn't want to have to teach us.

[mrpackethead]

this sounds great! I can't guarantee I'll be able to do this until there is an idea of a program for the mini - I'm helping to organize a ball on the Saturday night and may need to skip the afternoon :(

Until then, please put me down as a tentative yes. It sure would be nice to be able to prove my lecturer wrong in saying that students can't do SMD soldering cos it's impossible to do by hand... I suspect he just didn't want to have to teach us.

Maybe only for Australian Students.

[mrpackethead]

Ok, i'll be ordering enough parts to build 20 boards at the mini. So if your on the list now great, if you're not, and stil want to get on it, then jump in quickly! Sorry folks, once we hit the 20 mark thats it.. I'll have run out of PCB's.

[Dave Burrows]

MPH
i'll pay for any left overs if there is any.

[smartalec]

MPH
i'll pay for any left overs if there is any.
You an me both..lol

[Michael Sullivan]

MPH maybe with all the people that have irons to bring you should let us know what type of tip we all should make sure we have.