>
> I had issues with getting the chip seated when I
> was doing my PowerComms board which resulted in
> the pins being bent a in such a way as it is now a
> permanent fixture so I decided to learn from that
> mistake and try a different approach this time.
> Particularly as the chip involved was going to be
> programmed in the PIC programmer and then
> re-inserting in each of my boards in 3 or 4 times
> by the time I'd finished testing.
yeah, inserting chips can be a real pain. one technique i use, is to insert all the legs on one side, push/bend them until the other pins line up, then insert those pins.
of course, if you find needle nose pliers to work better, then by all means use that.
this is definitely something we're fixing with v1.3.0... we're adding an ICSP header which will allow you to program the chip while its in the board, simply by plugging a cable from your programmer to the board.
>
> I don't have stepper
> motors to plug in to the boards yet but the lights
> on the Stepper test boards turned on and off in a
> consistent manner. I have no idea what they meant
> but it did the same thing for all the boards so I
> guess that means they're either all good or all
> bad ;-) Does someone who knows about it want to
> write a little tutorial on how to interpret the
> LEDs?
check out this video, it shows how they are supposed to look.
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vimeo.com]
> Then the things that just finished me off tonight
> were when I was trying to put together the last
> bits of the extruder controller boards. I was
> trying to find C2 to insert a capacitor for the
> extruder controller board. I finally found that C2
> was already filled as per the instructions for the
> UCB. Either the instructions are outdated or that
> is supposed to be C3 (the only other capacitor on
> the board that isn't used for anything). Which is
> it?
yes, this is not quite clear. its supposed to be C3. i changed it in the docs.
> Also, I was going to put in Q1 (the Darlington)
> but I wasn't sure which way round it goes. I
> thought it probably didn't matter but on the
> silkscreen one hole is square and the others round
> so maybe it did. Anyone care to enlighten me?
if you're using the standard TIP110, then the heatsink tab is towards the inside of the board. its hard to see with the heatsink attached, but this picture shows it decently well:
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picasaweb.google.co.uk]