Powercomms board first impressions
Posted by reece.arnott
|
Powercomms board first impressions August 02, 2007 02:00AM |
Registered: 16 years ago Posts: 235 |
I've just built my very first board (only burned myself once with the soldering iron :-) so I thought I'd give a bit of feedback:
The board is the 1.2.1 version of Powercomms board and I got the board from the RRRF store with the components coming from Mouser using the generated BOM.
1) In the instructions it has the line "8) 4 pin power connector - diagonals towards bottom of board, not top. silkscreen is wrong... rotate 180degs". This should instead say that the silkscreen is wrong for the 1.2 version.
2) Under the soldering round 2 instructions it has "If you soldered in a DIP socket, then you simply plug U1 into that. Otherwise, solder U1 directly to the board." I believe this should be U2 not U1. From my reading of the BOM, U2 is the chip, U1 is the transistor.
3) The holes for the 12 pin power connector and the 2 pin signal connectors are a little tight and I needed to use an amount of force I wasn't comfortable with to get them in.
4) Once the 2 pin signal connectors are in place the TX and RX on the silkscreen are all but covered. There seems to be room for the writing to be above the connectors (between the connectors and the chip.
5) The holes for the C6 capacitor are slightly too close together so the legs have to be bent to fit into the holes and so it isn't seated flush with the board (or in my case even level).
6) The spacing of the holes for C5 is different than for C2, C3, and C4 (due to the straddling of a circuit). This made me pause for a minute or two. A simple sentence in the instructions explaining this would be good.
I was fairly certain I'd have a serial cable amoung all the cables littering my closet but after an hour of going through them had to admit to not having any. I went out and bought a USB -> Serial cable today from Dick Smiths (prouct number XH8290 if anyone else wants one) for WAY more than I wanted to pay for the cable. But it comes with a nifty little 2 colour LED that displays the current state (TX/RX) of the serial port which I hope will save a lot of time and effort in the troubleshooting and solving of communications problems I expect to be having later on.
I'd also like to put in my vote for pre-made cables. The only bugbear I have is that that would increase the price. Prices of ethernet cables at Dick Smiths aren't cheap (I chose them as they tend to be common all over Oceania but for a lot of things they're a real rip-off actually) but there are a lot of cheap ethernet cables vendors out there (if all else fails get someone to make them up and sell them through the RRRF store) and we'd probably only need one or two metre patch cables so this hopefully isn't much of a price to pay for doing away with all the wiring issues that seem to be cropping up at the moment.
The board is the 1.2.1 version of Powercomms board and I got the board from the RRRF store with the components coming from Mouser using the generated BOM.
1) In the instructions it has the line "8) 4 pin power connector - diagonals towards bottom of board, not top. silkscreen is wrong... rotate 180degs". This should instead say that the silkscreen is wrong for the 1.2 version.
2) Under the soldering round 2 instructions it has "If you soldered in a DIP socket, then you simply plug U1 into that. Otherwise, solder U1 directly to the board." I believe this should be U2 not U1. From my reading of the BOM, U2 is the chip, U1 is the transistor.
3) The holes for the 12 pin power connector and the 2 pin signal connectors are a little tight and I needed to use an amount of force I wasn't comfortable with to get them in.
4) Once the 2 pin signal connectors are in place the TX and RX on the silkscreen are all but covered. There seems to be room for the writing to be above the connectors (between the connectors and the chip.
5) The holes for the C6 capacitor are slightly too close together so the legs have to be bent to fit into the holes and so it isn't seated flush with the board (or in my case even level).
6) The spacing of the holes for C5 is different than for C2, C3, and C4 (due to the straddling of a circuit). This made me pause for a minute or two. A simple sentence in the instructions explaining this would be good.
I was fairly certain I'd have a serial cable amoung all the cables littering my closet but after an hour of going through them had to admit to not having any. I went out and bought a USB -> Serial cable today from Dick Smiths (prouct number XH8290 if anyone else wants one) for WAY more than I wanted to pay for the cable. But it comes with a nifty little 2 colour LED that displays the current state (TX/RX) of the serial port which I hope will save a lot of time and effort in the troubleshooting and solving of communications problems I expect to be having later on.
I'd also like to put in my vote for pre-made cables. The only bugbear I have is that that would increase the price. Prices of ethernet cables at Dick Smiths aren't cheap (I chose them as they tend to be common all over Oceania but for a lot of things they're a real rip-off actually) but there are a lot of cheap ethernet cables vendors out there (if all else fails get someone to make them up and sell them through the RRRF store) and we'd probably only need one or two metre patch cables so this hopefully isn't much of a price to pay for doing away with all the wiring issues that seem to be cropping up at the moment.
|
Re: Powercomms board first impressions August 02, 2007 01:08PM |
Admin Registered: 17 years ago Posts: 1,487 |
reece.arnott Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've just built my very first board (only burned
> myself once with the soldering iron :-) so I
> thought I'd give a bit of feedback:
congrats!
> 1) In the instructions it has the line "8) 4 pin
> power connector - diagonals towards bottom of
> board, not top. silkscreen is wrong... rotate
> 180degs". This should instead say that the
> silkscreen is wrong for the 1.2 version.
fixed.
> 2) Under the soldering round 2 instructions it has
> "If you soldered in a DIP socket, then you simply
> plug U1 into that. Otherwise, solder U1 directly
> to the board." I believe this should be U2 not U1.
> From my reading of the BOM, U2 is the chip, U1 is
> the transistor.
fixed.
> 3) The holes for the 12 pin power connector and
> the 2 pin signal connectors are a little tight and
> I needed to use an amount of force I wasn't
> comfortable with to get them in.
i see... i'll fix this for v1.3
> 4) Once the 2 pin signal connectors are in place
> the TX and RX on the silkscreen are all but
> covered. There seems to be room for the writing to
> be above the connectors (between the connectors
> and the chip.
will be fixed in v1.3.
> 5) The holes for the C6 capacitor are slightly too
> close together so the legs have to be bent to fit
> into the holes and so it isn't seated flush with
> the board (or in my case even level).
i'll measure the 'orthodox' capacitor from mouser and make those the proper lengths for v1.3
> 6) The spacing of the holes for C5 is different
> than for C2, C3, and C4 (due to the straddling of
> a circuit). This made me pause for a minute or
> two. A simple sentence in the instructions
> explaining this would be good.
added the text =)
> I'd also like to put in my vote for pre-made
> cables. The only bugbear I have is that that would
> increase the price. Prices of ethernet cables at
> Dick Smiths aren't cheap (I chose them as they
> tend to be common all over Oceania but for a lot
> of things they're a real rip-off actually) but
> there are a lot of cheap ethernet cables vendors
> out there (if all else fails get someone to make
> them up and sell them through the RRRF store) and
> we'd probably only need one or two metre patch
> cables so this hopefully isn't much of a price to
> pay for doing away with all the wiring issues that
> seem to be cropping up at the moment.
i havent heard any objections to ethernet cables for v1.3. i found a supplier that sells 3 foot cables for $0.75 /ea, which means the RRRF should be able to supply them for around $1 each. i'd consider that a GREAT deal.
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've just built my very first board (only burned
> myself once with the soldering iron :-) so I
> thought I'd give a bit of feedback:
congrats!
> 1) In the instructions it has the line "8) 4 pin
> power connector - diagonals towards bottom of
> board, not top. silkscreen is wrong... rotate
> 180degs". This should instead say that the
> silkscreen is wrong for the 1.2 version.
fixed.
> 2) Under the soldering round 2 instructions it has
> "If you soldered in a DIP socket, then you simply
> plug U1 into that. Otherwise, solder U1 directly
> to the board." I believe this should be U2 not U1.
> From my reading of the BOM, U2 is the chip, U1 is
> the transistor.
fixed.
> 3) The holes for the 12 pin power connector and
> the 2 pin signal connectors are a little tight and
> I needed to use an amount of force I wasn't
> comfortable with to get them in.
i see... i'll fix this for v1.3
> 4) Once the 2 pin signal connectors are in place
> the TX and RX on the silkscreen are all but
> covered. There seems to be room for the writing to
> be above the connectors (between the connectors
> and the chip.
will be fixed in v1.3.
> 5) The holes for the C6 capacitor are slightly too
> close together so the legs have to be bent to fit
> into the holes and so it isn't seated flush with
> the board (or in my case even level).
i'll measure the 'orthodox' capacitor from mouser and make those the proper lengths for v1.3
> 6) The spacing of the holes for C5 is different
> than for C2, C3, and C4 (due to the straddling of
> a circuit). This made me pause for a minute or
> two. A simple sentence in the instructions
> explaining this would be good.
added the text =)
> I'd also like to put in my vote for pre-made
> cables. The only bugbear I have is that that would
> increase the price. Prices of ethernet cables at
> Dick Smiths aren't cheap (I chose them as they
> tend to be common all over Oceania but for a lot
> of things they're a real rip-off actually) but
> there are a lot of cheap ethernet cables vendors
> out there (if all else fails get someone to make
> them up and sell them through the RRRF store) and
> we'd probably only need one or two metre patch
> cables so this hopefully isn't much of a price to
> pay for doing away with all the wiring issues that
> seem to be cropping up at the moment.
i havent heard any objections to ethernet cables for v1.3. i found a supplier that sells 3 foot cables for $0.75 /ea, which means the RRRF should be able to supply them for around $1 each. i'd consider that a GREAT deal.
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.