South West Makers

So I received a panel of PCB's back the other day with it being the first time I have needed to cut up a stencil for the entire panel. In the past, I usually break up the panel and individually stencil and make up each PCB. But having some 50 indervidual simple PCB's it was easier to make up a panel...

For most of my simple PCB's, I use this wonderful stand alone software utility to create 10cm x 10cm panels of smaller PCB's: http://blog.thisisnotrocketscience.nl/projects/pcb-panelizer/ . In one of my recent PCB's: https://forum.swmakers.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2457 , I managed to fit 48 small PCB...

The next revision of the cable tester PCB arrived last week and I assembled the board yesterday. So far, the connector spacing is ok and it's working well. Cable-Tester-V0.7.jpg After a few false starts, I found a nice Apple Lightning connector on LCSC, P/N: C168722 URL: https://lcsc.com/product-det...

I have used many different SMD switches in my many projects. Most of these where purchased over the counter at the Shenzhen markets. While this is handy and cheap to do, it's not very reproducible if your not a regular visitor to the markets. The next cheapest thing to do is to find something on Ali...

Ok, for this lot of KiCAD 3D models, I skipped F360, and figured out how to use FreeCAD to convert an OBJ file that I exported from Design Spark Mechanical (DSM), into a STEP file. THE METHOD: ----------------- In DSM, construct the KiCAD 3D model with separate part for each color material, ie: plas...

Now, that's a Dog Kennel! I love the last photo with the residents on the porch

Just finished logging battery voltage measurement while 25 LEDs (WS2812 - Neopixel) where lit up at 50% brightness. My PCB will automatically turn off when the battery voltage reaches 2.5V. I found that my seven year old Ultra-fire (what a name!) cheap Chinese Li-ion battery ran for 8 hours 36 minut...

A SOT-23 footprint is used a lot in electronic printed circuit board (PCB) SMD layouts. They are quite small, around 1.5mm x 3mm long - excluding the metal pads. You can buy a huge range of MOSFETs, transistors and even diodes in that format. This board can be used for all of these, including N-MOS ...

On the first version of the PCB to boost the Li-ion 3.0V-4.1V battery voltage up to 5V I used the SX1308 DC-DC converter IC. With this, I had to also add a SS34 schottky diode to the circuit. After the first version design, I spent some time researching DC-DC boost and buck converters and finally se...

The Acrylic Sign PCB turned out really well or at least so far. It has condensed all these small boards: Acrylic Sign V1.jpg all onto one PCB with added functionality (only 20 LEDs where programmed to turn on): Acrylic Sign V2.jpg It can host two runs of WS2812 (Neopixel) LEDs. In theory the DC-DC b...

While I was waiting for the new Acrylic Sign PCB to arrive, I had a go at making a prototype display based on a bunch of individual boards: A TP4056 Li-ion battery charger, a 3.0-4.2V battery voltage to 5V boost DC-Dc converter, my ESP8266 LED controller and a small MOSFET isolator hand soldered boa...

So before I assemble components onto a new PCB, I like to print out the BOM and layout each of the components in rows onto the paper BOM sheet. This can take some time, as I have to search 16 odd components trays and 7 x 13L tubs of components that have grown haphazardly over time, ie: not all MOSFE...

I rediscovered Electronics back in 2005 after a long hiatus. At first I was just buying the odd small Arduino add on sensor board or two for different projects. Things ramped up in 2012, when the first Raspberry Pi was released. For a while I was starting to make my own add on boards using Vero boar...

The KiCAD 5.1 files are now publicly available on Gitlab: https://gitlab.com/parkview/USB-Connector-Sampler

I managed to find all the parts on LCSC, so I have included their part numbers to make it easier to source the correct components: I am happy with how this turned out and I will update some other Sample boards to this format.

I used the revamped board to test a number of USB-Micro cables at the April 2021 SW Makers meeting. Based on feed back from that, I have modified the design a bit and a second revision is currently being manufactured at JLCPCB. cable-testing.jpg I also compared my boards readings against a milli-ohm...

Three manufacturing days and 20 shipping days and the JLCPCB was in my hands. I laser cut a plastic stencil for the PCB and hand picked and placed the components before hotplate soldered it up. There was a bit of excess solder, but solder wick made a short work fix for it: ready-for-testing.jpg Next...

I have so many types of USB connectors that I have either picked up at the Shenzhen Electronics Markets or purchased from Aliexpress over the years. Over time I have settled on one or two kinds each. To help find the KiCAD Symbol, footprints and 3D files necessary I have created what I call a USB Sa...

I have now made up 40+ PCB's using home made plastic stencils. I laser cut 0.1mm thick Mylar using my 60W laser cutter. When I say cut, I actually mean raster etch, as this makes for a much cleaner hole cut. The 750x750mm plastic sheet was purchased from a local Art supply shop for maybe $12, so it ...

The PCB arrived last week. Some of the parts arrived a few days later, so that allowed me to put the board together: Z80-running2.jpg So, there are two PCB design errors: 1) wrong ZIF/Z80 socket used 2) I didn't include a i2C 3.3V to 5V level translation 3) while the PCB fit, and I did test a paper ...