Announcing the ORDuino !

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Re: Announcing the ORDuino !

Postby frob » Fri Apr 27, 2012 4:43 am

naPS wrote:Damn kid, you soldered that yourself?
Impressive!
LOL! thanks , on both counts!

To be fair, i did have some help, (hot air and IR rework stations) but it's *really* time consuming.
Over the years i've developed methods to reliably hand solder just about anything, but the FTDI chip was a particular pain. I made the mistake of trusting their component footprint library and realised to my horror when i tried to assemble it that the pads are completely recessed under the chip with no way to probe or inspect them, forget about hand soldering. thats the last time i trust *any* pre-defined library part. that will be updated to a more accessible footprint for the production version- now that i've confirmed that it really doesn't need the external crystal or any terminators on the D+, D- lines, i'll have room for it.

I mainly use a 20X stereo microscope and pro grade pencil iron for most of it. first protos need to get assembled in stages and unit test each section as their assembled, so i can't just reflow it all at once, and more than 2 passes at reflow starts to get risky for the parts and even the board itself. I also like to do it this way to catch any easy goofs on the BOM in the process, because wrong parts in the wrong place can really ruin your day (or week) when trying to bring up a board for the first time, and that's a pretty common occurrence when you have so many tiny unmarked parts on a board.
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Re: Announcing the ORDuino !

Postby frob » Fri Apr 27, 2012 4:49 am

tango282 wrote:Sweet, can't wait.
ROTFL!!!
That clip brings me back!
Cheers!
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Re: Announcing the ORDuino !

Postby Oli » Fri Apr 27, 2012 9:12 am

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Last edited by Oli on Sat Jan 06, 2024 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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It's ALIVE!!

Postby frob » Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:13 pm

Oli wrote:Looks great! The piezo element (Murata PK family?) looks identical to one I use on a product - the lids on them have previously come off during shipping of the bare boards, you might want to check that it can't snag on anything when packed.
Good to know. i havent had that problem with the piezos, but i havent been using these for that long. its possible you got a bad batch too, the lids seem pretty secure on mine, but i'll keep an eye out for that. In their present location it would be pretty hard to snag them accidentally, so i'm not too worried.
Which stepper driver did you decide on using in the end? Keep up the good work!
thanks!
A4982's for the first 4 (identical to A4988 except no 1/8 step mode) ; the 5th is a new "experimental" type - i will decide whether or not to keep it or replace with another A4982 after i've had a chance to thoroughly test them- so far I've only tried the 4982's.
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Re: Announcing the ORDuino !

Postby orcinus » Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:04 pm

frob wrote:I mainly use a 20X stereo microscope and pro grade pencil iron for most of it.


Try soldering a QFN with just a pencil iron ;)
Did it a few times, don't plan on doing it again unless someone holds a gun to my head. :lol:

Believe it or not, a gas iron (Weller Pyropen) works pretty nicely for reflow soldering.
I've used it on QFNs and LCCs to no ill effect. Some really tiny QFNs with a ground pad can sometimes be a b**ch and need another reflow to settle properly, but all in all, works just fine, as long as you use quality gas mixes to power it (*not* the garden variety lighter gas, ever).

Anyways, why the bypass cap on the power supply input?
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Re: Announcing the ORDuino !

Postby frob » Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:15 pm

orcinus wrote:...Try soldering a QFN with just a pencil iron ;)
LOL no thanks, my eyes are sore and tired enough as it is!
Believe it or not, a gas iron (Weller Pyropen) works pretty nicely for reflow soldering.
I can believe it, but i'd be concerned about overheating the IC's or burning the board. if you do that, make sure the ic's are very dry, or they could "popcorn" if exposed to the air too long prior.
Anyways, why the bypass cap on the power supply input?
Actually that's a PTC (polyswitch) to connect the motor supply to main VIN, since i bypassed the usual fast-blow fuse on the board for testing.
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Marlin is running...

Postby frob » Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:49 pm

Now the real fun begins... :-)
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Re: Announcing the ORDuino !

Postby orcinus » Sat Apr 28, 2012 2:19 am

frob wrote:I can believe it, but i'd be concerned about overheating the IC's or burning the board. if you do that, make sure the ic's are very dry, or they could "popcorn" if exposed to the air too long prior.


I heat them up very very gradually. So far, the only thing i've ever managed to burn was a SIM card slot :)
It was just too big to heat evenly, so by them time i've managed to heat all the pads enough to reflow the paste, the plastic SIM card "bed" started to melt. I've tried burning a PCB on purpose once (back when i was starting out with the gas iron) and it takes a LOT of work to burn it.

frob wrote:Actually that's a PTC (polyswitch) to connect the motor supply to main VIN, since i bypassed the usual fast-blow fuse on the board for testing.


Oooooh. Now it makes sense, LOL

frob wrote:Now the real fun begins... :-)


Woot! :mrgreen:
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Testing... 1,2,3... Testing...

Postby frob » Sat Apr 28, 2012 7:58 pm

- Blinkenlicht working ;-)
- All 4 main motor channels working
- End stops working
- Heater outputs working (tested to 100A ! but only very briefly :-) they *barely* get warm at all with a typical extruder load.
Moving on to Thermistor inputs next.... then on to extruder closed loop temp control on the bench; and finally a first full functional test on the Hadron tonight if time allows. i cant wait to fill the house with the smell of freshly printed PLA :mrgreen:

After that, back to the bench to bring up the micro-SDcard interface, buzzer, and test the LCD connections.
Then the 5th motor channel. followed by installing the DAC IC and get that going. next, the thermocouple interface.
Then the ATX supply connection with remote on-off.
Then hopefully Monday i can ship that first proto off to a co-conspirator to help with adding the new features into firmware, and i get to assemble 9 more of these next week.

Problems so far:
- odd intermittent "USB device not recognized" error plugging in to the PC with power applied prior, need to investigate that further...
Managed to blow an A4982 driver IC, but in its defense i was being especially abusive to it at the time... it died for a good cause, so it will get an honorable funeral (FMEA). This got me thinking that it might be a good idea to split up the single 5A fuse on the motor power bus into separate 1A fuses or PTC's on each motor channel (input side). 1A should be enough if you use appropriate stepper motors rated at 5-6V or below, running at 12V input or higher; for example, the ones that come with the Hadron Kit, (which are kinda overkill really), drop less than 3V at max current (1.6A) which translates to an average current on the 12V in of
only 400mA.

I also blew the 20A fuse while testing the hotbed output (using a 12V car battery, and halogen bulb as a heater simulator, which causes massive current peaks on turn-on) but no damage to the electronics it valiantly sacrificed itself to protect.

I've had to spend an inordinate amount of time messing in Arduino code / IDE for the first time. Wow. i heard it was pretty primitive but i wasn't prepared for this. i may have to trade in my laptop for a stone tablet and chisel. :roll:

Ive done a config setup for Marlin and it seems to work ok, but i can already see a bunch of stuff that in general could use improvement in both the original firmware and host software, (never having run a 3D printer myself before) but i will resist the urge to fix that right away. I'll try some other variants out there next week to see which i like better and seem most reliable.
I hope to have enough testing done to my satisfaction for a first "hello world" print sometime tomorrow.

Wish me luck !
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Re: Testing... 1,2,3... Testing...

Postby orcinus » Sat Apr 28, 2012 11:30 pm

frob wrote:- Blinkenlicht working ;-)


Great! That means it works. Job done! :lol:

frob wrote:Problems so far:
- odd intermittent "USB device not recognized" error plugging in to the PC with power applied prior, need to investigate that further...


Stupid question: you didn't leave a reset pin floating somewhere and all the grounds are connected, right?
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