The silk :-P
(click to zoom or download the package from Attachments at the bottom of the page)
2.b. (construction, advices, disclaimer)
Disclaimer:
Of course, I'm in no way responsible for any damage. You are on your own (as I am
).
Issues of this board:
See them
here.
Building it:
Soon... right now I'm trying to transfer the toner onto board (failed at first trial)...
Ok, I did it at second trial. I didn't had glossy paper so I used an A4 sheet of labels. I removed the labels and printed on the same face of paper support.
But you can see on few areas I pressed to much and traces changed their shape (but you can do better than me).
And finally etched the board (yes, the board is white),
and cleaned it with acetone. Sorry for photo quality, it was night already. After etching the board, I realised that I forgot to use permanent marker pen to correct some traces :-( .
Tomorrow (23 Aug. 2009) I must drill the board but I will put it on hold. The bit I have is 1 mm diameter and is too big. I need 0.8 or 0.7 mm diameter. And I'm out of budget too :( .
I cut the board to Arduino shape and painted it with a permanent marker pen - I had some black markings on the white board for other projects, ruining the aspect...
Should I rename it
Blackduino?
And my "Blackie" is ready for tests, hurray! The tests will be made with JAL package (bootloader and PC hosting application from Albert). and with Pinguino (bootloader and IDE from Jean-Pierre Mandon) and Processing.
All holes have been made with 0.7mm bit and some enlarged with 1mm bit for LM7805, jumper, USB connector, switch, DC connector. You must pay attention when you build this board to not make short circuit and when you place capacitors close to crystal. A
FreeJALduino MEGA board will be more easy to build and I recommend it.
The PCB is not hard to do at home. After soldering all components, I used nail polish (colorless) to protect the traces but I recommend you to make a lacquer from rosin(colophony used by musicians to anoint the violin bow) and acetone. Is what I use but mine was consumed and I was in rush.
Here you can see how I placed the capacitors
As a key elements (from usage point of view), we have the reset push-button and the power selector jumper (which now is in USB power select position - see the silk at the beginning of page).
About the 27pF capacitors from oscillator, I wanted to have a common hole for the grounded pins but I was "forced" to make another one. Is enough space without touching any other component (remember, is about 0.7mm holes):
Click to zoom.
I will use this board for all my projects until I will get a 18F4550 micro controller...
I added three vias for LM3940, the 3.3 volts regulator. The LM3940 can be glued on board and connections made with wires. I also made thicker routes, to be easy on toner transfer procedure.
Testing:
See a movie with the first test of this board.
Is a "blink a LED" test using Pinguino under Linux SuSE 11.1. I also tested Processing from where I was able to command the board (blinking LED's on mouse motion and reading a potentiometer).
3. The software
Because is about PIC18F2550, you have many choices. For me, is about JAL. I can make a library to simulate the functions from Arduino programming language but it will be great if
Jean Pierre Mandon can make his software configurable at pin level...
And the good news are:
Jean Pierre Mandon has agreed to include support for this card on his Pinguino software. Thank you very much!
So, you will be able to program this board with Arduino language and using some of Arduino shields!
My next wish is to get acceptance for this board from
Jallib development team.
You can see here a reaction on
Arduino forums to this board and Jean-Pierre's Pinguino project.
Or see
this discussion and tell your opinion or comment
here.
Accessories
For Romanian people, the shield proto kit can be found
here.
