Interfacing an ADXL345 to a BeagleBoard X15 - Hirose mating connector required?

[Dermot Murphy]

Hi - I've got an X15 board with regular Hirose FX18 connectors on the underside of the board.

What I'd like to be able to do is use regular jumper wires like I'd use with the P8/P9 headers on my BBB to connect something like an ADXL345 accelerometer.  According to the X15 Reference Manual, I think I'll need to add a mating connector (Hirose FX18-60S-0.8SV15).  http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=FX18-60S-0.8SV15

I'm trying to figure out if/how this will work before I order a couple.  It's not immediately obvious to me how this will work.  The FX18-60S-0.8SV15 appears to be a two piece connector so would I be right in assuming that I just use the top half and mate it to the existing connector on the X15 board?  Or maybe part of the existing connector needs to be removed first?  I don't have much experience with connectors in boards other than BBB, RPi, etc. and I don't want to risk breaking anything trying to remove/install by force so any help or pointers in the right direction would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Dermot 

[Matthijs van Duin]

I'm really have no idea what you mean. They're just connectors, nothing more.

You can use any of the FX18-60S connectors to mate with the FX18-60P connectors on the beagleboard-x15, there are various that differ in mated height and whether they're straight or right-angled.

In case it helps, here are some photos of an FX18-60S-0.8SV10 (i.e. the short version) while separate, partially inserted, and fully inserted:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/N0bjus4GPxEFS4b63

Matthijs

[Dermot Murphy]

Thanks for the reply and the photos, Matthijs.

Up until now, I'm really only used to interfacing sensors with BBB or RPi boards which allow standard jumper wires to make the connections:

I guess I'm trying to figure out what type of connector I need which will allow me to do the same with my X15 board:

The little holes at the base of the Hirose connectors on the X15 are too small to allow a jumper wire to be inserted.  I was (and still am) assuming/hoping that there is some adapter or connector which will plug into the X15 connectors which will offer me the same sort of headers as the P8 and P9 on the BBB.

I hope that clarifies what I'm trying to do.  I suppose the FX18-60S and FX18-60P connectors are designed for mating boards (such as LCD panel, etc.) together whereas I'm looking for a way to interface sensors via regular jumper wires.

Thanks,

Dermot

[Gerald Coley]

The original X15 design had the same connectors as the BBB.

 

After insertion, you could not pull the boards apart without a very large and distructive screwdriver, due to the retention force (friction). That is why we went this route.

 

I have a design that provides adapters to give you these types of connectors. If someone wants to put them into production I would be happy to discuss this with them.

 

Gerald

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[Dermot Murphy]

Hey Gerald,

So is there any way that I can connect something like an ADXL345 to the X15 via the headers provided?

Thanks,

Dermot

[Gerald Coley]

Electrically, yes. Mechanically it will be more of a challenge. You could just buy a mating connector and solder the wires to it.

 

Gerald

 

 

From: beagleb...@googlegroups.com [mailto:beagleb...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Dermot Murphy
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2018 12:58 PM
To: beagleboard-x15 <beagleb...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Interfacing an ADXL345 to a BeagleBoard X15 - Hirose mating connector required?

 

Hey Gerald,

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[Matthijs van Duin]

On 19 May 2018 at 19:51, Gerald Coley <gco...@emprodesign.com> wrote:

I have a design that provides adapters to give you these types of connectors. If someone wants to put them into production I would be happy to discuss this with them.

I think something like this is very much needed... right now the x15 is very hostile towards any form of hardware experimentation.

Why not publish it as an open hardware design?

Matthijs

[Dermot Murphy]

Thanks Gerald - I guess that's the best way forward for me.  I can solder female jumper wires to a mating connector and use them.

Time to develop my soldering skills!

[Gerald Coley]

Buy some good high strength reading glasses!!!

 

From: beagleb...@googlegroups.com [mailto:beagleb...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Dermot Murphy
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2018 3:19 PM
To: beagleboard-x15 <beagleb...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Interfacing an ADXL345 to a BeagleBoard X15 - Hirose mating connector required?

 

Thanks Gerald - I guess that's the best way forward for me.  I can solder female jumper wires to a mating connector and use them.

 

Time to develop my soldering skills!

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[John Syne]

The connectors on the X15 are also suitable for high speed signals (USB3, PCI, SATA, etc), whereas the 0.1” connectors used on the BBB are not. Soldering wires onto a connector is not advisable because the pins are soft and will bend easily and probably touch adjacent pins which could cause permanent damage. 

I agree with Matthijs, an adapter board is a good solution. Someone else posted pictures to this mailing list of an adapter board plugged into the X15. Maybe they can make their board available. 

Regards,

John

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beagleboard-x15/ac6ed6dbec464aceb927a70b0f2ae144%40winhexbeus11.winus.mail.

[Gerald Coley]

Because, if someone made it  would cost $10 or more each. Someone needs to provide an aggregation function to build as many as possible.

 

From: Matthijs van Duin [mailto:matthij...@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2018 3:05 PM
To: Gerald Coley <gco...@emprodesign.com>
Cc: Dermot Murphy <dermot....@gmail.com>; beagleboard-x15 <beagleb...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Interfacing an ADXL345 to a BeagleBoard X15 - Hirose mating connector required?

 

On 19 May 2018 at 19:51, Gerald Coley <gco...@emprodesign.com> wrote:

[Gerald Coley]

Correction $100 each, not $10 each. I will give it to anyone that wants to build it.

 

Gerald

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[Tony Langley]

There’s an adapter design here that can be sent to a PCB fabricator:

https://github.com/ctag-fh-kiel/ctag-face-2-4/tree/0870dabe6255de9a6f2d17c8a3faa6b2b3074e04/extension-capes/x15-adaptor_a

Thanks to CTAG for making this available.

[Gerald Coley]

This looks good! In addition I have one for the SATA and the PCI that are located on one of the connectors. If anyone want to build and make these available, I will give them all the data and files.

Gerald

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From: beagleb...@googlegroups.com [mailto:beagleb...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tony Langley
Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2018 4:13 AM
To: beagleboard-x15 <beagleb...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: Interfacing an ADXL345 to a BeagleBoard X15 - Hirose mating connector required?

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[Tony Langley]

Thanks for the offer Gerald.

Would you consider posting them on github or similar so that people can do this independently rather than need to organise a group buy / take on a large manufacturing run?

[Gerald Coley]

Here is my issue. If I put it on github for anyone to use, I will get questions on how to get it built and all sorts of technical questions and requests for changes. Questions, that honestly, I just don't have time to answer and changes that I don't have time to make.

I would be happy to turn it over to you to take care if you like. You can then use it as you wish and supply any required support.

Gerald

-----Original Message-----
From: beagleb...@googlegroups.com [mailto:beagleb...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tony Langley
Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2018 6:00 PM
To: beagleboard-x15 <beagleb...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: Interfacing an ADXL345 to a BeagleBoard X15 - Hirose mating connector required?

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[Dermot Murphy]

This is interesting, Tony.  Thanks for posting.

As a relative novice to board fabrication - how might I check what this board physically looks like?  I know from talking to some folks that the GERBER file is what's required by the fabricator.  I'm guessing I need to use specific software like Eagle or EasyEDA to view this?

[Dermot Murphy]

OK - I was able to open in EasyEDA as a Kicad project.  That PCB looks very cool - I could get four made up, one for each Hirose connector.

[Tony Langley]

I had the minimum run of 10 PCBs fabricated by www.itead.cc directly from the Gerber zip file in CTAG's github repo.  Some time ago I bought a pack of the Hirose surface-mount connectors.

I'm looking forward to having some free-time soon! I'll hand-solder at least one Hirose SMT connector to one of the ten PCBs and then try it out.

[Dermot Murphy]

Very nice, Tony.

I'm now being asked by the board fabricators to provide a "pick and place" and an assembly drawing in PDF format.

I have no idea what either of those things look like!  The assembly drawing could be created from the schematic file I guess - were you asked for these items as well as the gerber zip file?

[Tony Langley]

No I didn’t need to provide anything else. I only ordered a PCB to be fabricated, not the complete assembly.

[Dermot Murphy]

No worries - seems like EasyEDA allows me to export both items easily enough.  Hopefully the fabricators won't require anything else to complete assembly.

[Tony Langley]

So are you needing the fabricator to pick, place and solder (flow oven for surface mount) the Hirose connector for you so that you receive a complete and ready to use adapter board?

The Hirose connector is “keyed” so it only goes on to the X-15 connectors in one orientation. However the loose Hirose connector can be soldered to the adapter board in both orientations although one will be wrong I believe.

The Hirose connector needs to be in the correct orientation to match up the X-15’s output pins with the adapter board’s configuration. I’m not sure if the files you’re able to get from EasyEDA cover that requirement.

I’m yet to work out which way round it goes before I solder one together, so just calling this out in case it’s not clear to you either.

[Dermot Murphy]

Yeah - that's a good point alright.  I noticed that the connectors will only mate with the X15 connectors one way and not the other.  I'm hoping that I can just label/mark one side of the Hirose connector so that it lines up with the X15 connector and ensures that it gets mounted correctly.

[Tony Langley]

Using the schematics I think I've worked out the correct orientation to solder these connectors to the boards...

So you'd end up with it looking like this if it were mounted to P18...

[何海宇MHE]

    Do you sell one ?

[Tony Langley]

I have 10 PCBs and only need 8 at most. I have 5 Hirose connectors, but could spare 1 for now. So yes, I could sell up to 2 x PCBs and 1 x Hirose connector (you would need to solder this yourself).

[何海宇MHE]

Hi Tony,

   Thank you for your answer. Where can I buy it ? How much ? 

[Tony Langley]

What specifically do you want to buy?

Options are:
1 x Loose Hirose connector that you can solder to the PCB
AND/OR
1 x PCB with no Hirose
OR
2 x PCBs with no Hirose

If you let me know then I can work out a cost. You will also need to let me know where you want this shipped to so I can work out costs for that too.

Feel free to message me directly if you like.

[Dermot Murphy]

Thanks Tony - that's helpful.

Just curious to know if you have any special plans for soldering those 0.8mm pins?  Do you have a hot air station, rework oven or just a very steady hand?!

[Tony Langley]

Unfortunately I don’t have a reflow oven, so will be attempting this by hand using my trusty soldering iron. I’ve done some very small pitch SMT before, but not as many pins!

[Dermot Murphy]

Hey Tony,

I got some soldering help getting Hirose adapters and some female headers put on a couple of those PCBs:

The headers are on the underside to I should have full access to all the pins if I need it and just run male-male jumper wire to ADXLs, etc.

So thank you very much for bringing that board design to our attention - worked out really well!

[Tony Langley]

Woohoo!!!

You’ve made great progress! Mine are still in pieces awaiting some free time to get soldering.

I too plan on using headers as you’ve done so I can use jumper wires to prototype with.

Hope your project goes well. Keep us updated!

[Dermot Murphy]

FYI - working fine for first simple LED test:

On Thursday, 21 June 2018 22:23:43 UTC+1, Tony Langley wrote:

Woohoo!!!

You’ve made great progress! Mine are still in pieces awaiting some free time to get soldering.

I too plan on using headers as you’ve done so I can use jumper wires to prototype wit