Added Myself to the member page

[BryanP]

Hey all, just signed up and posted my links to the members list. I
recognise a couple of the names. Looking forward to making a meeting
in the next fortnight.

Cheers, Bryan P vk3hxr

Click on http://groups.google.com/group/connected-community-hackerspace/web/members-web-pages-blog-twitter-etc
- or copy & paste it into your browser's address bar if that doesn't
work.

[George]

Hi All,

I have just added myself to the Member list so a quick intro would
help.

My project is to interface an Arduino to a open source flight
simulator called FlightGear. The Arduino will take values from the
simulator and do something with it. Such as displaying the Landing
Gear status (up/down/failed) or converting analog voltages for
interfacing to throttle levers.

[andyg (geekscape)]

Welcome Bryan and George,

There are a number of things going on, particularly helping members
getting started with their Arduino (if required) and the Lunar Numbat
project (currently, focused on rockets). There are people interested
in RC models, Sam flies planes ... and is interested in putting
telemetry into his planes. So, there will likely be members working
in similar or related areas to those that interest you.

Looking forward to seeing you both at an upcoming meeting.

[gyaresu]

I hope it's not too impolite of me. I'm in Launceston, Tasmania at the
moment but this is the first group I've found locally that has an
interest in hacking software & hardware.

I look forward to attending.

(Yes, I'm a Linux geek also but choose not to attend LCA)

[andyg (geekscape)]

On Jun 1, 9:12 pm, gyaresu <gyar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I hope it's not too impolite of me. I'm in Launceston, Tasmania at the
> moment but this is the first group I've found locally that has an
> interest in hacking software & hardware.

I realize that Melbourne is effectively just the next north-western
suburb relative to Launceston ...

> I look forward to attending.

... but, it's a bit far for you to visit our HackerSpace on a regular
basis (unless you are a really good swimmer) !

However, please feel free to join in the discussions, exchange ideas,
etc.

Some of the projects do have remote participation ... but, a key
aspect of the HackerSpace getting together in person, in a shared /
collaborative environment.

You might also like to follow the other Australian HackerSpaces (see
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces).

Perhaps you could start a HackerSpace in Launceston ?

> (Yes, I'm a Linux geek also but choose not to attend LCA)

It was an excellent conference ... and I'm surprised that you'd choose
not to attend.

There is always LCA 2010 in Wellington, NZ !

[gyaresu]

Hey Andy.

Fair enough. I do come to Melbourne fairly often & I'm looking to
relocate to either Melbourne, Hobart or Berlin at the moment so will
stay on this list.

I've got the 'work from anywhere' thing happening and am really just
looking to move to find people to play with.

Nice to see some Physical Computing geeks out there anyway :)


Gareth

skype/twitter: gyaresu
-----------
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.
- Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)



2009/6/3 andyg (geekscape) <geek...@gmail.com>:

[Michael Borthwick]

Join me in Richmond on Tuesday to make some PCB's using the Kinsten
photographic system - some of my results here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65169791@N00/
Ideally you will have a small board design to try out whether in Eagle
or Photoshop, Illustrator, MacPaint etc or make a single-sided Arduino.

Rendezvous between 7 and 8 at Cafe Boheme - corner Bridge Road and
Coppin Street Richmond for gourmet pizza etc.
Leave Boheme 8pm sharp for 1 minute walk to my place.

If you're planning on coming along please let me know via so I can
ensure I have enough consumables. Feel free to email any questions.

Some starting points - Arduino single-sided serial http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardSerialSingleSided3
A nice description of the process http://users.bigpond.net.au/vk3yng/pcb/making_pcbs.htm

I will have some bootloaded ATmega8 chips, crystals and 28 pin sockets
available at a nominal cost.

Mike

[Dohzer]

I should be able to make it, but will have to work out my travel
arrangements (sucks not being able to drive and living miles from
anywhere). Not too sure how late I would be able to stay either, so
I'll try and let you know by the weekend.

I've got a blank single sided copper board, I got from Jaycar ages
ago: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=HP9510
I'll bring that if you think it would be alright for working with.

The site you linked to says the process can produce "track width and
spacings down to 0.2mm". Is that what you've been able to produce
reliably, or is it best to stay a little above this limit?
I'll probably whip up some simple test circuits in Protel or Altium
and convert to an image file for printing.

On Jun 4, 11:14 am, Michael Borthwick <hol...@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> Join me in Richmond on Tuesday to make some PCB's using the Kinsten  
> photographic system - some of my results here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/65169791@N00/
> Ideally you will have a small board design to try out whether in Eagle  
> or Photoshop, Illustrator, MacPaint etc or make a single-sided Arduino.
>
> Rendezvous between 7 and 8 at Cafe Boheme - corner Bridge Road and  
> Coppin Street Richmond for gourmet pizza etc.
> Leave Boheme 8pm sharp for 1 minute walk to my place.
>
> If you're planning on coming along please let me know via so I can  
> ensure I have enough consumables. Feel free to email any questions.
>

> Some starting points - Arduino single-sided serialhttp://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardSerialSingleSided3
> A nice description of the processhttp://users.bigpond.net.au/vk3yng/pcb/making_pcbs.htm

[Michael Borthwick]

Hi Rowan,

The technique that I am most familiar with relies on using boards from
a Taiwanese company called Kinsten that are pre-coated with a
photosensitive layer that reacts to UV light. The boards are available
through http://www.computronics.com.au/kinsten/prices/ or in Melbourne http://www.kalex.net.au/
Jaycar sells products under the Riston brand that work on the same
principle (although the prices of the sensitised boards seem
outrageous in comparison).

A piece of blank PCB doesn't worth directly with this approach however
it is possible to manually coat plain copper board with a liquid
photoresist such as http://www.electrolube.com/docs/bprototyping.html
which I have done successfully many years ago.

There are non-photographic techniques to directly create tracks on a
blank board that will resist being eaten away by the etchant,
historically for example the classic "Dalo" pen where you draw your
tracks by hand, rub-down etch resistant transfers which work really
well and more commonly today "toner transfer". Josh had an example of
the latter method at the most recent Saturday meeting.

In terms of the resolution you can achieve I have never had the need
to make 0.2mm wide tracks as discussed on Bryan Young's web page
however I have made dozens of boards that use 0.4mm tracks and the
breakout board I recently knocked up for the Dataflash chips shown on
Flickr uses 0.3mm tracks http://www.flickr.com/photos/65169791@N00/3565637773/
between the surface mount pads.

You can see in the photo that on the topmost board the tracks have
been eaten away somewhat - probably because the artwork was not flat
against the surface of the PCB at it's extremities thereby allowing UV
light to creep underneath during exposure.

Ultimately I think it is technique that is likely to define the lower
limit of track width and spacing that is achievable rather than the
limits of the physics of the process.

However I invite you to think about designing your boards not with the
narrowest tracks the process can sustain but with the fattest tracks
that still allow you to achieve what you want in your design.

For example a track 0.4mm wide can pass between the legs of a standard
IC with a comfortable 0.4mm gap either side. I have never needed to
run two tracks between the legs of a through-hole DIP IC which is what
0.2mm would allow.

Mike

[Luke Weston]

Dohzer wrote:
> I should be able to make it, but will have to work out my travel
> arrangements (sucks not being able to drive and living miles from
> anywhere). Not too sure how late I would be able to stay either, so
> I'll try and let you know by the weekend.
>
> I've got a blank single sided copper board, I got from Jaycar ages
> ago: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=HP9510
> I'll bring that if you think it would be alright for working with.
>
> The site you linked to says the process can produce "track width and
> spacings down to 0.2mm". Is that what you've been able to produce
> reliably, or is it best to stay a little above this limit?
> I'll probably whip up some simple test circuits in Protel or Altium
> and convert to an image file for printing.
>

Regarding the PCB fabrication, I have used the Kinsten photoresist
boards myself as well, with good results.
They don't seem to be too hard to expose; a set of normal fluorescent
lights works OK, as does 20 minutes or so of good sunshine. (OK, so
you don't exactly get the latter every day in Melbourne this time of
year, but it does work well.) The photoresist has a distinct colour
change from green to blue (or is that blue to green?) as it is
exposed, so you can distinctly see when it's done. The developer is
not expensive, either.

I've also tried using the Riston boards from Jaycar, once, but did not
get good results. I tried exposing both under fluorescent lights and
under sunlight, but didn't get good results; perhaps it works better
with a proper UV light box. The Riston boards have a negative
photoresist, not positive, so you need negative images on your
transparencies, so it's black where you want the copper to be etched
off. They're also quite a bit dearer than the Kinsten boards, so
Kinsten is, basically, a better choice.

If you're using an image software to prepare your artwork and not
printing straight from CAD software, double check that your printed
artwork is the right scale; check that if you put an IC on the
printout, the pins line up with the pads, for example.

I've also used that spray on Electrolube photoresist, DSE used to
stock it, but I don't know if they do any more.
It's a little tricky though, you need to clean the board, and
carefully spray it on so there's a thin, even coat, and no dust or
bubbles in the coat, and then let it cure, and all that has to be done
under appropriate safe light conditions. And then you just treat it
like any other photoresist-coated board, so it doesn't really seem
worth it compared to pre coated board.

I've also done quite a bit of toner transfer with a laser printer and
an iron, and got good results with this, too.
I use Kodak inkjet photo printing paper, and I find this is reasonably
common, reasonably inexpensive, and gives very good results if you let
it soak in water a little bit before peeling it away.

Basically, toner transfer and photolithography are both roughly
comparable in their complexity, and how tricky it is to get started.
They're both good processes which are suitable for the hobbyist, and
aren't really that hard at all.

Photolithography:
- Need to buy special pre-coated boards, plus developer
- You need a suitable light source to expose with, if it's not a sunny
day.
+ Don't need a laser printer, an inkjet printer is OK if you get
inkjet transparencies.
+ A bit superior, I think, for extremely fine tracks.

Toner transfer
+ Can use standard copper clad board readily available from Jaycar or
anywhere.
+ Don't need to worry about the light source or controlling ambient
light during setup
- Must have a laser printer
- Works well with fine tracks; but could be problematic eith extremely
fine tracks.
16 thou is fine and 12 thou is probably fine, not sure about smaller
tracks though.

Luke

[Pete Yandell]

Hi Mike,

Too late for me to tag along tonight? I'm happy to just observe (and
heckle, obviously).

- Pete

[Michael Borthwick]

That's fine Pete (and anyone else who hasn't RSVP'd). If you think
there is a possibility that you'll get to Boheme after 8pm email me
and I'll email you my mobile number.
Boheme is on the corner of Bridge Rd and Coppin Street diagonally
opposite Repco and opposite the Spreadeagle Hotel and Thrifty Rent-a-
car.
Trams 48 and 75 stop right outside.

[Luke Weston]

I've just uploaded a file to the group - 3WireLCD-SMT.brd - which is a
PCB layout (EAGLE file, with corresponding schematic in the 3WireLCD-
SMT.sch file) for a LCD backpack board using the surface mount (0.05"
SOIC) version of the 4094 chip, so those SMD chips cheaply available
from Rockby can be used. The board includes a transistor to control
the backlight, so it can be switched on and off or PWM modulated with
a digital output from the microcontroller.

The way I've arranged it has the component side of the daughterboard
closest to the back of the LCD module, with the transistor, capacitor,
resistors and pot on that side of the board. If you needed to mount it
flush up against the LCD, you could do that, by soldering those
components onto the copper side of the board (the transistor would
need to be turned around.) Of course, if your LCD doesn't have a
backlight, or you don't want to use it, the transistor and associated
resistors need not be populated on the board, and the two pads for the
backlight connections for the LCD can be ignored.

The pot for contrast adjustment is soldered on the copper side of the
board, since it won't fit on the other side, and couldn't be accessed
anyway without disassembling the assembly to adjust it.

In many cases, you can just leave the pot out and install a wire link
connecting pin 3 of the LCD to ground, which provides a suitable level
of contrast for many - but not all - LCD modules. Also, in practice,
you could probably get away without populating the 0.1 uF decoupling
capacitor.

There's also a second, modified version - 3WireLCD-SMT-2.brd and same
filename .sch - for LCDs which use a 2 x 8 or 2 x 7 connector, such as
the Jaycar LCD modules.

Luke

[Luke Weston]

By the way, please feel free to play around with these designs, tweak
them, modify them, use them to inspire your own work, whatever; don't
worry about stepping on my toes.

I don't normally specify any particular license requirements when
uploading IP that I've created, mainly because I don't know much about
the licenses people have devised in relation to open hardware. The
only one I have heard of is the TAPR OHL; do any of you know much
about the issue? In the meantime, I'll just continue to upload this
kind of work in good faith.

If you do make your own modified design inspired from something here,
that's cool, and I'd be curious to see what other people can devise,
and interested to see other people sharing their work.

[Jonathan Oxer]

Hi Luke,

> I've just uploaded a file to the group - 3WireLCD-SMT.brd - which is a
> PCB layout (EAGLE file, with corresponding schematic in the 3WireLCD-
> SMT.sch file) for a LCD backpack board using the surface mount (0.05"
> SOIC) version of the 4094 chip

Great work! The funny thing is that Andy was just talking about wanting
to do something like that, and you've beaten him to it.

What I'd really like to do is a variant on this laid out as a shield
rather than a backpack. I haven't created any custom shields yet but
doing a quick search found this which could be a real time-saver:

http://macetech.com/blog/node/69

It's a "template" for a shield PCB layout with the headers in place and
an overlay that shows what each I/O pin is, but the rest of the board is
blank to make it easy to fill in whatever else the designer may want to
add.

I'm going to experiment with it a bit in Eagle and hopefully come up
with a useful board design or two.

Luke, I get the feeling that your expertise is going to be very much in
demand once people start pushing the boundaries of what they can do with
Arduino.

Cheers :-)
--
Jonathan Oxer
Ph +61 4 3851 6600
Geek My Ride! <http://www.geekmyride.org/>

[andyg (geekscape)]

hi Michael,

On Jun 4, 11:14 am, Michael Borthwick <hol...@netspace.net.au> wrote:

> Join me in Richmond on Tuesday to make some PCB's using the Kinsten  
> photographic system

Thanks for hosting an excellent HackerSpaces meeting tonight.

> Ideally you will have a small board design to try out whether in Eagle  
> or Photoshop, Illustrator, MacPaint etc or make a single-sided Arduino.

It was great to see that a couple of members were able to walk away
with finished PCBs.

Did anyone take photographs of the PCB making or everyone crowded
around the table whilst Luke drilled his board ?
It would be good to have a snapshot for the web site ... thanks.

[hol...@netspace.net.au]

Can you email me that product shot ?

------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au

[Pete Yandell]

On 10/06/2009, at 2:24 PM, hol...@netspace.net.au wrote:

> Can you email me that product shot ?

Was that directed at me? Were you referring to this? (Let's see
whether Google Groups eats images.)

[Dohzer]

Thanks again for the PCB etching demo, Michael.
Here's a picture of the PCB with chips sitting on top.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94361560@N00/3612964859/

After all that fuss, it looks like it printed nicely. :)
Very impressive results.

Hopefully I can borrow some solder paste from work and practice some
soldering with my new oven this week. :)