For anyone that wants to do the SMD work on their bus Pirate or ATX Power Adapter kits we will run a drop in workshop of sorts on Thursday evening. We will have the solder dispenser and reflow oven setup. I will have completed working examples of both devices so you have something to compare your board to.
We also have 5 SMD Star kits available for others that may want to try their hand at it. These are $5.00 each (paid in cash on the night). Reply to this thread if you want a kit reserved for you. If we have more demand than the 5 kits allow then we will schedule a future workshop.
Sorry about the late notice… This workshop is for members only…
I’ll be there building my bus pirate! I also have an SMD star which I think I’ll build by hand to warm up. I’ll also open the space early…at 6 pm so if people want to show up after work feel free.
We’ll set up the scope like we did last time. Really helped.
If you have a visor definitely bring it. I think there are a couple at the space but a few more would really help.
Thanks @packetbob for hosting the workshop! I got a lot out of it and hope I can do more boards in the near future. Do you mind posting a link to the reflow oven control kit?
@TomKeddie any idea why one of my stars has a different frequency (8.9 Hz)?
I took a very close look under microscope and the one on the right has no visible faults. There could be a short under one of the caps or resistors, but when I shorted R2 on the working star (which seems to be the only element that can increase frequency), it wasn’t going as fast as the one on the right. (normal mode is 1.2Hz, shorting R2 got me 2.5Hz)
My best guess is perhaps one of the components is faulty.
I think I changed the component values and didn’t update the doco. Can I leave some other caps to try in the dropbox? Are you ok desoldering the wrong ones and resoldering them? @Janet you miht have the wrong parts too.