Thank you, Tom E.
guess I’ll order the v009’s
Thank you, Tom E.
guess I’ll order the v009’s
I think you can use really fine sandpaper, just lay it on a flat surface and you can sand off mask coating! At least I could try that method…
Yes, sanding is an option, but i have experienced lapping tiny things very difficult to do even, being borders worn much faster than center.
BTW, i already have a new boards bach on a new panel, nice good service from OSH park :bigsmile:
This is my first time building the a driver on my own. I have everything needed my question is do I flash the attiny before or after I bake it on the pcb? I assume I can flash and re-flash in circuit.
Thanks,
Neil
Neil - You can do it before or after, I've done them both ways.
Before: the SOIC-8 clip does seem to work fine with the "in air" MCU. Just be sure you get it positioned correctly before releasing pressure on the clip - clamping down on the MCU pins. I'm always concerned I'm gonna bend pins, but it never happened, but again, I'm extra careful before I let the clip clamp down on the pins in-air.
After: as long as you positioned the parts correctly, on this board you should be able to get a good clip on the MCU. Be sure your clip is wired correctly with a good ground. (lot of earlier posts and ref. pics and posts had it wrong!!). Also, I found it helps cleaning up the MCU pins with isopropyl alcohol to get off any residual flux from the reflow. I like using a small stiff brush.
Note: I updated the flashlight wiki page on the AVR Drivers for the ground pin connection here: http://flashlightwiki.com/AVR_Drivers. The ground is on dongle side pin #10 (or #8), not pin #4.
I was told to use a horse hair brush to clean pcbs; so I went to a nearby horse stable (fairly common here) and got some hair for free. bundled them into a brush and it works great.
Interesting bout the horse hair... How could you make a brush though?
For the grnd wire, it worked for me a long time not having it wired correctly, but had occasional problems, thinking it was the clip, etc. - intermittent issues. Once I corrected the grnd wire, worked sooo much better. Only problems I've had since is when there's flux on the pins, if I didn't clean them first. After cleaning, works all the time. Been trying to make a habit of always cleaning, since I'm probably getting flux contamination on the clip , and could build up. The clip can always be cleaned as well.
Thank you so much for the detailed info.
Neil
horsehair is supposed to be an anti-static material (not easily charged electrically).
I stole my girlfriends’ old makeup brush and replaced / glued the horsehair in. Hope she is ok with that.
Shrinkwrap-and-glue a bundle of horsehair over the end of a stick. Google ‘handmade brush’ or ‘homemade brush’ for pictures.
Trim the end with a razor for applying paint, or leave the end variable for ‘dusting’
I think this is the right thread to ask.
Are there any firmwares except toykeeper’s ready-to-flash ?
Could you provide me a link ?
Not sure. I don't usually post HEX files because I build mine on demand for modes, tweaked, turbo timeout setup, etc., so not a good idea, unless you have a fixed, static setup: same hardware, same modes, same options.
This is why I'm going with the more versatile programmable UI, so we can use a common hex file, then reconfigure it after it's burned in, but this requires more memory than a 13A has, so why we are migrating to the Tiny25 and Tiny85.
Thanks for your answer. I’m new to the whole programming thing , and I don’t know how to do edit modes on code and so on.
I’m still searching , but if you had any recommendations (where to start from , or some guides) it would be great.
Thanks again
CRX's incredible reference thread, https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/23020, has a section for programming drivers - you will find some useful info there.
I'm using the latest Atmel Studio 7, free download here: http://www.atmel.com/tools/atmelstudio.aspx. You can begin with that and go from there, if you haven't dnld'ed it already.
Looks like plenty of interesting discussion happened on this one while I was out. I think that I’ve skimmed it all, but I didn’t necessarily absorb everything and I know that some of this stuff gets discussed in other threads too.
Hi Alex!! Wow - welcome back!
I was getting a flash going from hi/turbo to moon (on this FET+1 w/ATTiny85, SIR800DP FET) that I was able to solve in firmware (e-switch firmware called "Narsil"). Had to do with removing redundant setting of PWM modes.
For a power switch setup (also on this FET+1 driver, ATTiny25 w/SIR800DP), I tried several things in firmware with no luck, then added a 12K resistor across the FET (gate resistor) and it solved it perfectly.
One guy, think an EE, found a FET that didn't have the flash. I did some amps tests and the 12K resistor seemed to have no effect - I'm pretty happy with the fix.
25, 45, and 85's seem to have their own problems in high amp setups. Caps seem to fix it - I add a 0.1 uF cap across the MCU grnd and VCC pins and it fixed it with the e-switch firmware/setup. On power switch setups, I stacked a 2nd 10 uF cap on the C1 cap and it fixed it. The problem is in either just hi/turbo or any FET modes, the MCU flakes out - resets sometimes, or get weird blinks, etc.
I agree with more exposure of the ground ring - would help, I've done lots of scraping.
Thanks Tom E.
EDIT: added strikethrough for “DOPE!” moment. See posts below for correction(s).
I don't see 0603 being a problem, as most people would be using paste/heat gun rather than manually soldering these things with an iron. If the size saved is going to make a board possible where it was otherwise not, then I say go for it.
The additional/larger Cap seems to overcome the MCU spike issue on the current boards, so another revision of this design may not be time well invested. I think a new design targeting multi-cell applications(Buck w/ATtiny) would now be more sought after.
I manually solder by hand and have no issue using 0603 parts if it gets me the driver I’m after
Thanks Tom E. * So that’s a 12k pulldown resistor on the gate? (EG the resistor is connected to the “gate” pin and to “GND”?) * How are people feeling about 0603 sized components these days?
Yes - 12K pulldown - it's what I had available and seems to work well. 0603 sizes are fine with me. I certainly would like Richard to chime in on this, but not sure if he's been spending much time on the 25/45/85's.
I haven't built any LDO based boards yet but am certainly interested because I have a couple of lights I'd like to use them in (e-switch multi-cell for 6V LED's).