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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #15 on: November 19, 2017, 01:05:44 PM »
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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #16 on: November 19, 2017, 03:14:36 PM »
Ja, you need to swap the red/yellow wires on the Scout side in your picture. Here is how it should be:

TCB->Scout
GND->GND
TX->Rx-I
Rx->Tx-O

Also see the Wiki page for a description of what the blinking LEDs mean.

If the Red LED is blinking slowly, it means the Scout has not received a signal yet. If the Blue LED lights steady, then you are receiving a signal, so that is good.

If the Red LED blinks 4 times, it means the Scout has stopped the motors because of low voltage (<6 volts). Do you have a battery connected to your Scout? The Scout will turn on just with USB power but it will not be able to run the motors from USB.

If you want to check the Scout all by itself to make sure it is working correctly, just attach a standard RC radio to the RC inputs (disconnect Scout from TCB). If the motors will work from RC control then you know at least the motor driver chips are good.
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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #17 on: November 19, 2017, 03:29:52 PM »
This is how you should power the Scout/TCB. This picture shows earlier prototypes of the boards so the connectors are slightly different, but the connections are the same.

Connect your battery directly to the Scout using the screw terminals. Then power the TCB with a jumper cable from the Scout to the TCB.
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Assembling Boards by Hand scout_tcb.jpg
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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #18 on: November 22, 2017, 02:46:16 AM »
Good morning.
- Yes, I have connected the battery to the scout and this food tcb.
- E connected the scout to a standard receiver rc and only works the engine on one side.
the RC2 input works and the M1 motor works. (in one direction it works well and in the other it only turns slowly). E watched with the multimeter, without acting on the remote and the driver on the M1 side gives me a reading of 3v and the one on the M2 8v side. So I understand that the latter must be wrong. true?

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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #19 on: November 22, 2017, 05:09:21 PM »
Ja, the RC2 input should control M2, so how do you know RC2 works if M2 does not?

Without acting on the remote, the output of both M1 and M2 should be 0 volts (motor stopped).

My best guess is that you have a short somewhere on the board, perhaps multiple shorts. Hopefully there is no short across the pads on the underside of the motor chips, because those are impossible to fix without removing those chips.

Most likely there is a short between some pins either on the ATmega (processor) or the motor chips. Check them very carefully (if you have a magnifying glass that will help, I use something like this). If you see any pins that are touching you can fix it with a soldering iron. Applying flux first will help the solder to separate.

Troubleshooting these problems can be frustrating I know. Hopefully you bought enough parts to make more than one board! It probably doesn't make you feel any better, but I have ruined many boards myself during assembly...
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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #20 on: December 07, 2017, 12:50:14 PM »
desisti of that table, try to mount another, this almost got it but I did not realize and I had two pins of a vnh2sp shorted and broke (smoke).    :'( :'(                  I have to change it if the rest still works

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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #21 on: December 07, 2017, 01:29:22 PM »
Sorry to hear you've had so much trouble. Sometimes a short can be fixed without damage but when you see smoke that is not good. Replacing the VNH2SP30 is also very difficult because you can't desolder it by hand, it must be re-flowed which risks removing all the other components as well.

I probably should have made a disclaimer somewhere, but guys, if you are assembling boards by hand please be prepared to lose a lot of money if you are not experienced or just have your share of bad luck. It is not always an easy job, though you can get better with experience.
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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #22 on: December 07, 2017, 03:19:13 PM »
Do not worry, it just lacked that with the work you carry you had some responsibility. When I got into this mess I already knew what could happen. I will keep trying, I still have plates and some component, desoldering I will try to have air if I get it.

Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #23 on: December 10, 2017, 04:21:46 PM »
Good afternoon, in the end I did not manage to fix that table when releasing vnh2s with hot air was not enough heat and some pad was ripped so I discarded the table >:(. But the fourth was the good one. finally I have a functional scout.

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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #24 on: December 10, 2017, 06:01:24 PM »
Yes, I have not had much luck with hot air rework because I always damage something else worse. But I do no have a hot air station, only a heat gun. :)

I am sorry you had so much trouble but like I said before, I have definitely been in your shoes. Now that you have acquired all this experience you could probably build many more with no problems.

I hope you like your Scout!
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Offline Ncartmell

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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #25 on: January 22, 2018, 01:19:20 PM »
Hello,

This weekend I was in a local store and they were selling small 1kW temperature controlled ovens. They were compact and had a glass door I wondered if they would be suitable for pcb build or should I stick with a hotplate.

Thanks

Neil

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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #26 on: January 22, 2018, 02:08:34 PM »
An oven will work just fine and theoretically even better since you will get more even heat. Just be sure you really can control the temperature.

For the stuff we're doing it doesn't really matter and for someone reading this who doesn't want to spend the money on an oven, rest assured a hot plate will work fine. But if you want to get an oven go for it.
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Offline pandknz

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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #27 on: August 31, 2018, 05:10:11 PM »
Luke, your dedication to this project deserves an applause and in recognition of your efforts I'm going to have a go at building these boards by hand!  :o

My electronics experience consist of building Arduino boards and the like, I've never done surface mount soldering with paste and I am looking forward to this project.

I have placed an order for 3 of each board, at the special of $1 per set of 3 I thought I would get them all and have a go at this.
All going well I will end up with three sets of each board and with only 1 tank I will be happy with a 1 in 3 success rate (trying not to let the smoke out)
My biggest mission is going to be sourcing the components locally (Australia), I will try this before heading to Digi-Key as the shipping is ridiculous.
So I have a budget of $78AUD per TCB (I'm calling it a budget due to this is what HK sells them for so no point making them for more but I think I can halve this cost by doing it myself, not to mention that fact I like to build things not buy them)
I will post my progress but so far I have placed the order on the boards from Seed, and today I will start the component hunt!

One question i have is: using the hot plate do you sit the board right on it or use an old pan? I've seen both.

Cheers
 8)
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Offline pandknz

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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #28 on: September 01, 2018, 03:08:52 AM »
Hi again

I'm hoping that someone can point me in the direction of a component supplier that will have the following:

ERJ-PA3F1001V
ERJ-PA3F1002V
ERJ-PA3F1003V
C0603C103K3RACTU
C0603C104K3RACTU
JMK212BJ476MG-T - I have found a possible substitute but not sure if it is exactly the same - GRM21BR60J476ME15L
IRLML2502TRPBF

I have found that DgiKey, Mouser and RS Components are out of stock and back orders are in with 2019-2020 expected delivery  :-[

any help would be great

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Offline LukeZ

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Re: Assembling Boards by Hand
« Reply #29 on: September 01, 2018, 01:44:24 PM »
Hi Pand,

I would highly, highly recommend you just buy the TCB from Hobby King rather than try to assemble your own. I don't think I have ever assembled one myself for less cost than what they are selling them for. HK can buy the components in bulk but you will be buying them in small quantities at a far higher unit cost. The processor on the TCB is especially difficult to reflow correctly and I have ruined as many of them as I have made successfully even though I have a lot of experience with reflow soldering. I think my average cost for home-built, functional TCBs is probably somewhere north of $100 per board. That is 2-3 times what HK charges for a board made by a machine.

I can see why people would want to assemble their own Scout or sound card since those products are not yet available. They are also much easier to assemble having far fewer components. But there is no reason to assemble the TCB unless you really just like a challenge and don't mind blowing money for the fun of it.

Nevertheless, with regards to the bill of materials you listed:

  • ERJ-PA3F1001V - any 1k ohm 0603 resistor
  • ERJ-PA3F1002V - any 10k ohm 0603 resistor
  • ERJ-PA3F1003V - any 100k ohm 0603 resistor
  • C0603C103K3RACTU - any 0.01 uF 0603 capacitor (> 5v rating)
  • C0603C104K3RACTU - any 0.1 uF 0603 capacitor (> 5v rating)
  • JMK212BJ476MG-T - I have found a possible substitute but not sure if it is exactly the same - GRM21BR60J476ME15L - your substitution will work fine
  • IRLML2502TRPBF - try using the ZXMN2F34FHTA instead.

As to your question about reflowing - I don't think it matters if you use a pan or not on the hot plate, i never do but I'm sure it would work. I usually just put a piece of aluminum foil on the hot plate surface but not for any thermal reasons, just to keep the hot plate clean. The flux in your solder paste will melt during reflow and trickle through the vias to the surface below, without the aluminum foil this will cause little stains on the surface of the plate which doesn't really matter but I might want to use my plate for cooking food sometime too.

The main thing to be careful with during reflow is to monitor the temperature and make sure you don't go over 200*C.
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