DorkbotPDX people doing strange things with electricity

What: Focused workshop: programming Midi devices using the Lightweight Usb For AVR library (Lufa) and the MidiMonster.

When: Sunday 28 Feb 2010 1-5 pm.

Where: PNCA (NW 12th and Johnson) #205

Cost: $35 (includes Midi Monster)
(If you have a MidiMonster from the PD Workshop and wish to use it please bring $10)

Materials: you Should Bring, a laptop and a mini usb cable. Please install Arduino >16 as well.

I finished building a project box and adding inputs to allow the closed loop temperature controller (http://www.instructables.com/id/Closing-the-Loop-on-Surface-Mount-Solder...) to stand alone (without needing to be connected to a computer to control it).

Yesterday was the Pd interfacing with the worldworkshop and we had a blast! Thanks to everybody who came, and even bigger thanks to Alex, Jesse, and Don for pulling it together!

For posterity, I am attaching two of the Pd patches here that I was temporarily hosting elsewhere. If you didn't have a chance to attend, please feel free to check them out and play with them.

• fm_synth_patch.pd - The HID/joystick controlled FM synthesizer patch.
• netsend_recv.pd - The netsend/netreceive demo patch.

Hopefully soon we'll see some more technical info/specs on the midi monster, and then people can begin sharing info, ideas, and patches that they have created!

I did another run of the LCD enabled DorkBoard design that I posted earlier. In this run, I made a few small changes to add a standard 6 pin AVR ISP header and put in the reset capacitor (a 0603 part which can be solder bridged if you have a programmer like a Benito which does the reset in software). The Eagle files are attached.

Announcing the fourth PCB Order!

!!

The next PCB order will occur on March 1st, so submit your designs by 11:59PM on February 28th.

Now's your opportunity to have your design fabricated by a professional board house in the USA!

New this order:

• Silkscreen on both sides of the board is now official. The board house has been giving it to us anyway, but we were only quoted for single-side.
• 7mil minimum annular ring. This is the width of the copper pad around a drilled hole.
• Faster turnaround. The boards should be mailed to you within a week of the order deadline.

The Eagle CAM file has been updated:

• The "Milling" layer has been removed from the board outline, since that's not actually supported in our order.

The Eagle DRU file has been updated to include the new minimum annular ring size.

What you get

• Three 2 layer boards (see design rules below)
• Soldermask on both sides
• Silkscreen on both sides.

The Costs

$5 per square inch for three copies of your board. So, a 2 square inch design would cost $10, and you'll get three copies of your board. Shipping by US Mail is included, and there are no setup fees.

After taking Jim Larson's workshop on surface mount soldering, I wanted to set up my own hot plate system for reflow soldering. But rather than use an open loop temperature control system like Jim was using at the time, I thought I'd take a crack at a closed loop control system. The first problem was that I didn't have a convenient temperature sensor which would go up to over 200°C as would be needed to reflow lead free solder paste.

I created a file for labeling the pins on my Dorkboard.

We enjoyed the class.

Updating my earlier Extreme Surface Mount Soldering Instructable, and based on some great work by Scott Dixon, I've posted a new Instructable. Check it out here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Closing-the-Loop-on-Surface-Mount-Soldering/

Included are complete instructions for modifying the sensor and all the software for control. This is a significant improvement to the old method. Enjoy!