Regular Member
Joined: 23/09/2009
Location: AustraliaPosts: 76
| Posted: 06:06am 12 May 2011 |
Thanks for that info Bryan.
OK on the PICkit from microchip - must check their website again because I think they had a $25 fee for p&p which makes it much more expensive.
As for soldering smd's, I have made a couple of simple projects using them but no 64 pin-ers yet. I have also repaired at least a half dozen USB drives for kids at school - amazing how they can break almost anything!! Most have involved just soldering the usb plug back on but one managed to drop his and broke a tiny filter choke off the board - had to bridge the pads with a single strand of wire to get it working again.
Luckily I have low power stereo microscopes available but co-ordinating the iron & solder under that magnification can be frustrating, especially when you wear glasses which you have to take off to use the microscope. It makes the finest tip of the soldering iron look like a crowbar.
I have also had a go at making the board for the Maximite - turned out reasonable but will need a bit of tidying up using a scalpel, as most of the tracks are very fine and close together. May not use it yet - more of an academic exercise to see if it was possible using the toner transfer method - learnt a lot doing it though.
If I ever get the time I would like to re-design the area of the board around the PIC to accept a breakout board with header pins into sockets on the main board - one day maybe!!
Regards
Trev