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isochronic
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Joined: 21/01/2012
Location: Australia
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Posted: 01:41pm 09 Mar 2016

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I wanted an easy way/breakout board to start with the 100 pin formats. So I'm looking at the UBW32 100-pin pcb as a quick start, but the smd's are tiny and will be a (very) serious challenge to the optics .

The pcb is described as public domain but the one on the website has the "sparkfun" logo plastered on it

and it is from a few years ago (v2.6)

The changes I will try are -

- use a microchip 3.3 v fixed regulator instead of the lm317 , this will save soldering in a few resistors, i will need to bridge pads though
- use a multilayer ceramic 10 uF cap instead of the old specified 10 uF electrolytic tantalum
( mainly 'cos I've got some already and the 1206 format will fit the 3216 pads ok )
-forget most of the leds, buttons etc

which still gives the pins out but reduces the component soldering count to the power supply and vcap, ic , and bypass caps

Hopefully that sounds realistic ?

Edited by chronic 2016-03-10

boss

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Joined: 19/08/2011
Location: Canada
Posts: 268

Posted: 05:32am 10 Mar 2016

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@CHRONIC

Look here :

http://www.microcontroller-board.com/snadpic-board-32-bit/14-snadpic-pic32mx470f512l-development-board.html#/crystal_osc illator-20mhz/crystal_rtcc-no_without_crystal

this guy is very flexible you can talk to him about mods you need, and usually he doesn't charge extra money for mods

isochronic
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Posted: 10:05am 10 Mar 2016

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Yes it looks like a good board. I need boards
as a first step though, so they have to be cheap enough to be
ruined, er, easily replaceable, as prototypes. I can save a
lot by assembling these as I go and I have to try the very
small smd work anyway

Edited by chronic 2016-03-11

isochronic
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Posted: 12:45pm 19 Mar 2016

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eeesh - going from the 0805 format to smaller 0603 certainly is a major step..
Do people use simple magnifiers still ? I am wondering if it is workable
without a special viewer / microscope of some sort

robert.rozee
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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
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Posted: 02:42pm 19 Mar 2016

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i've quite successfully soldered 0402 components using a 3" loupe and weller magnastat soldering iron. thr trick is good lighting, plenty of heat, and the right flux paste. the other essential tool is a pair of good quality stainless-steel pointed tweezers to hold the components.

cheers,
rob :-)

isochronic
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Posted: 12:47am 21 Mar 2016

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0402 - the mind (and eye) boggles.. for the time being I am trying 64 pin as an intermediate step, so I have dug out a "fubarino" which was cheap a few years ago.
So far so good - my interpreter is hitting 60000 loops/sec on the '795H.
So the next question is, if the pic32mx470 is pin-compatible, it should replace
the '795. (?) and so the 795, eg colour maximite or ubw32, boards should be able to have '470 upgrades (?)
I will put that off until I soldered the ubw32 ok I think

Grogster

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Posted: 01:27am 21 Mar 2016

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As far as I am aware, the 100-pin 470 is NOT pin-compatible with the 795's.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but from what I seem to remember.....

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

isochronic
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Joined: 21/01/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 689

Posted: 01:45am 22 Mar 2016

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I have had a look at the pinouts, apart from the additional
bells and whistles on the 470 I can't see any clash that is conspicuous
at this stage (?)
Any further details would be good please ?!

matherp
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Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 10181

Posted: 08:03am 22 Mar 2016

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I did all the early MX470 development using a colour maximite PCB and the current 5.1 runs fine on it. The only issue is that some important pins are not broken out. I ended up soldering ultra-fine wires onto pins to test things like SPI. I never managed to get the PS2 keyboard to work and never worked out why

isochronic
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Posted: 01:32am 24 Mar 2016

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Thanks, that is encouraging then. The 64pin has so much clobber on every pin
it is being recalcitrant !!! I will persevere...
Another idea for the future, as the base models only use 64k, the
795 has another 64k left. Which suggests space for a
200 x 320 display with 256 live colours [the 240x320 lcds might be used with a simple blank screen section] - it would probably look ok, a 2:3 format (?)

isochronic
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Posted: 03:04am 15 Apr 2016

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Well - as far as using a UBW32 pcb as a breakout board goes -
that might kindly be described as a stuff-up !!!
The power supply is really designed to run off usb so has
small value capacitors in small format and pads, no real reserve.
Genarally the board is compressed into in a small quite intricate
pcb with small pads so reworking new connections is not really on.
And I assumed the regulators were a different pinout ..

So - to save others which may be thinking of it - the idea may have had some merit but I can report it is probably a no-go. Save the hassle and use them fully-built.

Edit - maybe this 4D redux is the go. Too expensive for me though.

http://www.4dsystems.com.au/product/Picadillo_35T/Edited by chronic 2016-04-16

robert.rozee
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Posted: 03:48am 15 Apr 2016

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something like this may be a better starting point:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221997204424

i bought a couple of these a few years back with intentions of building up two colour maximites. never got round to completing the project, just collected together the main parts. be wary to make sure the pin pitch matches the PIC32 devices you get - 0.5mm or 0.4mm pin spacing - i actually ended up having to buy both sizes as i unexpectedly ended up with MX795's with 0.4mm pin pitch after i'd already ordered 0.5mm boards.

cheers,
rob :-)

addendum - found this schematic for the above board on the web:
2016-04-15_141855_PIC32MX795-ETTEAM-Rev1.pdf Edited by robert.rozee 2016-04-16

boss

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Joined: 19/08/2011
Location: Canada
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Posted: 05:40am 15 Apr 2016

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@chronic

the same board with 32F795L soldered ($22.60) and free shipping

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PIC32MX795F512L-MCU-Plug-in-module-32bit-USB-MICROCHIP-Microcontroller-PICKIT3-/171049654315?has h=item27d35a982b:g:XdcAAOxyYTRSaHXZ

bo

isochronic
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Posted: 04:02am 23 Apr 2016

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That's a good lead - thanks bo

MicroBlocks

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Joined: 12/05/2012
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Posted: 05:05am 23 Apr 2016

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if you know a little Thai

you can go straight to the source
http://www.etteam.com/
They have lots of interesting stuff btw and i order from them regularly.
Until recently i lived around the corner from them.

Edited by MicroBlocks 2016-04-24

Microblocks. Build with logic.

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