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WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944
Posted: 04:35pm 01 Mar 2014
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Thanks for your kind words.
This is the next thing on my to-do list.
The module is very easy to use but you are 100% correct - I do need to provide a one pager.
Will send to you once document complete so that you can give your feedback!
Am going to PM you regarding other points . . .
Phil
WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944
Posted: 09:25am 03 Mar 2014
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Update for all of you that have ordered 44pin TQFP MicroMite Modules:
The first batch of Modules are ready for shipping .
As promised, I have confirmed with the Post Office the most suitable/cost effective way to send your Modules.
The service I would recommend is British Royal Mail Airsure. This is a fully trackable service and costs £10.10 with cover up to £50 (or £12.70 up to £250 cover). They quote no more than 6 working days for global delivery.
Alternatively, the Airmail cost is £4.70 but is NOT trackable nor provides any cover. If you select this option then the risk of failed delivery is with you (however, I will send anyone that selects this option a scanned proof of posting document). This service is typically a day slower than the above Airsure service above.
DHL wants a start price of £36.95 so not really viable! (Other couriers similarly priced). Up to 5 days but no cover!
So my recommendation is to use Airsure at a cost of £10.10.
I will PM you all this evening (it is currently 19:25 Mon evening here in UK) to confirm which shipping option you wish me to use.
For all of you that have already paid, upon shipping confirmation PM, I will be able to ship your Modules by end of business tomorrow.
Feel free to PM me asap regarding your preferred shipping method as I am busy for the next couple of hours.
Any new requests/orders can be ready later this week as the next batch of components are being delivered tomorrow. Just PM me with your requirements!
Speak soon.
Regards,
Phil
WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944
Posted: 05:53am 05 Mar 2014
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For everyone that has ordered 44-pin MicroMite Modules, I can confirm that they have ALL now been posted and are hence on their way to you.
Note Geoff's comment:
So please update to Beta 9 as soon as Geoff releases it!
Regards,
Phil
WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944
Posted: 11:52pm 07 Mar 2014
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As some of you are now starting to receive your Modules, can I please recommend that you immediately upgrade the MicroMite firmware to Beta 10 that Geoff has released.
I shipped all initial Modules with Beta 8 (the latest version at time of shipping) but as Geoff mentioned in the above post, this has a 'serious bug' regarding printing numbers.
Thanks . . .
kiiid Guru Joined: 11/05/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 671
Posted: 12:35am 08 Mar 2014
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That in A$ translates as $5.5. ... $40.5... probably before shipping.
Makes one wonder how do the Chinese manage to sell $3 boards with parts on them, doesn't it? Unfortunately someone who has done one or two boards in their life mainly with parts off eBay will have hard time understanding it until start actually making boards and see how all that works...
Edited by kiiid 2014-03-09http://rittle.org
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WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944
Posted: 12:51am 08 Mar 2014
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I will gladly sell populated boards for $3 but they probably won't work !!
Take a look at the posts on BSF - take the USB to Uart modules for example. I see that lots of problems surface when using cheap parts (and had much experience myself too with hours of head-scratching). 9 times out of 10 a problem has been caused by using a cheap board when trying to save a few $'s.
I believe in paying a little bit extra for quality that works first time - eliminates so much troubleshooting time.
There are many 'bargains' out there but you do have to find them amongst many fakes/copies/poor quality products.
I am simply buying components in bulk from global recognised suppliers (RS, Mouser, Farnell, Rapid) and at this time passing them on at cost along with the PCB cost which was a reasonable £2.95 from iTead - (ok - Im making 5pence per board ).
And I tried getting the Post Office to drop their shipping costs for delivering half way around the world but they wouldn't listen!
Oh well . . .
kiiid Guru Joined: 11/05/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 671
Posted: 01:02am 08 Mar 2014
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Hey, no need to explain to me. I am in the same team, have a look at my website and you will see.
Just stating the obvious to those unnamed people who love the $3 bargains...
Edited by kiiid 2014-03-09http://rittle.org
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WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944
Posted: 01:21am 08 Mar 2014
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My $3 distance module has just arrived this second!
Wonder if it will work without any re-soldering?
jman Guru Joined: 12/06/2011 Location: New ZealandPosts: 711
Posted: 10:32pm 10 Mar 2014
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A little feedback on the PCB's
I received my 2 PCB's today one kit and one kindly assembled by Phil
The build quality is fantastic. The kits came in a real nice plastic
snap open/shut box with foam inside with all the parts really well secured.
The assembled unit was programmed with beta 8 and personalized welcome message
(Nice touch). The PCB is well made and well laid out.
Shipping was fairly quick a week from UK to NZ not bad
A big thank you and well done to Phil
Regards
Jman
BTW Phil your PM inbox is full
WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944
Posted: 01:47am 11 Mar 2014
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Thanks Jman for your kind words of feedback
I'm very pleased that you find the build quality 'fantastic'. I used the soldering techniques that I have PM'd to some of you that have asked.
I may see if I can find the time to create a video (or series of pictures) regarding the soldering technique I use especially considering & following on from the discussion on Zonker's 28pin ProtoBoard post.
If demand is high enough I will see what I can do.
I guess I should do something anyway to help people that choose to be sent my 44pin MicroModule in kit form!
Thanks again Jman. Keep me informed how you get on with the Module (and the build of the second one in kit form!)
Regards,
Phil
viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925
Posted: 04:14pm 11 Mar 2014
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I have to say, I am fortunate enough to have in my possession the WhiteWizzard 44 pin boards. After just a little bit of time playing, I am very impressed. This is, in my opinion, as close to a commercial product as I have seen. Build quality is awesome (I wish I could solder like that) and board works perfect. I did load beta 10 and so far so great!!!
Thanks Phil, now I can add lots more I/O to my project!
Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610
Posted: 10:48pm 11 Mar 2014
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I have to chime in here - I probably would not with general purpose purchases, but these boards really are well done, as jman says. I too got a fully-assembled one, and a blank PCB, but I doubt I can do justice to the blank one, based on the assembled one, and Gandalf(sorry, WhiteWizard) tells me in a PM that he did actually hand-assemble these boards, which is HARD TO BELIEVE, as they are so good, you'd think they were factory assembled.
Check this out:
This is WhiteWizard's HAND SOLDERING - Hell's Bollocks...
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610
Posted: 06:46pm 12 Mar 2014
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Got a chance to actually fire up the board tonight(my time), and a nice little message popped up:
Awwwwww, shucks...
I guess he does that for everyone who buys from him - jman hinted as much with his one.
I really like the LED's on the USB-serial chip showing traffic - I'm all for blinking lights - makes a project more visually interesting.
I can confirm at this point, that the driver for the USB chip on WW's board was auto-downloaded and installed no problems at all in Win8 64-bit. There were issues getting the SC USB driver to work in Win8 for the full-size MM, but there was a work-around.
Happily though, this board is truly plug-and-play.
In one board, I have been able to do away with a rats nest of jumper wires and external TTL-RS232 converters and PSU's!!!
Now, for some tinkering.........Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
plasma Guru Joined: 08/04/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 437
Posted: 01:55am 13 Mar 2014
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@ whitewizzard
is the board hand soldered ?
if so show us some tricks ;)
WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944
Posted: 11:20pm 15 Mar 2014
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Yes, these MicroMite PCBs are all hand soldered; each one taking around two hours to build AND fully test.
I would love to get a video made regarding how I solder the SMDs/Modules. However, at the moment I am going to be focused on Beta Testing for Geoff. The reason for this decision is that he is running close to his deadline to release the software for the magazine launch.
I can however send bullet points as to how I solder the SMDs if that helps!
Regards,
Phil
WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944
Posted: 01:42pm 16 Mar 2014
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I recommend updating your MicroMite Modules to Beta 15 as soon as possible ESPECIALLY if you are using an HC-SR04 UltraSonic Module and the Distance command.
Any issues updating your 44-pin MicroMite module then plea let me know . . .
bigfix Senior Member Joined: 20/02/2014 Location: AustriaPosts: 129
Posted: 12:23am 18 Mar 2014
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I thought I also need to give some feedback on the WhiteWizzard modules:
- Build quality is phantastic
- personalisation is such a nice touch, compared to massproduced shengzen junk
- I was not aware that this takes 2hrs to build, so it is really a bargain !
Overall it is more a feeling like buying a piece of handmade art...
I bought three in maximum configuration, just to be sure
Integrated USB to serial is the one thing I am not 100% sure yet
Pro
- very easy to get started
- less likely to connect things wrong in the middle of the night...
Con
- with multiple boards I end up with multiple virtual com ports
external USB to Serial would give me a constant virtual com port
- difficult to attach plain serial for i.e. WLAN/Ethernet serial converters
this would require to cut/switch the connection from USB Uart to PIC rcv
Possible solution could be a 4 Pin header with:
............USB-Uart-Xmit...PIC-Rcv...PIC-Xmit..GND
Serial use....................RCVwire..XMTwire..GNDwire.
USB Use..............- Jumper -......................
But this would mean a slightly larger module...
WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944
Posted: 12:45am 18 Mar 2014
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Thank You - it is very nice that my 'artwork' is appreciated by you all
I have to disagree with these comments so please let me clarify the following to maybe help resolve a mis-understanding:
You have two other COM ports on the 44-pin MicroMite Module that can be used to connect to any hardware requiring a serial interface.
Pin 33 & Pin 34 are dedicated to the built-in FTDI chip for communications with the console program (i.e. dedicated to coding & debugging).
For more detail please refer to Appendix A (Page 53) of Geoff's manual (version Beta16). This should help answer any further questions about the COM ports.
Thanks once again for your feedback and please do post any further suggestions or observations to help improve this Module even further . . . .
PicFan Senior Member Joined: 18/03/2014 Location: AustriaPosts: 133
Posted: 01:33am 18 Mar 2014
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Hello to all!
I Come from Austria and I am new to this forum. I find the project "Maximite, Micromite" and the forum very great. Congratulations!
I use a TFT Maximite and currently testing the 28p Micromite.
I have a question for @WhiteWizzard:
Where can I order 5 pieces of Micromite boards ?
Thank you and best regards from Austria (Tyrol)Edited by PicFan 2014-03-19
paceman Guru Joined: 07/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1329
Posted: 02:17am 18 Mar 2014
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Hi Phil,
My board arrived today via standard air-mail (no tracking). Took a bit longer, week and a half all up, but saved a few quid. All in great condition and my congrats to you on the quality of it as well - beautifully lined up - and the personal touches! Hope Walt Disney doesn't come knocking on your door with the logo though
Re-flashed it tonight with V15 (using a PicKit3 and MPLAB-X) without any dramas - my only issue was that I'd forgotten which 44 pin chip we were using so that I could let the PicKit know! Anyway I assumed it would be the one Geoff recommended and it worked fine.
Interesting that the designation of the chips on the board is unreadable - I guess that's to slow down the cloners?
Greg
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The Back Shed's forum code is written, and hosted, in Australia.
Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.
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