01 APRIL 2013
Below is a photo overview of how we make our own PCB’s using a UV box and developing the boards.
Disclaimer: Wear appropriate safety equipment when handling chemicals and when using UV boxes and lights. Don’t...
27 FEBRUARY 2013
The basic Chinese Vacuum Pickup pump we have been using on the DIY pick and place machine has been giving us problems with its lack of suction when handling larger SOIC components and didn’t hold them still when moving...
27 FEBRUARY 2013
Following from the Automatic component feeders DIY pick and place Part 1 post we have now redesigned the Y axis which pushes the activation arms on the Panasonic component feeders to use a new leadscrew from Reliance...
10 FEBRUARY 2013
Since upgrading our solar charge controller to a MPPT model we lost the facility for the charge controller to shut down the inverter when the battery voltage dropped too low. This resulted in a few days when the battery voltage...
06 FEBRUARY 2013
The new Raspberry Pi model A arrived today after a mixup where Farnell sent us another model B yesterday.
The new Model A on the left with a Com Pi board and Wifi dongle. Older Model B on the right.
As the new Model...
23 JANUARY 2013
After treating myself to a new Yaesu FT 817 HF, 6m, 2m & 70cm transceiver, I also ordered a CAT to USB control cable from Radioarena (Yaesu USB Programming / CAT Cable for FT-100 / 817 / 857 / 897) which arrived 8 days...
05 JANUARY 2013
After seeing other blog posts about people’s workshops, I thought I should add a post about our small home workshop which is in the loft of our terrace home.
The loft space is 4.1m long, 3.2m wide at its widest point...
01 DECEMBER 2012
Following from the Panasonic component feeder mods and the build of our manual pick and place machine (pick and place part 1 & pick and place part 2) we have started to build an automatic stepper motor driven controller...
01 DECEMBER 2012
While building pcbs on our manual pick and place machine we have been looking at various options to hold the PCB boards still while placing the components but without having to use complex clamps to hold the boards in place.
To...
25 NOVEMBER 2012
Since installing Windows 8 earlier this month I haven’t been able to use Google Chrome as the default browser for links when opening from Google Talk.
Even when the Defaults control panel was showing Google Chrome...
20 NOVEMBER 2012
Following feedback and supply problems with the 16 bit ADC chip we had been using on our popular ADC Pi board which we sell on www.abelectronics.co.uk we have been working on a new version of the ADC board and we have now...
13 NOVEMBER 2012
To replace the diy surface mount component feeder used on the pick and place part 1 & pick and place part 2 posts, I was able to source 11 x 8mm Panasonic Ratchet Type Component Feeders (part no 10488BD059, specification...
28 OCTOBER 2012
Following from the previous pick and place part 1 post we have completed the initial build on our semi automatic pick and place machine.
The air / vacuum supply nozzle was made on the lathe using a section of 10mm steel...
19 OCTOBER 2012
After discovering the cost of buying a ready made manual Pick & Place Machine was over £5,000 and an automatic one well over £20,000 we decided to try to make our own manual pick and place system with a motorised...
02 OCTOBER 2012
We purchased a T-962 desktop reflow oven from China on eBay a few weeks ago and found the results from the oven to be very poor compared to the specifications on the area which it could process. We found that it would only...
21 SEPTEMBER 2012
While building the new ADC Pi circuit boards we found dealing with the surface mount resistors and capacitors to be time consuming when taking them from plastic trays as many of the components would be upside down and in...