So right now I'm sort of doing 5 projects at the same time. Which while fun; it is way more time consuming than I had anticipated.
A week ago I got the boards in. And a few days ago I assembled the boards at school (Yup, I knew they would forget to remove my key-access).
Anyway, I wanted to post some of the results of what I put together.
First project that I really want to wrap us is the Character LCD Project. It's all pretty simple circuitry to put together. If you're wondering I just hand-solder all of the surface mount components. That's why I pick things usually no smaller than 0805 in size, or closer than 0.04" apart. I can do smaller parts (I've done many 0603's before) but I just get a headache staring at something that small for so long.
Character LCD Board Being Assembled
I think if there was a re-design for this board (there won't be by me) I'd get a smaller trim pot. I liked how it was to access this pot from the back when its installed in a case...but it has no holding force, so a good vibration will kick my contrast out of whack.
Finished Character LCD Board
I really got into soldering and forgot to take pictures of the progress. Suddenly it was a couple hours later and I had finished 2 more PCBs. Something I wish I had on me when I did this was a better continuity tester, because I can't work with the graphical LCD board yet because I missed a programming pin. Oops.
Graphical, Current Sense and Character boards all together. Note: Never solder the board to the screen until you are done. That was a TERRIBLE idea.
Second last board of the night before I went off to play some TF2 was the mother-development board. Way more personalized than an arduino with nearly zero code support. It was easier to solder than the others because there was no surface mount parts save 2 resistors. Lots of problems with this board that I'll talk about somewhere else. But the gist of them is that this board is not nearly robust enough to be touted as a development board. There definitely will be a Version 2 of this guy. (Edit: a second revision is already made. I need to go over it a few more times to make sure I didn't miss anything this time).
PIC18F4550 Development Board Note: Regulator was too tall (oops) and Next Time get a socket for the PIC. If/when you break it, it will be handy.
The joy pad board was the easiest thing to solder. I used the biggest tip and just heated the hell out of the pads. I know its not best practice but over half of the pins are connected to either a V+ or GND plane. which makes having a smaller tip pretty useless.
My Joypad/Pushbutton Board mounted on top of the Development board. Notice my distinct lack of symmetry. That's not important though. The Pots I ordered physically would not fit between the Port layout on the development board (Maybe a possible re-design for V2?)
Next up is the firmware. ...Why did I think all the hard work was done already? Firmware is definitely one of my weaker links. Going through and adding in all the features I need will be a pretty good exercise in futility patience.
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