ZIFduino

put mine together... but cant test it yet :frowning:

I have not jumpers, and yeah, the zif I purchased is no good :frowning: also for some reason I ordered massive 22pf caps too... I have to remedy that.

Since I was out of 330 ohm resistors, I used a 220, I hope that is ok. Its the closest I have on hand.

here it is so far

Yeouch, I hope you haven't soldered that ZIF socket in place yet, that could be fun to remove. The board looks great so far.

If you or anyone you know have any old hard drives laying around you should be able to steal a jumper from there.

I've been going back and forth on the hole spacing for the caps, but I've decided to leave them as is. The caps in the kits will have the smaller .1" spacing to keep a cleaner look throughout the board. Turns out it also gives the option of using SMT parts. In the end, it really doesn't matter what size they are as long as they do their job and don't get in the way.

The 220 should be fine for the power LED, but you may want to wear sunglasses while looking at it. :wink: The production version will call for a 1K.

I found some 330s, and I have a desoldering iron... where did you get that nice black zif?

Digikey part #A302-ND or Jameco part #104003. They're within pennies of each other.

Got mine assembled and working - at least it loads a sketch without error. I will test the i/o pins tonight (in and out and pwm). Please suggest any other tests you would like run.
Mine assembled like a dream (except the SOIC, that was more like a nightmare). Other than changing the cap designation to 0.1uF instead of 100nF, I really can't think of a suggestion. Next - a machined aluminum enclosure! Woohoo!

If you have any shields I'd like to hear how well they fit and work. Other than that, just testing the pins like you plan to do and loading sketches via the USB interface should cover it pretty well. Since it's just a change of layout for a known good circuit, it's more a matter of seeing how nicely it plays with devices designed to work with the Arduino.

I ordered the tall crystal instead of the low profile one (oops) so I'll need to lay that down before I put any shields on. The pins line up, though. I have a protoshield and ladyada's new motor shield to try.
Sketches load without problems. Output works on all pins (got blinky led). Serial output shows up in the monitor. I'll test PWM and inputs tonight after class.

PWM outs all work - analog ins all work - all pins work! :smiley:

hey bitty I should have my last few parts in a few days, I'll get cracking soon as they arrive.

Sweet, keep me updated.

In the meantime, I've been doing some puttering and made quite a few improvements in the layout. Most notably, reducing the vias to four and shrinking the height a little.

And here's a preview of things to come...

I thought you were switching the crystal for an oscillator w/caps, wouldn't that eliminate the need for C2 and C3?

It's set up so you can use either a crystal or an oscillator. A lot of people don't care either way, but a lot of people do. I figure it's better to give the option.

Is that preview version for use with the FTDI cable? Getting rid of the chip makes the board easier to build, but it would also eliminate the point of the Zifduino, at least for me. Using that cable, I could program my Boarduino's directly.

I like the idea of using the ftdi cable, it knocks a few bucks off the price, and removes the most difficult part from the board.

which reminds me, bitty I got the rest of my parts, it diddnt work for me, the tx light blinks 3 times when I power it up.. thats all...

I tried to clean up the soldering on my usb chip... and I burnt the traces in the process :frowning:

I would be happy to try again if you have a new design, I've got lots of spare parts now.

hey bitty, just got that extra board you sent me

Thank you.

I put it together, flashed it and have my simple blinky running(led on pin13). For some reason the red leds don't light up, power and rx. I'm not sure but perhaps the 220ohm in place of the 330 was just too low, and they popped... I'll have to read the specs on the red ones.. I hope I have a few left.

I'll test the rest of the pins for digital and pwm this weekend if I have a chance.

so far I say gratz, it appears to work, perhaps you will refine it... but it is definatley working!

More feedback to come.

:wink:

Glad to hear it's working for you. I'd recommend replacing those LEDs and going with a higher value resistor.

The boards are being sent in for manufacturing on Monday. I'll post a link when kits are ready for shipping.

yep, either the red leds were put in backwards or the long lead was the cathode... I flipped them around, and the red power led induced temporary blindness :wink: when I was able to see again I switched it with a 1kohm resistor, and the light is more consistent with the other leds.

ok, digital out tested on all pins, PWM out tested on 3, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11.

I'll test some analog in tonight.

well got it done after breakfast.

all analog in work es expected, icsp header works great, reset button works too.

I think thats everything, but a pic of the working one.

silly question. can you reduce the number of caps? I know the arduino decimilia has a similar number of parts, but if you look at something like the boardunio, much fewer parts. Just a thought.

Let me know if you want me to test your other variants.. I have an ftdi cable.

can you reduce the number of caps?

IIRC, ZIFduino (and the Decimilla) contain the minimum number of caps recommended by the data sheets of the components. The only "extra" on there is the coupling cap for the auto-reset functionality.

-j

well there you have it.

how to boards like the rbbb, or the boarduino get away without all the caps?