Addendum: OK these standoffs ain't bad and they are only $0.06 per.
https://www.biscoind.com/Bivar/9905-250?gclid=CPK3vPLP8tECFQ9Efgod8csM8A Just don't spend megabucks at Home Hardware is my point. Get a big ole bag of these. Important for BBB projects IMO. :) On Thursday, February 2, 2017 at 2:09:39 PM UTC-7, woody stanford wrote: > > OK, here is a short primer on how the good guys build things in a serious > hobbyist setting. > > The development is done in 2 main stages. Breadboarding, and PCB > construction (with presensitized board). > > The reason why the breadboarding phase is because the Inet is great, but > you can't believe everything you read on it. What you want to do is look on > the WWW for ideas and then breadboard them out. Once you get them reliable > and you undersand their operation, you can use the technique in your > personal projects. > > How you do this on a budget (as it is the Great Recesion) is you get cheap > Chinese breadboards on ebay for $5 a piece free shipping. Like here, > > > http://www.ebay.com/itm/830-Tie-Points-Solderless-PCB-Breadboard-MB102-65Pcs-Jumper-cable-wires-/231412564779?hash=item35e143832b:m:mlV4jkc4DpzzqjQsn-zO0-w > > The latest and greatest idea, the only downside is that it takes longer > than a week to get your stuff in but the price is right. You can also get > broken out sensors and the like for dirt cheap (basically mounted great > stuff the big guys use in smart phones and tablets). $5 per component is > typical if you know where to go. > > What you do is peal the backs off them an mount them to a 2' x 2' piece of > plywood you can get at Home Depot. And you are ready to rock. next step is > to find inexpensive, reliable power. A cool thing I've been playing with is > tablet bricks because they are reliable, ubiquitous and a lot of them > deliver a strong 1.0 Amp or 5VDC. Take your soldering iron, figure out the > GND and the +5VDC and you have comfortable power on the 1 amp range. As > always, PC switching power supplies are great too (just get a $5 DMM from > Harbour Freight and sacrifice its leads so you have a constant digital > power monitor....solder it on and wrap with electrical tape). > > What you do is you mount everything on your plywood. You take your > Fiscar's drill (with $2 high-speed steel Harbour Freight drill bits) and > you get a nice selection of dollar-store machine screws (and nuts) that > you've "tackle-box-ized". Shop the 99 Cent Store for these cheap tackle > boxes and pick up about a dozen of them to keep your stuff in (resisters, > relays, diods and voltage regulators). The trick with this is: mouser, but > listen...you can get premade kits for around $70 but they have less than $5 > worth of parts in them. What you want to do is put them together yourself > and when you get low on standard parts (like certain resistor values) you > just restock. All it takes is time to build these part kits, you put > together generic BOM (bill of materials) for your tackle box kits so you > have a nice selection of standard caps, diodes, transistors, MOSFETS, tiny > relays, optoisolators, MCU's like PIC's and of cource exotics like NEO6M's, > preprogrammed MCU's, and MCU6050's. > > Modern hacking requires attention to ESD (electrostatic discharge) because > a lot of your stuff has sensitive digital logic in it. The fix is basic. > Take a piece of silver solder and stick it in your ground power rail so > about an inch of its hanging out. Every time you get up to walk around > (where you accumulate chip-killing static) when you sit back down, just run > your finger unconsciously across the solder tail. You are now grounded. > Formal ESC with a wrist strap is ok too. But don't wire yourself to ground > btw as this can lead to you doing an impression of a light-emitting > resistor (an old joke but a good one); think about it electrically. > > OK, you BBB (in my case my BBBW), what you want to do is mount everything > to your plywood so when the wife says playtime is over, you can just put it > up. Also, claiming a second "junk drawer" in your kitchen is a life-saver > specifically for all your little tools and tackle boxes.What you do is you > get > > *** STANDOFFS *** > > To make standoffs you get a length of small-dimater ridged plastic tube > and you cut pieces off yourself (getting them from Home Hardware is > expensive) One of my little secrets. > > To attach your BBB to the plywood, mark the holes with a fine Sharpy, load > your bit in your Fiscars (at a slightly smaller diameter than the screw you > will use) and just sink a hole half-way through. Then take handful of > screws, a few standoffs and mount your BBB in a majestic location on your > plywood. Takes like 30 seconds and its secured for weeks of tinkering. > > Cut lengths of SOLID CORE insulated wire and strip the ends with a solid > professional grade wire stripper (they are cheap and so worth it). Now you > have all the wire you will ever need. First step with it is to wire your > breadboards power rails. Connect all the blue (or GND) rails with insulated > wire and what I do is run 3.3V on the left rail and 5V on the right rail > (because I'm working a lot of times with both BBB and TTL), but if just > working with 3.3V parts you can wire all your rails 3.3V to cut down on > confusion. > > You can do strain-relief by just knotting the power cord or whatever > through a hole in your plywood. Keeps you from jerking sensitive wires and > cables loose when moving around. > > THE PLAN > > OK, what you do is you experiment on your breadboards connecting > everything with wire. We all know how to do this. Get a complete working > version of the circuit(s) on your breadboard set up. This will become your > master reference for the next step: DIY PCB construction. > > > -- For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beagleboard/987166d9-ed68-4178-b241-f35a3a8fb6a4%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
