I got the first board populated today. It works! The only ECO so far was to increase the LED resistors for the three power monitor LEDs, they were too bright.
http://www.delorie.com/electronics/alarmclock/ Unfortunately, Digikey put the wrong parts in the PIC24's envolope, so I'm short two CPUs. I'm sure they'll fix that error before I need the other two boards. Has anyone else had problems with Digikey shipping the wrong parts? This is the second time it's happened to me. The gelatin paper trick didn't work. The paper wasn't flat after it dried, the first sheet wrinkled in the printer, and the second just didn't let go of the toner after I laminated it. I went back to the special paper for the paste mask. Also, I'm giving up on 5 mil masks; even on the big parts it put down too much paste. I could have gone with smaller holes, but I might as well use thinner brass and get a faster, more accurate etch. Also, a part note: I've found the ultimate zener diode! The Sharp PQ12DZ51 12v LDO regulator has a typical drop-out of only 0.2v, and drops off gradually - i.e. below 12v it gives Vin-0.2v (down to about 2v), above 12v it gives 12v. Plus it has an enable pin that's TTL compatible and 5v tolerant. _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user