Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by ME!

[Jules]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

Quick question after applying the paste do you have to heat the whole thing with a hot air gun or something like that?

By the way Smallparts.com rocks for all sorts of cool stuff. I have to wear high power reading glasses to solder on the small shit these days...

Jules

 

[rkcstr]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

shame

i would have brought a few off you if you did

Like I said, they don't regulate very well and I want the items I sell to be user-friendly, which these they were not... I'd likely end up having a large number of people blowing diodes because they didn't account for the rise in current as the diode's temp changed.

If you want, I think I have some extra parts, I'll put one together for you to try out since you've been interested for so long. I've sold a few of them to another member who nagged me for a while about them, so I'll do the same for you

Where'd you get that soldering paste? I just slapped one together yesterday, and DAMN it was hard to get those components to stay put...

I now use AMTECH SynTECH solder paste, was about $40 for 250g from www.solderandmore.com , which will last a long time, and it keeps twice as long as regular paste (1yr cold vs 6mo for most).

Let me know if that doesn't answer your question

You still want me to edit that video?

Sure! I asked before if it would be difficult to slap some music in the background and put a title on it? Also, is it possible to make it so that I can get the "project file" (and just tell me what program you use) and I can just change the source video if I did want to update it with a new one? If you can do those few things, I'll be happy to mail you the driver of your choice.

Quick question after applying the paste do you have to heat the whole thing with a hot air gun or something like that?

I use a $15 toaster oven from Walmart ;D It has a temp control (which I sincerely doubt is anywhere near accurate) that I adjust according to the 'reflow' chart given on this website, though my toaster oven only goes up to "400F", which seems to work just fine. This allows me to "bake" many drivers at once, so I can just put together 10-20 of them and solder them all in one go

http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/200006/oven_art.htm

 

[andy_con]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

that would be really good mate, so you saying to set it slightly low to allow for a rise

 

[rkcstr]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

that would be really good mate, so you saying to set it slightly low to allow for a rise

Well, depends on the diode, the anticipated temp change, etc... I think for the higher powered violets (AKA 803T), I saw about a 10-20% rise over a few minutes. There's a small pot on there to adjust the current, which I suggest powering up the driver with a dummy load for a minute or two and setting the current after it's warm, but still set it low, and that should *HOPEFULLY* keep it under the current you want. Of course, it may slowly creep higher if you start running it for loner periods of time, though.

 

[andy_con]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

ill be using a duty cycle anyway.

but yeah thats fine i can adjust as need be

 

[iccy]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

Awesome, what size syringe do you use? I saw some at smallparts.com, but I'm not sure what size to get.
I've always wondered how you made these drivers!

 

[rkcstr]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

Um, I think the syringes I use are 3 or 5cc? Bigger ones will have bigger plungers and may make it easier to push it out... the paste tends to come out rather slowly in my case unless I have just refilled it.

 

[sk8er4514]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

cool video rkcstr. do you have the PCB boards etched to get the wire connections going between the components?

I've learned in some classes how to do etching but I doubt it is used for stuff life yours... i think it's more for processors where components are 45nm wide

anyways it is crazy easy to edit a video. i could do it in about 2 minutes if i had access to the source video (like .avi file, or .mpg or whatever) to edit with. youtube doesn't offer a download for it so I couldn't edit it without that....

take it easy,
Kendall

 

[wooooooolazer]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

Its easy to download from youtube, just watch this video...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-RMsZ15dYA

...lazer... ;D ;D ;D

 

[rkcstr]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

cool video rkcstr. do you have the PCB boards etched to get the wire connections going between the components?

I've learned in some classes how to do etching but I doubt it is used for stuff life yours... i think it's more for processors where components are 45nm wide  

anyways it is crazy easy to edit a video. i could do it in about 2 minutes if i had access to the source video (like .avi file, or .mpg or whatever) to edit with. youtube doesn't offer a download for it so I couldn't edit it without that....

Yes, I have two side-to-side connections that I have to insert a wire to connect. The way I do it is make a double-sided pad then use a drill bit that is slightly smaller than the wire I use so that the wire is tight and then is cut flush to the board and solder pasted.

As for the etching, that sounds like some crazy stuff, way out of my league of toner transfer. Most PCB manufacturers I believe use a CNC machine to remove the extra copper to form the circuit rather than etching, which I think would be much simpler; I wish I had the money for one!

And with the video editing, I figure what I wanted was simple and I could probably figure it out... but, I thought it would be cool to just barter services

 

[laserguys]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

IIRC most large quantity PCB manufactures use the acid etch method.

BTW I like your solder paste delivery system

 

[rkcstr]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

IIRC most large quantity PCB manufactures use the acid etch method.

BTW I like your solder paste delivery system

Hmm... I guess it would be quicker for a large amount of boards, but I get annoyed with acid etching due to over/under etch, toner thickness not being enough and get pitting, etc.  I think I need to buy my own laser printer to try to get better toner transfer, right now I just use my school's printers.  I've also been trying to look over the methods on this group:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBs/

There's some really cool ideas there.

Also, I thought about using some of this stuff for etching:
http://www.pcbhobbyist.com/

 

[rkcstr]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

New video!

I made an updated video with the new PCBs and also putting together the Test Load:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlGbIO_EOXU[/media]

 

[daguin]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

:-? "not available in my country or domain" :-?

Did California secede from the US?

Did I sleep through the revolution . . . . . AGAIN?

Peace,
dave

 

[rkcstr]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

haha, I have no idea.  I just uploaded it, so maybe it isn't available on the server for your area yet?

EDIT:
ah, appears the song playing in the background at the beginning has been identified as copyrighted material... I was just listening to the radio, geez!  I'll see if I can fix it.

EDIT AGAIN:
OK, now this is just retarded.... they tell me one of the songs in my video was copyrighted and that I can't use it.  BUT, I go to find replacement music in their "approved" songs and what do I find?  The SAME freakin song!  I'm just going to submit a dispute and tell them they're idiots.

 

[Mohrenberg]

Re: Assembly of a Micro-Drive (rkcstr driver) by M

What an awesome idea with putting the solder paste inside a syringe.  I have some of that stuff.  got it from DX but I have to manually apply it with a dental tool.  Kinda sucks.  I'm SOOO doing this.   Thanks for the tip.

that is awesome! time to stop by the ambulance station and raid the supply closet!