Category: electronics

The SDrive NUXX CAD data (schematic and PCB layout) have been released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Hopefully this will allow others to freely build upon this design, taking it to all manner of new / interesting places.

Please see the Design Documents portion of the SDrive NUXX page to download these files.

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Filling out customs declarations is a real big hassle. Because of their odd size they must all be hand-written. Additionally, when I dropped all of these international SDrive NUXX orders off at the Post Office, the person working at the counter admonished me for sticking the declarations to the back of the packages. This bothers me because there isn’t enough room to fit them on the front of most small packages, the directions do not indicate that one should apply them to any particular area of the package, and I’ve historically had no problem with them stuck to the back.

Ah well, at least all the international shipments are set. Now I just need to sell a few more so that I break even on the project and everything will be set. Oh, and prep the CAD and artwork files for release…

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Here’s one more SDrive NUXX photo for tonight: sixteen fully assembled devices with 2GB SD cards in the slots, awaiting final testing. Here’s a few more photos, which I’ll just link directly to:

· 16 front and rear end panels snapped into 32 bezels, ready for final assembly to begin.
· Rear panels fitted to the cases. Note that the plastic is left on the panels to protect them.
· PCB slid into an enclosure with the rear panel fitted, showing the front edge components.
· Front panel fitted on an SDrive NUXX showing the nice alignment of the tactile switches, LEDs, toggle switch, etc.
· Rear panel of an assembled SDrive NUXX showing how the DIP switches, reset button, and SIO connector align with the panel.
· SDrive NUXXs with panels and PCBs fitted, waiting for the installation of rubber feet and switch caps.
· Detail of the SDrive NUXX end panels, shown with the protective plastic film still in place.

I hope to have these, and all the other related orders (PCBs, uCs, kits, etc) ready to ship by the end of the weekend so that I can get them out on Monday.

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There it is, the first completely assembled SDrive NUXX. Here’s the back, showing the SIO connector, reset button, and DIP switches.

I’m really, really happy with the MetalPhoto material used for the end panels. The manufacturer also did an outstanding job with the panels themselves. They snap nicely into the bezels, fit perfectly with the PCB, and just work.

After I finish eating this giant leftover portion of biyrani I think I’ll get to work assembling the rest of them.

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After working on and off for a week and a half, I have finished assembling most of the SDrive NUXX PCBs. It turns out that I’m missing a voltage regulator and DB25 connector, but I was still able to get 17 boards fully completed and two more missing only one component each. (The table pictured above contains more boards than shown, but I cut some off to better frame the image.)

Each board has also passed initial testing (100% success rate), which involves checking for shorts, checking voltages, checking LEDs, checking the buttons, and ensuring that the microcontroller can read the SD card. I’ll do more testing later, to be sure that booting an 800XL, running an app, doing R/W, and all that other important stuff works.

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Question: How long will a defective power supply (model ST7002-BW0G) last in a TiVo HD?

Answer: Just until the parts warranty expires.

Yesterday some friends of mine dropped their TiVo HD (TCD652160, manufactured 11-Jan-2008) off at my house so I could try and figure out why it wouldn’t power on correctly. It was reported to me that tapping various parts of the power supply would make it power on and off intermittently, so I set to look at why this happened.

When removing the board from the chassis I’d noticed that the substrate appeared cracked around a central screw hole, but an initial check on the copper side of the board showed that this damage didn’t extend through the metal. However, after reproducing the problem and finding it isolated to the 5V and 12V rails, I flipped the board over and found that the crack ran all the way to the edge of the board, severing a few traces in the process.

This was fixed by removing (scraping) soldermask as needed and soldering salvaged resistor leads (from here, specifically) across the gaps. This, plus the extra solder surrounding the lead, should make for a nicely permanent fix. The fixed PCB can be seen here, from a different angle than the above image. After the fix was put in place flexing the PCB on the bench nor pressing / tapping on it while installed in the housing caused the power to glitch.

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After fitting the crystal, diode, and all resistors to eighteen SDrive NUXX PCBs there are lots of leads to trim before I can move on to the capacitors. Here is the pile of cut leads.

Leads are trimmed in batches as eventually there are enough sticking off the board that they get in the way. Next comes the capacitors, LEDs, and DIP switches before flux is cleaned off and the non-washable parts are fitted.

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After assembling the first SDrive NUXX v1.1 (Production) PCB and ensuring that it worked as expected I started assembling the other eighteen PCBs. I only managed to get the SD slots and DIP28 sockets fitted before calling it an evening, but it’s coming along nicely. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I’ll have a good bit more done.

It’s really nice to have a final / complete PCB which doesn’t require any jumpers or other hacks to work.

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Arriving home this evening (after a nice bike ride) I found that fifty-one SDrive NUXX had been delivered. I hope to build up the first one tomorrow or Friday, depending on my schedule.

Now I just have to wait for artwork proofs and then shipping of the metal end panels.

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