Category: making things

There we go, twenty nine (29) assembled SDrive NUXXs packed in bubble wrap and ready to ship. The thirtieth unit is waiting on some parts (small plastic key caps)that Digi-Key mis-shipped. Or, if a buyer so chooses, I’ll fit their unit with yellow key caps. Here is the USPS Priority Mail packaging sent complimentary upon request. It, of course, requires that I use them for all shipping, but I was planning that anyway.

Now, time to sleep. I’m very overtired. This is a bit more work than I planned on.

This evening I finally got around to soldering the last of the washable parts on to the SDrive NUXX PCBs that I’m assembling. After washing off the water-soluble flux I blew off the water with an air compressor then stacked them as seen above to dry under a fan. With the air conditioning running most days here (due to the hot weather and Roxie now living here) the house’s air is nice and dry and should be perfect for allowing any lingering or absorbed water to evaporate before soldering the rest of the parts in place.

I took a few more photos today during this work, including a bunch of the PCBs laid out on the workbench, flux that needs to be cleaned off, a now-clean PCB, and another view of the PCBs stacked for drying.

Here’s thirty SDrive NUXX PCBs with SD card readers. Thus, the first step of PCB assembly for this run of devices is complete and the boards are under way.

I know what I’ll be doing with most of my free time for the next week or two. Not that I mind; I really enjoy this stuff! Short production runs are fun.

Here’s what I spent a good portion of my evening doing: programming and labeling 50 Atmel ATmega8-16PU microcontrollers as part of a new SDrive NUXX production run. Some of these will be sold preprogrammed along with blank PCBs and aluminum end panels while others will be fitted into assembled devices. The next step is for me to begin soldering on the surface mount SD card connectors.

Programming was done with CrossPack on OS X. The issue that I previously complained about has since been fixed, so I had no issues using avrdude and an AVR Dragon fitted with a ZIF socket to quickly program and verify each device.

The new run of PCBs for the SDrive NUXX arrived today (photo), and with them was this this piece of the PCB, embedded in acrylic, sliced, and polished to allow inspection. The through-hole plating, top and bottom layers, and everything are all clearly visible (and measurable). Now it’s time to order up the components and enclosures, wait for the end panels to arrive, and get to building.

I just received thirty (30) SIO connectors. Why, you ask? For the next batch of SDrive NUXXs that I’m going to build… It’s been about two years since I shipped the last built any and a brief straw poll shows interest in another run. So, I think I’ll put some more together.