[GreenKeys] USB-teletype adapters (update)

Tue Mar 29 16:34:38 EDT 2016

Hi Eric,
I'd love to buy one of these as soon as they are ready too!

Thanks!
Danny

On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 2:29 PM, Gil Smith <gil at baudot.net> wrote:

> Ahh, I thought you meant seeed was building these.
>
> Good to hear that myro are building these as I would like to try them out
> for assy and am curious how that works.  Charles at myro is the main
> (only?) guy and he is a good fellow.  Does not always answer the main line
> but usually picks up x809.  I believe he is somewhere in east Canada,
> though late at night when I have done a web chat with what I thought to be
> the factory in China, Charles was online.  Perhaps he has multiple clones,
> like Sam Rockwell, in the awesome movie Moon.
>
> Anyway, I'd like to hear what you think of their assy quality and
> turnaround time.
>
> They also do nice array (panel) PCBs.  The attached pic is an array I got
> from them -- I designed the sub-array of four small boards in eagle, put
> the milling layer in to define how to rout them out, added my own holes for
> the mousebites in the breakaway tabs, and put the tooling holes and
> fiducials on the outer rails (I have subsequently moved the fiducials to
> the side rails, as the top/bot rails are obscured by the pnp machine
> feeder).  Then I just told them to step-and-repeat the gerbers to the right
> three more times.  They put a V-score between them.
>
> Even with the milling and extra stuff, each set of four little boards was
> only a few bucks in modest quantity.
>
> gil
>
>
> gil smith, AF7EZ
> greenkeys moderator
> gil at baudot.net
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: RE: [GreenKeys] USB-teletype adapters (update)
> From: Eric <epvgk at limpoc.com>
> Date: Tue, March 29, 2016 2:26 am
> To: Gil Smith <gil at baudot.net>
> Cc: aaa-greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
>
> On 03/28/2016 7:16 pm, Gil Smith wrote:
>
> Hey Eric:
>
> I also use Eagle (for ten years now).  Quirky, but I am quite used to it
> now, and can do anything I need.  I build all my part
> footprints/symbols/devices as anything online is goofed-up somehow.
>
> I also have used myropcb for years and like them a lot.  Their "standard"
> pcb pricing is awesome and the cheapest per-square-inch deal I have found
> (unless you try to pack more than one board into a design and they want to
> add $50 per, in which case just make the bottom ground plane cover the
> entire array so they don't notice, and the cut them apart on your
> bandsaw).  I frequently pack several rather-large boards together, get 40
> or so made, and it costs me about $100.  Pretty good deal.
>
> The only drill issue I have run into is size, as they use 0.5mm drill
> increments.  So my smallest via hole of 0.015" (with a 0.025" pad and 0.005
> annular ring) gets morphed into either a 0.35mm (0.0138"), or they bump it
> to a 0.40mm (0.0158') hole and them inflate my pads a bit to the point of
> possible solder whiskers.  I need to just standardize my via holes to
> 0.35mm I guess.
>
> I have not done assembly at seeed, though I have perused their
> open-parts-library and found much of what I can use.  I presume you can
> send special parts on consignment for a build, but have not looked into it.
>
> Like you, I would want all my smt assembly done so the only thing left to
> solder is a few through-hole headers 'n such.  Even though I am getting
> quite good at hand-soldering 0402 passives, and IC and connector pitches
> down to 0.5mm (0.0197") with a simple solder-blob and solder-wick
> technique, I too want to minimize such soldering experiences.
>
> Also, myro does assembly, but the info on their site is so ill-defined and
> goofy that I have never tried their assembly.
>
> I have never, and hope to never, do anything with a BGA.  If I can't
> hand-solder the prototype (even with an oven or fry pan), I can't do any
> proper rework either.  And I don't have an x-ray machine to inspect the
> inner balls.  If I can't see my balls, well, it is a real problem.
>
> gil
>
> gil smith, AF7EZ
> greenkeys moderator
> gil at baudot.net
>
>
>
> Well, we'll see how Myro do on assembly soon, they are building all the
> usb-tty adapters.  :) They were actually quite easy to communicate with
> about it and even caught a small mistake in my BOM that I hadn't noticed. I
> too have had to "trick" them when panelizing but I hardly ever do anything
> that elaborate. I stopped using their website and just email sales@ -
> it's one guy and if you ask for something he just makes a quote for you and
> you don't have to navigate the janky quote system on their site.
>
> I have no idea whether Seeed will let you consign parts that they don't
> stock themselves, because I've asked them three times now that very thing
> and they've never responded. I've given up. Also, they recently cut their
> OPL library down by a factor of three, so there's much less to pick from
> now, for instance they dropped all the STM32 mcu's, and many of the AVRs
> they had.
>
> When I asked Myro about consignment they responded in like an hour and
> said it wasn't necessary to ship, I could just send them the BOM from
> digikey and they'd order directly. I agree with you on soldering. I don't
> mind doing it for prototypes but it's not that fun. I end up designing with
> QFNs a lot and they kind of suck to hand solder or rework too. I wouldn't
> do it in a production scenario. BGA too - I'd probably try small 2x3 or
> whatever ones but not anything big.
>
> eric
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: RE: [GreenKeys] USB-teletype adapters (update)
> From: Eric <epvgk at limpoc.com>
> Date: Sun, March 27, 2016 12:50 am
> To: Gil Smith <gil at baudot.net>
> Cc: aaa-greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
>
> On 03/26/2016 11:15 pm, Gil Smith wrote:
>
> Sheesh, been a while on 33 data format.  Maybe Wayne or Jack or Jim or
> somebody will add something.  I seem to recall it was 8 bits (7 ascii plus
> mark in top bit maybe?), no extra parity bit, and needed two stops for the
> mechanics.  Something like that.
> What pcb layout prog did you use?  What fab/assy place?  Tiny stuff.
> Nicely done.
> gil
>
> Well, I guess at some point I'll get someone to try one of these on a 33
> and see if it works. The bitbanged serial uart isn't too complicated so it
> can probably be made compatible.
> Thanks, the design was done with Eagle, and the board fab and assembly are
> being done by Myro in China. I quoted it with a bunch of companies and
> these guys win in terms of price and being fairly easy to deal with, for
> instance I was able to just supply them a Digikey parts list.  They also
> did most of the rtty demod boards last time around. My only complaint with
> them is that they're a little sloppy with drill placement, but it's fine if
> you plan for it. I dunno if I'd try BGA stuff with micro-vias though.
> I had the prototype boards assembled by Seeedstudio.com, who have great
> prices and are very fast, but are not as easy to deal with and will only do
> assembly with parts they supply/stock, which is annoying because a
> half-populated board isn't that useful in bulk. (I hand soldered the other
> half of the parts on those, but I'm not doing that for 80 units!)
>
> gil smith, AF7EZ
> greenkeys moderator
> gil at baudot.net
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: RE: [GreenKeys] USB-teletype adapters (update)
> From: Eric <epvgk at limpoc.com>
> Date: Sat, March 26, 2016 9:18 pm
> To: Gil Smith <gil at baudot.net>
>
> On 03/26/2016 8:56 pm, Gil Smith wrote:
>
> Nice job on that board Eric.
> Regarding the 33, in addition to it being 110 baud, be sure to put 2 stop
> bits in.
> gil
>
> Ah thanks, I was hoping someone would chime in. Do you know if they want
> or require parity bits, or whether they need delays inserted for carriage
> return?
> eric
>
> gil smith, AF7EZ
> greenkeys moderator
> gil at baudot.net
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [GreenKeys] USB-teletype adapters (update)
> From: epvgk at limpoc.com
> Date: Sat, March 26, 2016 1:51 pm
> To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> Just an update. Manufacturing is in progress, they're supposed to be done
> April 20th. I'm building enough for everyone who's asked so far plus some
> extras. I don't want to take anybody's money until the boards are in my
> hands and I know there are no problems.
>
> Software updates:
>
> selectable/modifiable translation tables: you can have up to 6 separate
> tables and switch between them. You can create or overwrite tables
> by entering them in hex at the config command line.
>
> bidirectional break handling: detects break in the loop, and can break the
> loop if it gets a break signal from the host.
>
> ASCII mode: seems to work, but I have no 33 to test with. Particularly I
> don't
> know how real machines handle/require parity, etc.
>
> eric
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