Must-haves for EASY DIY controller?

I'd look for a 7.5v or 9v supply if you can get one, instead of a 12v - the 12v leaves a lot of overhead. Anything over the minimum (about 7.5v if you use the 7805) is just getting turned into heat. For current rating, 1A would be the smallest I'd bother with.

I don't think I've ever actually bought a power supply for an arduino project. I just keep the wall warts from old electronics (old routers, battery chargers, modems, etc.) and I always have a supply.
 
der_wille_zur_macht said:
I'd look for a 7.5v or 9v supply if you can get one, instead of a 12v - the 12v leaves a lot of overhead. Anything over the minimum (about 7.5v if you use the 7805) is just getting turned into heat. For current rating, 1A would be the smallest I'd bother with.

I don't think I've ever actually bought a power supply for an arduino project. I just keep the wall warts from old electronics (old routers, battery chargers, modems, etc.) and I always have a supply.
Click to expand...
Right, that's what I'm looking through ;)

The more I thought about it the more I was trying to stay away from 12V - I found a couple of 9V 1A wall warts...should I be looking for a higher amp one??
 
1A is probably fine. If you end up with much more current than that, you're going to have problems on the PCB (the regs are rated that high but aren't heatsinked for it.) If you see something bigger - 1.5A, 2A, whatever - it's nice to have to get the extra headroom.
 
I populated the circuit for the second AVR last night and "tested" it by running the blink sketch with an LED, while the existing AVR was running the LCD using the RTC. It was a little alarming how far off the timing was. I don't mean "not synched" but rather that the blinking LED had a lot of variance compared to the time ticking over on the LCD.

IMG00172-20100501-1956.jpg


I doubt this will impact actual functionality, but we'll have to keep our eyes open. Worst case, we switch to a "real" crystal and caps instead of the resonators next time.
 
Mine is almost populated. I'm still waiting for the RJ45 to come.
Hydra_01_normal.jpg


Few notes:
- I ran out of sockets! thus the improvised one for the Ethernet chip :)
- The battery holder was tricky. It is a bit of a deadlock there, but with a bit of creativity it is doable. My recommended order: D1, C35, C39, battery holder, R23.
- I think L1 will be very hard to solder with a standard soldering tip.
- BNC connector should be a touch more inwards because the front supporting legs are outside the board.
- I think all small caps should have the full silkscreen not just '|'. I spent at least a minute looking for C11 :)
- The stand off next to FTD2 should be on on the other side of the FTDIs (next to D13) IMHO.

Other than that, I think it will be a fine controller!

Now back to finish it up and see if it actually works :bigeyes:
 
Woah nice!

I would like to find through hole solutions for C10 and L1 but nothing seemed obvious. I'm sure with some more research we could find something though.

Tomorrow I'll play with the google code issue tracking thing so we can log all these changes.

With mine running the two AVRs and the LCD, as pictured above, it's only pulling like 58 mA. Which makes me less concerned about having too much demand on the voltage reg.
 
terahz said:
ENC28J60-I/SP-ND is in 28dip package, should be identical to ENC28J60SP-ND.
for U12 I picked MC7805BDTRKG from mouser.
for C35,C39 UVZ1E470MDD from mouser.

I'll let you know over the weekend (if they arrive) if they work/fit :)
Click to expand...

Digi-key let me order the ENC28J60SP-ND last week, but I received the rest of the order today and that item was cancelled as obsolete. D'oh!
 
My ModernDevices order came in today....man is that RBBB small.

I went ahead and ordered 3 of the "upgrade" MC-7805CT regulators for the RBBB, which I now see is the same??? as U11 on the Hydra - correct? If so, then I have that one covered (which mouser has on backorder) but at twice the price - oh well...

I have a little soldering project now....


On a side note, DigiKey is listing the ENC28J60-I/SP-ND as available at only a few more cents per chip than mouser. If you have to get some parts from DigiKey to complete the list, might as well pick it up too at save the wait
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Is it just me (on 2 computers) or is the text on this page (11) much smaller than other pages? if So anyone know what I need to change? Sorry for the subject change.

[EDIT]
I changed the font size and that helps
 
Zrnmastr's first post on the page (second post from the top) has some broken HTML tags in it that are messing up the page's formatting. I've asked an admin to take a look, hopefully they can edit the broken stuff out of the post and clean it up.
 
i tried to copy the part number from the spreadsheet and firefox and openoffice embedded it - I thought I had deleted it all....
 
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