Jul 03
Since I do a lot of breadboard development I decided that I need a FTDI cable. I got the idea from Sparkfun but ordering 1 piece from the States to EU is a bit expansive and since I allready had a few FT232RL at home, I did the whole thing from the start.
It’s basicly just the chip, two signal led’s with resistors, three capacitors and usb connector. I used B-type since I have a lot of this cables and Arduino uses it (and I still have about 10 on my desk). I managed to make a single-side PCB with only 1 top-wire. If anyone needs, eagle files are found here.
Top side
Bottom side
Kakšne so vrednosti C in R ?
lp
Nice work, I’m also into homebrew pcb development.. This is the last thing I created: http://www.varesano.net/blog/fabio/homebrew-diy-breakout-board-adxl345-accelerometer-first-process-try-tested-arduino-proces
I like how you soldered the pin headers. I never get such good joints.. only cold joints. Do you have any advice?
Thanks,
Fabio Varesano
C1, C2: 100nF
C3: 10uF
R1, R2: 1k ohm
Fabio: maybe you’re not doing it right… take a look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NU2ruzyc4
What kind of a solder iron are you using? I am using Ersa i-Con 1, set to 310C, maybe you should try higher temperatures…
Thanks for your answer Peter.
I think I do know how to solder, I can get good joints on a prototype board. But I’m unable to get such good results with diy made boards.. seems that my copper isn’t really solder friendly after the etching process.
Any more advice?
After some more tests I found how to correctly solder on a DIY PCB. It’s just a matter of putting more flux on the PCB.
It seems that my homebrew PCBs get out quite dirty (don’t really know why), even if I clean them with alcohol after the etching process.So, lot of flux is needed to solder them correctly.
In my experience the copper is the best for soldering “fresh” (I clean my PCBs before starting with fine sand paper (1000-2000 grain) so the surface is nice and clean. Even only after one week the oxydation starts to coat the top layer and it makes the soldering very hard. One of the ways to solder is using flux/solder paste (you can get it very cheap from Dealextreme btw).
If you say you only have problems with pins and connectors… unfortunatly copper isn’t the only thing that forms oxyde layer, I had to throw some (very old though) away recently because I was unable to clean the soldering surface…