+Andrew Davie Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) I think I'm done. Just a few changes. I flipped the MicroSD from bottom-mounting to top-mounting. This was after eyeballing the 3D-printed-template board + SD reader against the position of the slot in the cartridge shell. This also simplified the routing of the board traces in that area, so that's a plus. I double-checked all of the new PE8-PE15 connections looked OK. So, this should be good to go. Note: the flipped SD board meant that the position of the slot changed slightly as the SD card mounting part is not symmetriclaly place on the board. On the subject of SD boards, I've ordered a bunch of these.... https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33021784496.html They seem to be the right part, only 39c each, and saves the trouble of desoldering those pins compared to the other versions I've seen. The pins need to be off because of the tight mounting constraints. The mounting procedure would be to put the header block in from the wrong side, so the plastic spacer part is on the bottom of the SD board, with the pins coming through up from the bottom. That means you'll have to solder the mount from the component side, which shouldn't be a problem. And then you can just slot it into the main board (SD upside down). You'll see the plastic mount sitting on top of the whole thing (i.e., the bottom of the SD reader board) which will look strange but be OK. The component side of the SD will be flush against the main board. FOr mounting the SD reader, if you place the board on the desk such that the PlusCart logo is upwards, then to mount the SD reader you just match the square terminals, with the SD reader effectively upside-down on top of the main board. Note that for this version I've removed the name of the board because that's a temporary WIP and we don't have consensus on that yet. I'm attaching all the files needed. I decided to go with a prototype order from PCBWay.com ($8 for 10 boards that's pretty cheap!). Actually it's $5 for 10 but you pay $3 extra if you don't want them to put a tiny reorder number on the boards. And my OCD, again, couldn't stand the thought of that happening. But if you want to have a go, well here are the files - and I've checked things as best I can. Fingers crossed, caveat emptor and all that. PlusCartUnified 2021.02.15.zip PlusCart SD Shell.zip PlusCartUnified_7X 2021.02.15.zip Edited February 15, 2021 by Andrew Davie 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Ordered 10 pcbs. I use JlcPcb, same $5 for 10. Who knows when we will get them ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danjovic Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) 8 hours ago, Andrew Davie said: And my OCD, again, And mine too. lol!! Header was JP8 slightly off grid (2 mils in Y coordinate). Ground plane now follows the contour around the board. modified the edge connector library and change the outline of the edge connector to the Tdocu/Bdocu layer (instead of Tame/Bname). I suggest you to modify it in your con-edge library so it will not appear again if you use the "update libraries" command. PlusCartUnified_7X 2021.03.15-DJV.zip Edited February 15, 2021 by Danjovic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 I spent some time this evening cleaning up the .scad file used for generating the PlusCart shells. While I was at it, I also added UnoCart compatibility. The OpenSCAD Customiser is actually pretty cool. Short video... customiser.mp4 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 That's awesome, good work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danjovic Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 Quick question, as I don't have experience with 3d printing. wouldn't one part of the case have male mounting pins while other have female? Or do you use an off the shelf plastic tab to join them? Quick suggestion, name the unified cart as (+1) cart (uno mas) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 1 minute ago, Danjovic said: Quick question, as I don't have experience with 3d printing. wouldn't one part of the case have male mounting pins while other have female? Or do you use an off the shelf plastic tab to join them? You print yourself some of these babies...! They're separately printed rather than having male/female shells, because of the "grain" of printing. For example, the longer ones, which are the door-openers, need to be strong along that long axis so they don't snap off. The layering of the print is the weakest axis, so these pins are oriented so that axis is the one which gets the least force during use. If you printed in situ, the verticals would be very weak and pins would snap off easily. In this print orientation they're next to impossible to break. Also, I have different sizes so if the fit becomes loose due to wear, you can just go a size up (in thickness) of the pins. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bah Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 16 hours ago, Andrew Davie said: You print yourself some of these babies...! Nice bit of engineering! (says the engineer who printed them standing up just to discover they were weak that way?). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MacRorie Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 On 2/13/2021 at 7:03 AM, Andrew Davie said: Updates> Ground planes added How about "Unofied Pluscart" - it's a bit of a pun, but not incorrect. PlusCartUnified 2021.03.14.zip 396.21 kB · 4 downloads My vote is for "UNOfied PlusCart" (Hello, all) -M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MacRorie Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 On 2/15/2021 at 5:05 AM, Danjovic said: And mine too. lol!! Header was JP8 slightly off grid (2 mils in Y coordinate). Ground plane now follows the contour around the board. modified the edge connector library and change the outline of the edge connector to the Tdocu/Bdocu layer (instead of Tame/Bname). I suggest you to modify it in your con-edge library so it will not appear again if you use the "update libraries" command. PlusCartUnified_7X 2021.03.15-DJV.zip 76.31 kB · 5 downloads I submitted these to JLCPCB and got the following message back (below). Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 I got the same message from JlcPcb. Those pins are connected to anything so it will be fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MacRorie Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 5 hours ago, Fierodoug5 said: I got the same message from JlcPcb. Those pins are connected to anything so it will be fine Fair enough, but what did you tell them? Leave it as is or delete? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 I left it as is. Without the cutout you wont be able to use the shunt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 Look what I got! Of course I have do not have the SD card readers I ordered from Aliexpress though. So I cant build one up yet 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 54 minutes ago, Fierodoug5 said: Look what I got! Of course I have do not have the SD card readers I ordered from Aliexpress though. So I cant build one up yet A bit nervous that it all will work, especially with others building. That PlusCart logo sure looks nice! Shame about the serial number thing though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted February 27, 2021 Share Posted February 27, 2021 Yeah, crossing my fingers that we don't need any bodge wires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hideehoo Posted February 27, 2021 Share Posted February 27, 2021 5 hours ago, Andrew Davie said: A bit nervous that it all will work, especially with others building. That PlusCart logo sure looks nice! Shame about the serial number thing though. If you use JLC, just do the JLCJLCJLCJLC trick under a large component to hide the order number. https://support.jlcpcb.com/article/28-how-to-remove-order-number-from-your-pcb 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 My sd card boards should be arriving tommorow! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 That top-right pair should have a solitary header pin, too. They are bridged so you don't have to solder a bridge on your STM board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 The jumper should fit right through the board hole made for the purpose. Yours looks huge; does it fit through the hole? I can't tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 Yup, fits perfect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 1 hour ago, Andrew Davie said: That top-right pair should have a solitary header pin, too. They are bridged so you don't have to solder a bridge on your STM board. Yup, I just don't have it soldered in yet since I'm waiting on the sd card boards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 1, 2021 Author Share Posted March 1, 2021 3 hours ago, Fierodoug5 said: Yup, I just don't have it soldered in yet since I'm waiting on the sd card boards ... and be double-super-duper sure how those boards are meant to be mounted. It's weird and non-standard. Otherwise they won't fit in the shells. In short, when the main board sits in its shell, the top of the main circuit board is flush with the "halfway seam" between the two shells. The SD must have the pin header *removed* if it's already soldered in. Then you mount it on top of the main circuit board (as it sits in its half-shell), upside-down so that the surface-mount resistors are pressing against the main board and the SD card entry slot is lowermost. In this position, the GND pin is at the topmost of the main board (where it should be), and the entry slot will position correctly (maybe a smallish slant) into the shell's slot area. It's super weird (mounting the SD board *flush*) against the main board, but this seemed to me to be the best configuration that wouldn't require an oddly-positioned slot in the shell. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierodoug5 Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 Little confused, sure it will make sense when I have the sd board in my hand. Does the sd board go between the breakout board and the Stm32 board, or between the breakout board and the esp8266? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 1, 2021 Author Share Posted March 1, 2021 14 minutes ago, Fierodoug5 said: Little confused, sure it will make sense when I have the sd board in my hand. Does the sd board go between the breakout board and the Stm32 board, or between the breakout board and the esp8266? Between the STM32 and the breakout. Picture tries to show what this would be like. Note that the "top" of the SD card (with the resistors) is gong to be flush against the breakout board. So the resistors will press hard against the breakout board - there isn't a lot of space there, but the STM can sit further away from the breakout board with no issues. The idea is to get the SD-card-entryway flush (level) with the breakout board itself. This is how I think it should work but to be sure just make sure your square pad on the SD board corresponds with the 3V3 line on the breakout board (also square). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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