DiscFerret PCBs for sale

[Philip Pemberton]

Hi guys,

I've got a batch of DiscFerret PCBs for sale. These are the first-cut 
boards, and work fine but for one requirement: you need to cut a track 
and install a 160k to 220k resistor over the break. C6 is missing the 
"+" polarity marker, though this is on the printed component layout 
(somehow it got missed off the silkscreen print).

I'm happy that the design works, and any parts you need should be 
available from Farnell or DigiKey (or Mouser, but you'll need to get the 
FPGA from DigiKey). Soldering can be done with nothing more complex than 
a decent soldering iron, solder, desolder wick and a good magnifier. A 
PCB holder or Panavise and some paste flux would be very useful, but not 
essential.

These boards are RoHS-compliant, two copper layers on a 1.6mm FR4 
substrate. All vias and holes are fully plated-through, with a green 
solder mask and a white component layout print on the top side. They 
were manufactured by EuroCircuits BVBA (www.eurocircuits.com), and have 
been checked visually for damage or manufacturing issues.

Cost is £45 per board, plus shipping (which is likely to be very 
little). This does not include any parts, just the bare board, a printed 
component layout, a copy of the Bill of Materials and a copy of the 
Service Note which covers the track cut and .

There are some extra options available:
   - TPS75003 chip pre-mounted. Add £5 to the total. This includes a 
full electrical test (shorts and opens).
   - PIC microcontroller soldered down and pre-programmed. Add £5. This 
includes programming the bootloader into the PIC, and means you won't 
need a PIC programmer to bootstrap the DiscFerret.
   - Both of the above -- add £9.
   - Fully assembled and tested power supply section -- add £25
   - Fully assembled and tested PSU, with PIC pre-soldered and 
programmed: add £29.

Any parts I install will be soldered down with Multicore RP15 solder 
paste. This is a 96SC-alloy (95.5% tin, 3.8% silver, 0.7% copper) 
RoHS-compliant lead-free solder paste with a No-Clean flux. If you 
decide to remove a component and replace it with 60:40 SnPb solder, then 
desolder the existing part, remove all solder with desolder wick 
(Chemtronics Soder-Wick works nicely for this), then re-tin the pads 
with 60:40 solder, remove that solder, then install the part.

If you'd like any other components supplying or pre-mounting, please 
email and ask for a quote. I'm not going to start doing fully-assembled 
boards until I get the next batch of boards in stock (hopefully this 
Friday).

Basically, the production boards will be from the "0J28" batch, which 
has a number of part placement differences. These differences render the 
solder paste stencil for the 0J28 useless for the 0I06... No paste mask, 
no mass production. Making a DiscFerret using hand soldering techniques 
takes nearly a day -- with solder paste and a reflow oven, a couple of 
hours at most.

There is no firmware difference between 0I06 and 0J28 boards: you can 
use the same FPGA microcode and PIC firmware; the only differences are 
in component placement (0J28 was redesigned to meet the Gold Phoenix 
7mil design rules) and that 0J28 includes pads for the 160k resistor.

To order, send me an email (this address is fine, or change the 
user-part from 'classiccmp' to 'philpem' to get my main mailbox) with:
     - Your name and address (I'll assume the From and Reply-To are set 
correctly in your mail client!)
     - What exactly you want to order

I'll send a PayPal invoice for the total amount, and will send the 
boards out when the invoice has been paid. I usually assemble boards 
during the week, and post them out on Saturdays.
For UK customers I'd advise going with Special Delivery due to the cost, 
and "Airsure" for international orders. If, however, you'd prefer I send 
them First Class or Airmail, I'll do that as long as you agree not to 
come after me for a refund if they get lost in the post...! (First Class 
and Airmail are uninsured)

Thanks,
-- 
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/