20220717 The Front Array Blah-blah-blah

So, I have completed three versions of the Front Array PCB. I love doing these types of SMD soldering and now, I think I am not that rusty anymore. But, I must admit, soldering these boards are a challenge. Lesson for the day (for me) is that I must not miss my own steps and be over-confident. While I’m at it, I’ll add in the excitement and impatience too.

Why? Because I can now possibly make a 3D Printed MkIX Tricorder that has an animating LCD display!

TEST EVERY STEP, CLIMB EVERY MOUN… er, JEFFERIES TUBE?

With the experience gained from soldering these boards, maybe using reflow techniques will solve some issues. But because I do not own one, the is all just a theory All I know is that my soldering sucked balls. Really, really, sucked balls.

So, my advise is, to test the components every step of the way, from the 555, then to the LEDs. When everthing is OK, solder in the 4017 IC.

Seriously, there is one SECRET to overcome all this. And I will reveal it to you later in the post.

THE RECHARGEABLE SARIUM-KRELLIDE CELLS

You can’t get these cell in this era and if you do, it would definitely power your Tricorder for more than a minimum of 36 hours. The next best thing would a 3.7volt LiPo battery. Since it is going into the Tricorder anyway, get maybe, a 1200mAH version? I will talk about this later (in the year).

THE SOLDER FLUX

Please use this. A lot. The flux acts like magic. The solder suddenly became watery and starts flowing into wires and pads. Really.
(And no, the T-1000 Terminator did not use flux to flow into anything)

In a nutshell, the solder flux removes the oxidised layer on the metal, so that solder can get a grip and do whatever molten solder does. Please do use this when you’re soldering and de-soldering or during repairs.

BE QUICK OR LOSE IT

I love using my 30W Hakko soldering soldering iron and has a pointy tip. It is not that efficient during heat re-transfer or re-generation. But the tip does allow me to concentrate all the heat into that small gap for a very brief time. That is all I need since SMDs does not use too much heat. I know it is already hot enough because I am in a Country where the average temperature swings from 29ºC to 44ºC. So, yeah, the soldering iron heats up fast.

Personally, using the pointy tip for SMD soldering is great but it does have its moments. It is bad when it comes to soldering/repairing conventional PCB boards. Even worse when the PCB has large areas of copper or when the PCB is made from Aluminum. They really suck the heat away and the 30W fella can’t re-generate heat fast enough to keep the solder molten.

In the end, you will be fighting with the solder which is molten one split second, then becomes solid the next and so on. I think this is what the T-800 Teminator had to deal with, when fighting with the T-1000.

THE TIME MACHINE

Molten solder flows amazingly fast in a clean joint or surface. I have not timed myself but I think it could be less than one second. Time kinda stops for a moment when you’re soldering. Or rather, enjoying the soldering.

Please understand that, in soldering, you are effectively transferring heat from the soldering iron and onto the component, solder and pad. Try to keep the soldering time to a minimum so as not to burn the components. If you fail, let it cool off and then try again. And you cal cool yourself off too.

This is also where you need the solder flux a lot. Don’t worry, most of the time they can be cleaned off with 99% IPA. Your mileage might vary but over here, its 99% and I am not going to waste time looking for alternatives.

THE 555 TIMER

First, you will need to solder this IC and its supporting components such as the resistors and capacitors. Confirm that HEARTBEAT before you move on to the next stage. The 555 IC is a robust chip. So, the chances of damaging it during soldering is minimal but there is always the first time.

THE LEDS

At this stage, you have the 555 IC soldered and not the 4017 ICs. When you have all the LEDs soldered, do a quick wire test:

Put one end of the Wire to the to the Positive and use the other end as the Probe.

You must know which end of the SMD LEDs are Positive. Most of the horizontal ones have the Positive side facing to the right of the board (assuming the board is oriented to face you with the Amber D1 to D8 at the bottom). Using the wire probe, briefly touch the Positive end of each LED. If they light up, this means the LEDs has been soldered correctly and there are no shorts. While you’re touching the green LEDs, the two green LEDs D17 and D18 would occasionally light up too. This is normal as their wires are connected to the same output pin of the 4017 (IC4).

THE 4017 IC

This is the last component you need to solder and you cannot do that if the above steps are not done correctly.

If all goes well, and when you power up the Front Array, all 29 LEDs (OK, 16 at any one time) would either light up or, start sequencing. Yep. that’s the Front Array Board done.

THE VIDEO

THE SECRET

Whoa, you’re still here? OK, let me tell you how you can overcome these issues with the Tricorder boards. Trust me on this when I say, this is just only one of the three boards designed by Arky. Yeah, there’s more to come. However, after this board, I will be concentrating on my own version.

So anyway, the SECRET is that, YOU, CAN, BUY, the completed boards off him. But you’d need to do some detective work on how to contact him if you are not a TheRPF member.

TheRPF Thread where I first saw his work while I was searching for a Mk VII:
https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/tr-595e-custom-tricorder.342650/

The GitHub Repositry Link where you can download all the files except the sound.:
https://github.com/arkyslab/TR595

Twitter. Apart from his email (which I have no permission to share it), this and TheRPF thread are the only possible way to get in touch with him. He does have extra boards to sell. And that was in July.:
https://twitter.com/arkyslab