Xwhatsit Beamspring + MODEL F Controller [FORM REOPENED]

[Wodan]

I am still waiting on feedback from a friend of mine who could help me order these myself from a "reliable" Chinese factory. He has great connections to Chinese factories but it is difficult to get a good quote and the order would be for 1 sqm which equals around 200+ controllers.

[emdude]

I hope you can arrange something with your friend's connections, I am still in for a Model F xwhatsit, and I'd like to pick up a beam spring one as well.

[Wodan]

I hope you can arrange something with your friend's connections, I am still in for a Model F xwhatsit, and I'd like to pick up a beam spring one as well.

Well ... not sure I will be making both:
keyboards-f2/success-displaywriter-beam ... 16469.html

Why make three versions of the same controller when you can make one version with a higher MOQ that will fit 90% of the use cases and add a good guide on how to get the remaining 10% covered with basic soldering skills

[emdude]

Ah, that's too bad, but I understand!

Looking back in this thread, it sounds like orihalcon will be offering standard beam spring ones, so I guess I'll just get that instead.

[Wodan]

Yup, and his prices also sound pretty fair!

[seebart]

I am still waiting on feedback from a friend of mine who could help me order these myself from a "reliable" Chinese factory. He has great connections to Chinese factories but it is difficult to get a good quote and the order would be for 1 sqm which equals around 200+ controllers.

Sounds promising.

[DMA]

Why make three versions of the same controller when you can make one version with a higher MOQ that will fit 90% of the use cases and add a good guide on how to get the remaining 10% covered with basic soldering skills

You'll need two. 5251 has 23 columns and model F version has only 16.

[Wingklip]

Might have some redundancy but if you had extra columns it should reduce the setup and tooling costs of having more than one design

[DMA]

Might have some redundancy but if you had extra columns it should reduce the setup and tooling costs of having more than one design

Unfortunately, it bears concrete costs with xwhatsit architecture. Every 8 columns bring another 74AHC595 (And I suddenly know how to make readouts WAY more stable at the cost of 1kOhm resistor in series with drive line - but that will make controller even more expensive).

Unlike CommonSense, where you can have complete flexibility in pin assignment and can have as many pins as you'd like *wink-wink*
How many copies we're talking about in this GB, btw?

[Wodan]

Aww okay thanks DMA I didn't look into this well enough yet

The GB was originally about 25 beamspring controllers, 20 solenoid drivers and 5 ModelF controllers.

When getting these done I was considering ordering a full sqm from the factory, aiming at 200-300 pcs to get the cost down. I am pretty confident with a low enough cost those things will sell like hotcakes. Since they don't use Atmega32u4 controllers but their significantly cheaper Atmega32A2 controllers, I was hoping to make these cuties for cheep cheep.

When do you think the DMA controller will be ready for production?

[DMA]

Aww okay thanks DMA I didn't look into this well enough yet

The GB was originally about 25 beamspring controllers, 20 solenoid drivers and 5 ModelF controllers.

When getting these done I was considering ordering a full sqm from the factory, aiming at 200-300 pcs to get the cost down. I am pretty confident with a low enough cost those things will sell like hotcakes. Since they don't use Atmega32u4 controllers but their significantly cheaper Atmega32A2 controllers, I was hoping to make these cuties for cheep cheep.

When do you think the DMA controller will be ready for production?

That depends on what's "ready for production" means.

I haven't tested with solenoid boards - just don't have any idea what will happen. Firmware supports it, scope draws pulses properly. Just not sure what happens when that thing draws huge amount of power from the USB rail.
This one is hard to test with no actual solenoid on hand.

I want to have a prototype PCB run when dimensions and USB connector are finalized - don't want to discover again I've missed an airwire - this time on a production run.

Oh, and there's no macro editor still - there is macro player in firmware (playing "type", "press" and "release" with delays for arbitrary USB scancodes), but no editor. Not that hard to write.

If we accept the risk of non-working-properly solenoid boards - it's ready. For 30 boards it's probably cheaper to just use oshpark/pcbway. PCB size can be reduced. And, since pins are universal, there can be single board for all variants. The question is placement of the mounting holes.

The greatest risk I see is failure to find those 30x2 pin connectors in PCB-mount variety.
I can solder it all myself - it will not be RoHS-compliant, hehe, but it will work.

I would advise to change pinout on expansion header and solenoid boards to more polarity-reversal-proof - but this is strictly optional suggestion.

Update: though using $10 CY8CKIT-059 prototyping kit for a controller would be even cheaper. The price is really hard to beat.

[Ir0n]

I'd be down for some of DMAs boards. x)

[Wingklip]

Aww okay thanks DMA I didn't look into this well enough yet

The GB was originally about 25 beamspring controllers, 20 solenoid drivers and 5 ModelF controllers.

When getting these done I was considering ordering a full sqm from the factory, aiming at 200-300 pcs to get the cost down. I am pretty confident with a low enough cost those things will sell like hotcakes. Since they don't use Atmega32u4 controllers but their significantly cheaper Atmega32A2 controllers, I was hoping to make these cuties for cheep cheep.

When do you think the DMA controller will be ready for production?

That depends on what's "ready for production" means.

I haven't tested with solenoid boards - just don't have any idea what will happen. Firmware supports it, scope draws pulses properly. Just not sure what happens when that thing draws huge amount of power from the USB rail.
This one is hard to test with no actual solenoid on hand.

I want to have a prototype PCB run when dimensions and USB connector are finalized - don't want to discover again I've missed an airwire - this time on a production run.

Oh, and there's no macro editor still - there is macro player in firmware (playing "type", "press" and "release" with delays for arbitrary USB scancodes), but no editor. Not that hard to write.

If we accept the risk of non-working-properly solenoid boards - it's ready. For 30 boards it's probably cheaper to just use oshpark/pcbway. PCB size can be reduced. And, since pins are universal, there can be single board for all variants. The question is placement of the mounting holes.

The greatest risk I see is failure to find those 30x2 pin connectors in PCB-mount variety.
I can solder it all myself - it will not be RoHS-compliant, hehe, but it will work.

I would advise to change pinout on expansion header and solenoid boards to more polarity-reversal-proof - but this is strictly optional suggestion.

Update: though using $10 CY8CKIT-059 prototyping kit for a controller would be even cheaper. The price is really hard to beat.

Heyyyyyyy I applied for ROHS lol. I've got 2 reels of German Solder Lead free for 10$ per 250g roll

[DMA]

Heyyyyyyy I applied for ROHS lol. I've got 2 reels of German Solder Lead free for 10$ per 250g roll

Good luck melting it. Without melting everything around it, that is.

[Wingklip]

Heyyyyyyy I applied for ROHS lol. I've got 2 reels of German Solder Lead free for 10$ per 250g roll

Good luck melting it. Without melting everything around it, that is.

Is 450*C a little too high?

[DMA]

Heyyyyyyy I applied for ROHS lol. I've got 2 reels of German Solder Lead free for 10$ per 250g roll

Good luck melting it. Without melting everything around it, that is.

Is 450*C a little too high?

For the chips - yes. Reflow profile usually sez something along the lines of "260*C for 5 seconds".
Also the higher the temp the faster flux burns.
Why even go for RoHS compliance? As sparkfun guys say - "the main symptom of lead poisoning is dementia, so we don't know if we're poisoned or not".