Library Posted at: Tue, Jul 13th, 2010 | 11:01AM UTC By Josh Ashby

I have just recently started to build my own Eagle parts library as I move to SMD parts, and parts that are not as common as resistors for footprints.

You can get the library here, along with an updated/fixed version of the Sparkfun library that has the correct pin-out for the Attiny45-SOIC-8.

Libraries at Github

Etching Tutorial take 2 Posted at: Thu, Jul 1st, 2010 | 11:07AM UTC By Josh Ashby

My first etching tutorial was both my first tutorial, and also a tutorial in a subject that was fairly new to me at the time. In other words, it sucked. Big time.

This time I’m going to try to do it right, and have photos to prove it, So lets get started. Today I’m going to teach you, or make a feeble attempt at teaching, how to etch a board, from start to finish.

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Even more updates Posted at: Tue, Jun 29th, 2010 | 6:16PM UTC By Josh Ashby

A few items of update. First off, TI has launched a new product, the MSP430 Launchpad.

The Launchpad is a $4.30 with free shipping dev board for TI’s MSP430 chip family. On the board there is USB which supplies power, and acts as the debugging emulator and the programmer for the chip, and then a nice 20 pin DIP socket for the MSP430 chips. The board breaks out all of the pins for the chip, and also has a spot for an external crystal. After a very frustrating, and long cursing at TI’s servers spurt, which lasted a good day as the Launchpad was so popular I finally got around to placing my order, however the backorder for the Board looks like I will have it around the end of July, start of August sadly. Hopefully I can find, and build a dev environment for the MSP430 on linux, seeing as there is a GCC port for it already all that is left is integrating it with Code::Blocks, and finding a way to upload the code to the MSP430.

Other goodies that I have received include Read more…

BOB update Posted at: Wed, Mar 17th, 2010 | 4:55PM UTC By Josh Ashby

Half the time, something works, the other half of the time it doesn’t, and the other half of the time, it just goes up in smoke. As such was the case with my V1.5 Rev. 1 quad motor controller. Read more…

Drill press Posted at: Sun, Mar 7th, 2010 | 9:42PM UTC By Josh Ashby

Having completed etching my Quad Low-side motor controller board, I needed to drill out the holes, the only problem: I don’t have a drill press, and the nearest readily available one is at my grandparents house two towns away.

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Revision 2 of Quad Low-side “Taco” Posted at: Wed, Mar 3rd, 2010 | 7:51PM UTC By Josh Ashby

So I finally got around to fixing a few things, and cleaning the board up, here is BOB’s newest working version of his motor controller board. Read more…

New Board, New Parts Posted at: Sat, Feb 27th, 2010 | 4:35PM UTC By Josh Ashby

So I finally got around to getting a board designed for Generation 3 electronics, but like everything else, being the first prototype board there were some things left out and other mistakes.

Also the Code has been updated, please check it out at: http://github.com/JoshAshby/Robotbob/tree/experimental

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EAGLE Traces Posted at: Tue, Jul 28th, 2009 | 11:44AM UTC By Josh Ashby

A few people have asked how I do the curvy traces in eagle so I though I would do a little 5 sec how to, simply, when routing, use the three curvy lines for the trace style at the top of the eagle window:

Etching Posted at: Sat, Jul 25th, 2009 | 5:37PM UTC By Josh Ashby

Warning: This is a work in progress, getting updated when I have time to work on it. The main part is done but I have yet to add photos and refine it more, sorry for the rough reading.

So you’ve got your board designed and ready to make a prototype, but you don’t know how. Thats what this is Tutorial is for. Read more…

Print, Transfer, Etch Posted at: Sat, Jul 18th, 2009 | 8:16PM UTC By Josh Ashby

Finally got to radioshack and got a starter bottle of ferric chloride, and a dual sided copper board, I also finished the final, ready to etch versions of the boards. All the extra vias on the motor control board are for a little prototyping area.

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