[time-nuts] Low Cost GP-IB PCI card?
Ulrich Bangert
df6jb at ulrich-bangert.de
Tue Jul 11 10:39:27 EDT 2006
John,
please note that i do not intend to make fun over the boys of SPARK FUN!
It is just VERY difficult to surpress a bright smile if I manage to get
onto pages like that. I appreciate your comments a lot. If you are eager
to see something even more strange, then visit
http://www.lrr.in.tum.de/~acher/bga/index.html
This guy has built a apparatus that enables him to solder bgas!
Unfortunately the site is in German but the pictures speak for
themselves.
Regards
Ulrich
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com
> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] Im Auftrag von John Day
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 11. Juli 2006 00:42
> An: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Low Cost GP-IB PCI card?
>
>
> Actually I think you will find that if you read
> the site carefully they have given up on the
> toaster oven and are now using a fry-pan, albeit a non-stick
> electric one.
>
> Like many of us involved in doing small prototype
> work with the new, and very small SMD devices, we
> often have to think laterally about how we do
> things. I have also used the mylar film stencils
> (also cut by http://www.pololu.com ) and they
> work very well. Although I have probably never
> used one more than two or three times,
> prototyping is like that. For small boards I tend
> to use a small lab-type hotplate I stole from the
> guys in the chem lab. We used to use it for
> soldering flanges onto waveguide, but it got put
> in the back of the cupboard and now does a
> sterling job of reflowing solder cream.
>
> To assist the surface tension sometimes on these
> boards you do tend to use a little bit of liquid
> flux. On many of the tiny pads there is so little
> solder that it doesn't do the job, the flux tends to help!
>
> For small hand assembly work many of the
> traditional aids just don't cut it. You cant
> afford to do a stainless steel stencil for 10
> small boards. Conventional screening frames are
> often more trouble than they are worth. Many of
> the small infrared ovens you see advertised in
> the trade press and on ebay are about as useless
> as .... well I am sure you get the idea.
>
> However there are some really nice dispensing and
> handling systems at bargain prices on ebay these
> days. Those tiny suction hand-pieces for picking
> and locating SMD parts are really really useful.
>
> Choice of soldering irons is important too. Many
> of the "hobbyist" haven't realised that if you
> spend money you get something worthwhile. I had
> been using Weller for years, and some Pace, but
> my favourite was always a beaten up old Metcal
> that I am not sure how old it was. I just
> recently went out and bought a brand new Metcal
> MX-500 series station with the talon tweezer
> style handpiece as well. It is worth a small
> fortune and then some, but with the right tips it
> makes touching up of boards, and even removing
> and replacing 0402 and 0201 components under the
> microscope a pretty simple task.
>
> Just don't laugh at the toaster oven, it actually
> does work - I have one myself - but I tend to use
> the hot-plate most often these days.
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>
> At 11:48 AM 7/10/2006, Ulrich Bangert wrote:
> >Hi Said,
> >
> > > Works great with frequency counters, power meters etc. Have not
> > > tried SRQ.
> >
> >Works great with a SINGLE instrument that talks from time to time.
> >Anything that is only a bit more complex needs different measures.
> >
> > > One other factoid: the SMD chips seem to be soldered by hand, my
> > > card had a lot of solder flux on it.
> >
> >If you want to read the absolute truth and nothing but the
> truth about
> >smd processing at SPARK FUN, go to:
> >
> >http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/ReflowToaster/reflow-hotplate.htm
> >
> >and be prepared to have a lot of fun. That's no joke! The boys are
> >really doin it this way!
> >
> >Regards
> >Ulrich
> >
> > > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > > Von: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com
> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com]
> > > Im Auftrag von SAIDJACK at aol.com
> > > Gesendet: Sonntag, 9. Juli 2006 19:46
> > > An: time-nuts at febo.com
> > > Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Low Cost GP-IB PCI card?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > In a message dated 7/9/2006 04:56:51 Pacific Daylight Time,
> > > jra at febo.com
> > > writes:
> > >
> > > >>I found that USB-GPIB controller. Looks like BSD and Linux are
> > > >>supported.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >>
> > > >>
> http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=549
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Hi, I bought one on Ebay, they work quite well. They used
> > > to be $99
> > > > at
> > > > Sparkfun, now they raised the price, and it is out of
> stock...
> > >
> > > > Have you tried using SRQ or other features than simple
> > > > read/wait/write sequences with it? I found with one
> of the old
> > > > RS-232-to-GPIB converters that anything beyond reads and
> > > writes was
> > > > hard to handle.
> > >
> > > > John
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi John,
> > > I typically only use the basic (polled) features of the GPIB,
> > > sending commands manually to the unit (*RST, *IDN, etc
> etc), or what
> > > is even better I put
> > > the units into "TALK" mode, that way they spit out data
> > > without any need to
> > > poll. Then I simply use Win Hyperterm (yuk) to capture the
> > > data to a file, and
> > > analyze that later.
> > >
> > > Works great with frequency counters, power meters etc. Have not
> > > tried SRQ.
> > >
> > > One interesting aspect about this "Abdul" card is that it has a
> > > built-in GPIB connector that plugs into the instrument directly.
> > > It's a curse and a
> > > blessing: it hangs out of your instrument without any
> > > mechanical support etc, and
> > > extends your instrument length, but at the same time it saves
> > > you a >$50 GPIB
> > > cable. BTW: the card is now being sold on Ebay again.
> > >
> > > One other factoid: the SMD chips seem to be soldered by hand, my
> > > card had a lot of solder flux on it. It's best to clean this off
> > > with Flux remover
> > > (Acetone type etc) for long term reliability.
> > >
> > > bye,
> > > Said
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > time-nuts mailing list
> > > time-nuts at febo.com
> > > https://www.febo.com/cgi-> bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > >
> >
> >
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