[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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