your awesome enthusiasm makes me really happy haha :D great work man :D I have no intention of doing this (at least ATM), but i really enjoy watching you making it :)
And Atmel SAM7 before that and Motorola 68HC11 before that. Why is it so hard for wafer packaging companies to not have an ejection mark smaller than pin 1?
Hmm, I haven't considered that! I've been thinking about doing some design streams on Twitch, I might try doing it there! Picking parts is a tricky process, and one I wish I had more visibility into when I was starting out (and still consistently struggle with).
Your content is amazing man. Can't believe i only just now found your channel. I binged all the PnP video's and the attention to detail is amazing. You're definitely an alround engineer! You deserve way more exposure. Keep it up!
When etching my own stuff, if (when) I make a mistake and must flip a large chip, odds-are the board will get ruined. That's one big checkmark in favor of a proto board house: reworkability. Nice job finding/using a "LQFP" footprint with a 0.63in pitch in such a high-ish pin count. The 0.4-0.5in pitch packages, more common in 64p+, are much harder to play with. While I wouldn't want to drill and wire a bizillion vias, I could reliably resolve that footprint with a toner transfer. No need to break out the photoresist kit. major props on the project
Hey m8 here to drop some advice for you. Making your life a bit easier. Throw Away your conical tips, they do everything but very badly. Sure a beginner just starts off with them and that's ok. But you are not a beginner. For BIG parts like an inductor or drain of a FET, use a tip formed like a razor almost or with a big wedge, that way you get the most contact area to the pad and the part. Big thermal mass on the tip goes without saying, absolute gamechanger. Also throw away your old school soldering iron with the separate heater, the only place for those in the trash. Depending on your budget get a JBC CD-2B something something (will last forever, if you have the money), PACE ADS200 (cheaper tips and cheaper price overall, still very solid build quality) or a T12 style soldering station from KSGER (china) they are also direct heat, quick tip change, small footprint and heat up extremely fast. Build quality is of course not the best but the price is also pretty low. If you can't afford anything else, get this. Also for soldering smt ics like the arm get a decent angled tip with a 30° angle on it. You can also get a special drag soldering tip but IMO they are not necessary as the surface tension of the solder will be good enough and the money saved is better spent on a good pair of tweezers. Hope anybody how sees this can learn from it and avoid the pain I went through. Have a nice day.
Yeah nah. I agree on the chisel tips, they're great and I use them for everything. But there's still a use for conical tips in certain applications, and some people just prefer them. I'm not sure what this has to do with being a beginner. There's also absolutely no need for a $400 solder station. Anything ~$100 will do fine for home use, a nice Weller is good and will last decades. Unless you're soldering massive components to several oz copper pours, you'll be just fine with a hobby-level iron.
@@Caterpiggle Well the conical tips are the most common and are therefore the cheapest. So when a beginner buys a cheap soldering station that's the one that will be included. When progressing in your electronics career you will find that for nearly every task there is a better-suited tip geometry. Weller is also good quality. But their low-end irons don't have the heating element inside of the tip cartridge. Instead, they rely on metal on metal contact, which is just way inferior.
@Barry Manilowa Yes it is almost unbelievable how much better these newer direct heat style irons perform. Once you made the change there just is no going back.
I notice a lot of people in the comments section recommend things about the soldering iron, and I totally agree, but it saddens me the most that he isn't using flux. He could have 200% more joy when dragging solder across the microcontroller pins, and it would have made such a satisfying video. But instead, I'm left cringing and moaning at the solder bridges and the missed opportunity for an ASMR soldering moment. He Just needs to get some nice water soluble flux and ditch the solder braid (or at least save it for the seriously botched moments).
I can vouch for a jbc. I got mine second hand it has literal thousands of hours on the clock(it keeps track) and no issue at all. I love my jbc. The tips are great too for it. Proper tip care and they last a long time. I like the jbc tips better than the hakko t12.
I am pretty sure that this pickn place machine will never output the time you invested in it. But it is so awesome to see how much fun you have building this thing and it is super nice for others building the same thing. I wish you the best
This is one of the most energetic and entertaining electronic videos I've ever seen. Keep up the amazing work. Can't wait to see you back in three weeks.
One of the killer aspects of working with ARM Cortex MCUs is the fact that you can often assign/route peripherals to a multiple choice of pins. The atmega328P is only going to optionally expose a PWM on this pin, an analog input on that pin, etc. etc. etc. but some of the ARMs will let you pick from a few different pins that can all connect via internal pin multiplexers to a given peripheral. Being able to more flexibly assign pins to peripherals opens up all sorts of possibilities when it comes to PCB design.
This my first one of your videos. I love it. I really like the pure emotion in it. When I solder I like to either use a wedge tip or a bent/j tip. I also like to start with the smaller components and work my way up just because like those tall headers can get in the way some times.
It’s fun you are switching to Arm. I’ve been thinking about making that jump too. I’m envious of your digital microscope. Your soldering footage looks so nice. I have a Craig’s List stereo microscope for SMD work which is great, but there’s no way to get nice footage out of it. I enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work.
Hey there!! First of all great work dude, I really enjoy your approach to electronics and watching your videos I said “been there...” soooo many times. I understand you want to stick to the arduino IDE and the code you already written but the beauty and potentiality of the ARM architecture can be unleashed only if you use they’re own coding environment. The wonderful part of the stm32 implementation is that basically everything is free. The IDE (called stm32CubeIDE) allow you to live debug code during execution and see the variable contents WHILE executing the code in real time. Plus it auto generates code for every part of the chip functionality. To program the chip you just need a Nucleo board (10$ arduino format dev board with any microcontroller of the stm32 family) that includes the stlink V2 that is a programmer AND live debugger for any uC of st and you can reuse to flash any board you make. I mean, at the beginning the learning curve is a little steep but the advantages are a lot compared to the Avr ecosystem. If you want more info I would love to share with you.
Your PCB layout looks great. I'm using almost the same chip (the STM32F407VGT6), which has a bit more Flash and SRAM (I think?) Along with the FE2.1 USB hub chip. I only recently tried using the hardware counters on the STM32 for reading a rotary encoder, and it works great. ;) It has anti-glitching logic on the chip, too, so it didn't seem to require any caps across the encoder. I'm glad I switched to STM32 from the old Atmega2560 I was using. I did have to get used to using "Workbench for STM32" (Eclipse), though, because I needed to delve into USB HID. (Most of the USB stuff could probably be done under the Arduino IDE, but it's harder to find specific libraries and example code for some of that atm.) Using RS485 is a good idea for the PnP. It's far more standardized, there are existing libraries for it, and supports multiple devices. Oh yeah, and I've also soldered the QFP chips backwards a few times. lol I learned to be extra careful after that, because a lot of the chips have two dots on them. I believe one of the dots is usually a bit shinier and deeper, so the camera on the PnP can distingusih it, but that dot is often opposite the dot that denotes pin 1. The chip package usually has the diagonal on one corner, too, but it's not always obvious. Literally just this morning, my first PnP head motor arrived (the JYD2030-0604B-NK), as your PnP project inspired me to try building my own. Looking forward to joining the stream chat when you host the Maker Cast.
btw, if you try using a small chisel tip on the soldering iron (say 1.5mm to 2.5mm wide), you should be able to get much better results with drag soldering. (I pretty much only use solder wick for getting rid of the few bridges as the solder blob gets to one end of the pins.) The "hoof" tips with the divot look amazing, too, but I've not tried one yet, as I can't quite justify the cost when I'm only building a few prototypes. lol ruclips.net/video/5uiroWBkdFY/видео.html
@@electronash how do you get soldering wick to actually work? every youtuber seems to make it look like magic when i and a lot of people i know cant get it to do anything. i gave up on it and tossed it out years ago.
your using an F4 chip? i cant remember if i repaired a drone FC that had a F3 or F4 on it, but its cool to see it used on other devices. i know its just a programmable IC but i like to know where else these things are used.
@@darkshadowsx5949 I'm not a huge fan of solder wick for through-hole desoldering. I just use the Duratool ZD-915 for that. Even for SMD, I almost always add some liquid flux to the solder wick itself first. It also helps to cut a small piece of the wick off, then use tweezers to hold that, so the rest of the wick doesn't, erm, "wick" the heat away. lol But it also comes down to using the correct tip on the iron, and having a soldering station that has a decent heat capacity (which is different to it's stated wattage). I use a Metcal station that I bought second-hand about ten years ago. I usually like the 1.6mm or 2.5mm chisel tip. I wouldn't ever recommend the really pointy bevelled tips even with a good solder station, as it's tough to get enough contact area for good heat transfer. The other thing with desoldering (especially through-hole) is to add fresh solder to it before using the desoldering station, as it helps it to reflow once heated. On the stubborn solder joints, I sometimes add a dab of liquid flux too. And also hold the PCB vertically on the bench, so the desoldering gun isn't working against gravity. And let it heat the pin for a few seconds, so it reaches the top side of the board. But yeah, in general I hate using solder wick. lol Only ever use it for getting rid of bridges on SMD pins now. For a TQFP chip like the STM32, I still use drag soldering. So I tack the corner pins down first (like Stephen did in the vid), add liqud flux (always!), then add about 2mm of solder to the left-hand few pins, then gently drag the iron across the pins whilst heating the pad at the same time. It usually ends up with a small solder blob at the right-hand side of the pins, which I get rid of with the solder wick. Or, if I'm being super careful, it's possible to manually solder EACH pin using a USB microscope camera, even with the "corner" of the 2.5mm chisel tip. (for pin pitches as small as say 0.5mm, I can still solder each pin without affecting the one next to it.) It's been quite a while since I lifted a pad when doing drag soldering. Just don't put too much pressure on with the iron, and don't dwell for too long on each pin.
I request that you use flux for dragging solder across pins please and thank you. I promise you will like it too. Try a nice water soluble flux pen or maybe just some flux paste.
Maybe you could have a look at the bigtreetech boards. they have a microSD card slot where you upload the sketch first. Maybe in the next revision of this board you could add this.
@Stephen Hawes, perhaps in your next video, you can give a quick overview of where you are with the whole project, if/when we can order some populated boards and what are any barriers to fabricating our own openpnp machine that works?
If the dot on the STM32 continues to mess you up, you could give yourself a constant reminder and pin one to the wall in your workshop. Or just use the 23MTS?
Prusa Mini firmware is based on Marlin - take a look on its build system at their Github repo. I believe that ARM chips are supported only at Marlin 2.0.
I did it too, mate. sigh :( lol Took me years to remember that some chips have two dots, but I still get it wrong at times. I don't think it's for the injection moulding, as I think that's usually hidden underneath, or the plastic packages are munged together from two halves? I think one of the dots is meant to be more reflective, so the Pick N Place can differentiate.
OK, maybe it is just the injection moulding "gate" in most cases. Seems to be fairly standard that pin 1 is also at the lower-left when the text label is the right way up.
I always find that the data sheet will always show how to identify pin 1. Be it a dot, cut corner, slopping edge, etc. Check once fit once, works for me. Best thing with pnp is if it gets it wrong once it gets it wrong everytime :)
Great work get yourself a fume extractor or a small fan to blow the soldering fumes away from your face. Looking foward to your hosting maker stream. Stay safe
How do you making the usb interface? did you connect the usb directly to the usb interface of the cortex or do you use usb to serial converter like ftdi232?
I would like to see how you get Openpnp working with Marlin 2. There are not many that have done this to my knowledge. Most are running Smoothieware (including me ATM). but I wouldn't mind using a controller that has more drivers, like the bigtreetech skr pro, which has a very similar Arm MCU to what you're using.
Nice design....Do you have plans to make this controller card for sale? e.g trough Tindie or Ebay? . I,m intrested in a complete card with working firmware.
Hello Stephen I show your video and will like it. From today's video I get to know about your are using RS485 in your current design and would like to offer you my help for the same as I have very good experience with RS485 as I have my own several product with that. If you consider it please do let me know how can I hele you to make it work properly.
Here's a video on when to use flux - ruclips.net/video/tfIwHuGzUEk/видео.html - Even just a $2 no-rinse flux pen off banggood or something will be better than nothing. Your solder technique is great, really. Flux will make the solder sooo much more cooperative.
A lot of the times at least in my experience, quality buck converters tend to be more expensive and if the 3V3 is only used for the MCU, a buck that can supply multiple Amps may be an overkill. Not to mention that larger requirement of extra passives for a buck
@@Davedarko Right, I was wondering if he needs the 5V somewhere. That would make sense for USB-devices, but in the video he explains that that's exactly what caused the magic smoke, and so he separated the USB- & buck- 5V-lines, right? great channel btw, hab ich direkt abonniert ;) I agree with @Aditya Sehgal though - the MCU probably draws so little power that it hardly matters, and if 3.3v bucks are expensive that would explain the extra component. I imagine linear regulators also provide more reliable/precise voltages?
@@larsfroelich Hehe Danke, poste nur noch sporadisch, meisten Sachen produziere ich fuer element14 :) The USB input from the computer was separated from the 5V on the board that delivers power to the usb devices like the HUB and camera etc. So yes, separated USB but still 5V for USB :D
@@larsfroelich About the bucks, its not just 3v3 bucks, but really all in general. for an MCU needing a couple mA it makes sense to use an LDO given the extremely low cost of them. Look at the AMS1117 or the XC6206 both can be found for a few cents whereas a nice TI or OnSemi buck can be a couple dollars. And inductors can be rather expensive too if you have tight constraints. Not to forget the noise... linear regulators have virtually no noise since they just dissipate the dropped voltage as heat. As for the voltage that can be usually adjusted unless you opt for a fixed model but noise can be an issue since too much noise can impact your logic levels
Aren't Op-Amps so cool :D? I lowkey think I'm more of an analogue guy than a digital guy which I think is funny since I just graduated and live in the age of digitalll ;p
i didn't think about his "accent" other than his odd speech patterns he sounds normal to me. so maybe north east US? south east people like in Tennessee talk funny. Californians dont really have an accent to me either so he could be out there too.
First time watching your videos and you got a subscriber. But it was so hard to watch you solder, it's physically painful, I would suggest using more flux and using a better soldering tip, maybe a chisel tip or a knife tip, conical tips are bad overall because they don't have enough contact surface.
Or you know he could use any flux. All I saw in that vid was what was in the core of the solder wire and in his solder braid. Infact I think the solder braid was doing the whole job of fluxing the pins of that STM chip.
How come "makers" never do design reviews before they sent the data out to the fabs? It would be so easy to do with the internet and a world wide comunity, and the less experienced people could learn a lot from the more experienced ones in the process. Learning by failure is an option, but it seems to waste a lot more precious ressources and time...
RUclipsrs in general are like this, they just don't like asking us for help as that make leak some details of their next video. It's even worse when they break something, due to being impatient or lacking understanding, instead of stopping there and making the video a 2 parter so they can ask for help.
Every time i see your video with a new board i expect you to use the PNP machine to mount at least a few components or at least to dot pasta on the board Never happens Would be more ironic than the title.. Using a machine that builds circuit board to build a circuit board for a machine that builds circuit board
Your energy is infectious, love your videos, Stephen! Proud to be a Patron :)
hey, thanks so much!! :D I appreciate the support tremendously!
your awesome enthusiasm makes me really happy haha :D
great work man :D
I have no intention of doing this (at least ATM), but i really enjoy watching you making it :)
Honestly, I love seeing the circuit board, it looks like a tiny futuristic city
It’s even better when you create one of your own!
Hehe... Did you just quote Björk there? :)
The evil STM32 pin1 dot f*ck up. Gets everyone once.
And Atmel SAM7 before that and Motorola 68HC11 before that. Why is it so hard for wafer packaging companies to not have an ejection mark smaller than pin 1?
What evil sadist must work at ARM to do this?
How would you feel about making a video in which you go through how you select your components? (sites, datasheets etc)
Hmm, I haven't considered that! I've been thinking about doing some design streams on Twitch, I might try doing it there! Picking parts is a tricky process, and one I wish I had more visibility into when I was starting out (and still consistently struggle with).
@@stephen_hawes design streams sound really good and something I (and probably many others) would definitely be interested in
Awesome video Stephen! 😃
hey thanks dude!! :D
Your content is amazing man. Can't believe i only just now found your channel. I binged all the PnP video's and the attention to detail is amazing. You're definitely an alround engineer!
You deserve way more exposure. Keep it up!
When etching my own stuff, if (when) I make a mistake and must flip a large chip, odds-are the board will get ruined.
That's one big checkmark in favor of a proto board house: reworkability.
Nice job finding/using a "LQFP" footprint with a 0.63in pitch in such a high-ish pin count. The 0.4-0.5in pitch packages, more common in 64p+, are much harder to play with.
While I wouldn't want to drill and wire a bizillion vias, I could reliably resolve that footprint with a toner transfer. No need to break out the photoresist kit.
major props on the project
You should set your soldermask spacing to something like 0.01 to get mask between your IC pads. The fabhouse will change it to meet their specs.
You right. It is very important. I usually set solder mask expansion to 0.05 mm. Normally is ok for most fabrics.
@@dimakrayushkin Of course you can set it to the right specs! However they will process it and not reject it if you´re under it.
Hey m8 here to drop some advice for you. Making your life a bit easier.
Throw Away your conical tips, they do everything but very badly. Sure a beginner just starts off with them and that's ok. But you are not a beginner.
For BIG parts like an inductor or drain of a FET, use a tip formed like a razor almost or with a big wedge, that way you get the most contact area to the pad and the part. Big thermal mass on the tip goes without saying, absolute gamechanger.
Also throw away your old school soldering iron with the separate heater, the only place for those in the trash.
Depending on your budget get a JBC CD-2B something something (will last forever, if you have the money), PACE ADS200 (cheaper tips and cheaper price overall, still very solid build quality) or a T12 style soldering station from KSGER (china) they are also direct heat, quick tip change, small footprint and heat up extremely fast. Build quality is of course not the best but the price is also pretty low. If you can't afford anything else, get this.
Also for soldering smt ics like the arm get a decent angled tip with a 30° angle on it. You can also get a special drag soldering tip but IMO they are not necessary as the surface tension of the solder will be good enough and the money saved is better spent on a good pair of tweezers.
Hope anybody how sees this can learn from it and avoid the pain I went through.
Have a nice day.
Yeah nah. I agree on the chisel tips, they're great and I use them for everything. But there's still a use for conical tips in certain applications, and some people just prefer them. I'm not sure what this has to do with being a beginner.
There's also absolutely no need for a $400 solder station. Anything ~$100 will do fine for home use, a nice Weller is good and will last decades. Unless you're soldering massive components to several oz copper pours, you'll be just fine with a hobby-level iron.
@@Caterpiggle Well the conical tips are the most common and are therefore the cheapest. So when a beginner buys a cheap soldering station that's the one that will be included. When progressing in your electronics career you will find that for nearly every task there is a better-suited tip geometry.
Weller is also good quality. But their low-end irons don't have the heating element inside of the tip cartridge. Instead, they rely on metal on metal contact, which is just way inferior.
@Barry Manilowa Yes it is almost unbelievable how much better these newer direct heat style irons perform. Once you made the change there just is no going back.
I notice a lot of people in the comments section recommend things about the soldering iron, and I totally agree, but it saddens me the most that he isn't using flux. He could have 200% more joy when dragging solder across the microcontroller pins, and it would have made such a satisfying video. But instead, I'm left cringing and moaning at the solder bridges and the missed opportunity for an ASMR soldering moment. He Just needs to get some nice water soluble flux and ditch the solder braid (or at least save it for the seriously botched moments).
I can vouch for a jbc. I got mine second hand it has literal thousands of hours on the clock(it keeps track) and no issue at all. I love my jbc. The tips are great too for it. Proper tip care and they last a long time. I like the jbc tips better than the hakko t12.
I am pretty sure that this pickn place machine will never output the time you invested in it. But it is so awesome to see how much fun you have building this thing and it is super nice for others building the same thing. I wish you the best
This is one of the most energetic and entertaining electronic videos I've ever seen. Keep up the amazing work. Can't wait to see you back in three weeks.
I really like how you can stand the device on its end because of the shape of the feet.
One of the killer aspects of working with ARM Cortex MCUs is the fact that you can often assign/route peripherals to a multiple choice of pins. The atmega328P is only going to optionally expose a PWM on this pin, an analog input on that pin, etc. etc. etc. but some of the ARMs will let you pick from a few different pins that can all connect via internal pin multiplexers to a given peripheral. Being able to more flexibly assign pins to peripherals opens up all sorts of possibilities when it comes to PCB design.
This my first one of your videos. I love it. I really like the pure emotion in it. When I solder I like to either use a wedge tip or a bent/j tip. I also like to start with the smaller components and work my way up just because like those tall headers can get in the way some times.
It’s fun you are switching to Arm. I’ve been thinking about making that jump too. I’m envious of your digital microscope. Your soldering footage looks so nice. I have a Craig’s List stereo microscope for SMD work which is great, but there’s no way to get nice footage out of it. I enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work.
stephen you are such an inspiration for me man
Sweet video dude! Always inspired by what you do :)
Great job soldering. It’s refreshing to see someone that knows how to flood solder qfp parts... and use a heat gun. You’ll be on bga parts soon :)
Hey there!! First of all great work dude, I really enjoy your approach to electronics and watching your videos I said “been there...” soooo many times. I understand you want to stick to the arduino IDE and the code you already written but the beauty and potentiality of the ARM architecture can be unleashed only if you use they’re own coding environment. The wonderful part of the stm32 implementation is that basically everything is free. The IDE (called stm32CubeIDE) allow you to live debug code during execution and see the variable contents WHILE executing the code in real time. Plus it auto generates code for every part of the chip functionality. To program the chip you just need a Nucleo board (10$ arduino format dev board with any microcontroller of the stm32 family) that includes the stlink V2 that is a programmer AND live debugger for any uC of st and you can reuse to flash any board you make. I mean, at the beginning the learning curve is a little steep but the advantages are a lot compared to the Avr ecosystem. If you want more info I would love to share with you.
Why didn't you let your pcb producer add a stencil? You already use hot air and paste
Your PCB layout looks great.
I'm using almost the same chip (the STM32F407VGT6), which has a bit more Flash and SRAM (I think?)
Along with the FE2.1 USB hub chip.
I only recently tried using the hardware counters on the STM32 for reading a rotary encoder, and it works great. ;)
It has anti-glitching logic on the chip, too, so it didn't seem to require any caps across the encoder.
I'm glad I switched to STM32 from the old Atmega2560 I was using.
I did have to get used to using "Workbench for STM32" (Eclipse), though, because I needed to delve into USB HID.
(Most of the USB stuff could probably be done under the Arduino IDE, but it's harder to find specific libraries and example code for some of that atm.)
Using RS485 is a good idea for the PnP. It's far more standardized, there are existing libraries for it, and supports multiple devices.
Oh yeah, and I've also soldered the QFP chips backwards a few times. lol
I learned to be extra careful after that, because a lot of the chips have two dots on them.
I believe one of the dots is usually a bit shinier and deeper, so the camera on the PnP can distingusih it, but that dot is often opposite the dot that denotes pin 1. The chip package usually has the diagonal on one corner, too, but it's not always obvious.
Literally just this morning, my first PnP head motor arrived (the JYD2030-0604B-NK), as your PnP project inspired me to try building my own.
Looking forward to joining the stream chat when you host the Maker Cast.
btw, if you try using a small chisel tip on the soldering iron (say 1.5mm to 2.5mm wide), you should be able to get much better results with drag soldering.
(I pretty much only use solder wick for getting rid of the few bridges as the solder blob gets to one end of the pins.)
The "hoof" tips with the divot look amazing, too, but I've not tried one yet, as I can't quite justify the cost when I'm only building a few prototypes. lol
ruclips.net/video/5uiroWBkdFY/видео.html
@@electronash how do you get soldering wick to actually work? every youtuber seems to make it look like magic when i and a lot of people i know cant get it to do anything.
i gave up on it and tossed it out years ago.
your using an F4 chip? i cant remember if i repaired a drone FC that had a F3 or F4 on it, but its cool to see it used on other devices.
i know its just a programmable IC but i like to know where else these things are used.
@@darkshadowsx5949
I'm not a huge fan of solder wick for through-hole desoldering. I just use the Duratool ZD-915 for that.
Even for SMD, I almost always add some liquid flux to the solder wick itself first.
It also helps to cut a small piece of the wick off, then use tweezers to hold that, so the rest of the wick doesn't, erm, "wick" the heat away. lol
But it also comes down to using the correct tip on the iron, and having a soldering station that has a decent heat capacity (which is different to it's stated wattage).
I use a Metcal station that I bought second-hand about ten years ago. I usually like the 1.6mm or 2.5mm chisel tip.
I wouldn't ever recommend the really pointy bevelled tips even with a good solder station, as it's tough to get enough contact area for good heat transfer.
The other thing with desoldering (especially through-hole) is to add fresh solder to it before using the desoldering station, as it helps it to reflow once heated. On the stubborn solder joints, I sometimes add a dab of liquid flux too.
And also hold the PCB vertically on the bench, so the desoldering gun isn't working against gravity. And let it heat the pin for a few seconds, so it reaches the top side of the board.
But yeah, in general I hate using solder wick. lol
Only ever use it for getting rid of bridges on SMD pins now. For a TQFP chip like the STM32, I still use drag soldering.
So I tack the corner pins down first (like Stephen did in the vid), add liqud flux (always!), then add about 2mm of solder to the left-hand few pins, then gently drag the iron across the pins whilst heating the pad at the same time.
It usually ends up with a small solder blob at the right-hand side of the pins, which I get rid of with the solder wick.
Or, if I'm being super careful, it's possible to manually solder EACH pin using a USB microscope camera, even with the "corner" of the 2.5mm chisel tip.
(for pin pitches as small as say 0.5mm, I can still solder each pin without affecting the one next to it.)
It's been quite a while since I lifted a pad when doing drag soldering. Just don't put too much pressure on with the iron, and don't dwell for too long on each pin.
I'm disappointed that you didn't use the existing PnP to build the next generation. :D Great job.
That is so amazing.
Love your energy and happiness.
Greetings from Munich, Tom.
I request that you use flux for dragging solder across pins please and thank you. I promise you will like it too. Try a nice water soluble flux pen or maybe just some flux paste.
Maybe you could have a look at the bigtreetech boards. they have a microSD card slot where you upload the sketch first. Maybe in the next revision of this board you could add this.
I think it'd NXP that make an arm mcu for electrically noisy environments... their latest (standard) arms are $3 for a 400mhz part
6:31 almost got a gravstone chip on C14, but it didn't want to walk into the light.
Nice video. I really want to create some PCBs again
...simple pleasures...love your enthusiasm!
250 views in 14 minutes you deserve it!
@Stephen Hawes, perhaps in your next video, you can give a quick overview of where you are with the whole project, if/when we can order some populated boards and what are any barriers to fabricating our own openpnp machine that works?
If the dot on the STM32 continues to mess you up, you could give yourself a constant reminder and pin one to the wall in your workshop. Or just use the 23MTS?
What you did there... I see it...
Prusa Mini firmware is based on Marlin - take a look on its build system at their Github repo. I believe that ARM chips are supported only at Marlin 2.0.
I have the same reaction when something works especially when it works perfectly 🤣 complete opposite when something smokes though 🤣
8:12 what's the gold thing you used to remove solder past excess?
That is a beautiful looking board Stephen! I've made my fair share of soldering chips on the wrong way round ;-)
I did it too, mate. sigh :( lol
Took me years to remember that some chips have two dots, but I still get it wrong at times.
I don't think it's for the injection moulding, as I think that's usually hidden underneath, or the plastic packages are munged together from two halves?
I think one of the dots is meant to be more reflective, so the Pick N Place can differentiate.
community.st.com/s/question/0D50X00009Xka68/stm32f401-64pin-pin1-marking-orientation
OK, maybe it is just the injection moulding "gate" in most cases.
Seems to be fairly standard that pin 1 is also at the lower-left when the text label is the right way up.
I always find that the data sheet will always show how to identify pin 1. Be it a dot, cut corner, slopping edge, etc. Check once fit once, works for me. Best thing with pnp is if it gets it wrong once it gets it wrong everytime :)
9:44 electronics is so rewarding :)
Great work get yourself a fume extractor or a small fan to blow the soldering fumes away from your face. Looking foward to your hosting maker stream. Stay safe
You need way more subs.
Very cool!
Stephen, can youy tell me where you got that PCB Jig that you use, the knurled knob one please.
you seem to be a crazy person.
i like it
How do you making the usb interface? did you connect the usb directly to the usb interface of the cortex or do you use usb to serial converter like ftdi232?
Hey, does anyone know what that PCB holder or clamp is??
I would like to see how you get Openpnp working with Marlin 2. There are not many that have done this to my knowledge. Most are running Smoothieware (including me ATM). but I wouldn't mind using a controller that has more drivers, like the bigtreetech skr pro, which has a very similar Arm MCU to what you're using.
Oh yeah, wrong footprints. Happens to everyone :D
Also, how are you programming the stm32 with the arduino ide, stm32duino?
Nice design....Do you have plans to make this controller card for sale? e.g trough Tindie or Ebay? . I,m intrested in a complete card with working firmware.
Good that you drop your self designed ring communication.
There are better ones that are supported by hardware (and software) in many different chips.
Check out F7 chips, we use them on Flight controllers for racing/freestyle FPV drones.
Hello Stephen
I show your video and will like it. From today's video I get to know about your are using RS485 in your current design and would like to offer you my help for the same as I have very good experience with RS485 as I have my own several product with that.
If you consider it please do let me know how can I hele you to make it work properly.
Another great video !
You really deserve a better soldering station than that red toy Weller. Trust me, it’ll be a revelation.
Hi, awesome work..!!! What power regulator (buck) do you using?
Hey, are you going to use 2 cameras or only one? I don't think 2 camera can be plugged into 1 usb hub, mine didn't work.
Small question, Why hand soldering? :-)
The STM32F407 is a great board, so many more features compared to the AVR arduino boards
It works! It's Verking!
first time watching. Awesome channel. So cool..
What was that tool that you used to hold down the pcb? The one with the circular knob.
stm32 or mega2560???
Hello Stephen, we want to work with you,how can we contact you？
Here's a video on when to use flux - ruclips.net/video/tfIwHuGzUEk/видео.html - Even just a $2 no-rinse flux pen off banggood or something will be better than nothing.
Your solder technique is great, really. Flux will make the solder sooo much more cooperative.
So why use a 5V buck + 3.3v linear regulator, instead of directly going for a 3.3v buck converter? Aren't linear regulators a lot less efficient?
A lot of the times at least in my experience, quality buck converters tend to be more expensive and if the 3V3 is only used for the MCU, a buck that can supply multiple Amps may be an overkill. Not to mention that larger requirement of extra passives for a buck
you can always use 5V for the plugged in usb devices on the hub (I even think that's what stephen is doing)
@@Davedarko Right, I was wondering if he needs the 5V somewhere. That would make sense for USB-devices, but in the video he explains that that's exactly what caused the magic smoke, and so he separated the USB- & buck- 5V-lines, right? great channel btw, hab ich direkt abonniert ;)
I agree with @Aditya Sehgal
though - the MCU probably draws so little power that it hardly matters, and if 3.3v bucks are expensive that would explain the extra component. I imagine linear regulators also provide more reliable/precise voltages?
@@larsfroelich Hehe Danke, poste nur noch sporadisch, meisten Sachen produziere ich fuer element14 :)
The USB input from the computer was separated from the 5V on the board that delivers power to the usb devices like the HUB and camera etc. So yes, separated USB but still 5V for USB :D
@@larsfroelich About the bucks, its not just 3v3 bucks, but really all in general. for an MCU needing a couple mA it makes sense to use an LDO given the extremely low cost of them. Look at the AMS1117 or the XC6206 both can be found for a few cents whereas a nice TI or OnSemi buck can be a couple dollars. And inductors can be rather expensive too if you have tight constraints. Not to forget the noise... linear regulators have virtually no noise since they just dissipate the dropped voltage as heat. As for the voltage that can be usually adjusted unless you opt for a fixed model but noise can be an issue since too much noise can impact your logic levels
Hope you get to 1 mil
Imagine all the traces you could cram on a board with 1mil routing...
I too wish for 1 mil!
@@pontiacg445lol i think that on their spec sheet they can go down to something crazy like 0.2 millimeter trace clearance
But i guess he is on 0.2 mil subs...
Hmm, I guess you should have really had a pick'n'place machine for assembling that board...
you will you publish this pcb version on pcbway?
Here is a link to the project github, for those who don't already know it: github.com/sphawes/index
RS-45?
Or do you mean RS-485 ?
ruclips.net/video/br05maF-CkA/видео.html
:chefs_kiss:
Bravo!
my current success rate is approximately 1/your-enthusiasm
Glad someone who's knows more about electronics makes the same mistakes as me lol.
Maybe your MOSFET will grow into its footprint one day!
If it eats its veggies, it'll grow big and strong! Switching high-current loads all day
That chip is like atleast 20 times more powerful than what you were using has triple features ...
hoe oud ben je eiglk?
Stephen -- I've done some rework on the feeder board design. Updated on the Discord #electronics channel. Will submit PR if you find it to be useful.
Built in bootloader?!?! Sign me up!
YAY!!!
Welcome to the ARM world
ST is notorious for misleading "pin 1" marks. It's not your fault. CNLohr also hates this (and he said so in your tweet).
Aren't Op-Amps so cool :D? I lowkey think I'm more of an analogue guy than a digital guy which I think is funny since I just graduated and live in the age of digitalll ;p
nice
8:20 well you are not a beginner
Now build a Open pcb printing machine :p
Does he ever say where he lives? His accent is subtle but I'm thinking east coast
i didn't think about his "accent" other than his odd speech patterns he sounds normal to me. so maybe north east US? south east people like in Tennessee talk funny.
Californians dont really have an accent to me either so he could be out there too.
im from new england! :D
@@stephen_hawes haha! Knew it, fellow New Englander myself
First time watching your videos and you got a subscriber.
But it was so hard to watch you solder, it's physically painful, I would suggest using more flux and using a better soldering tip, maybe a chisel tip or a knife tip, conical tips are bad overall because they don't have enough contact surface.
Vacuum sensor? pfft.
Just use a pressure transducer.
more flux, USE MORE FLUX
Or you know he could use any flux. All I saw in that vid was what was in the core of the solder wire and in his solder braid. Infact I think the solder braid was doing the whole job of fluxing the pins of that STM chip.
Coffee owerdose boy
FLUX! Poor board, all het up for no good reason! 😢😢😢🥺
You clearly know about drag-soldering but still using wick on every side? Why? Just don't put so much solder on in the first place.
The wick is serving the role of flux here. Or at least, the flux in the wick is serving the role of flux.
Hello with Russia again! Your need add configuration pins for Steppler Drivers. A4988 or DRV8825 or TMC, your understanding? Sorry for my English..
How come "makers" never do design reviews before they sent the data out to the fabs? It would be so easy to do with the internet and a world wide comunity, and the less experienced people could learn a lot from the more experienced ones in the process. Learning by failure is an option, but it seems to waste a lot more precious ressources and time...
I've been thinking of doing design streams on twitch for this exact reason! I also share designs before I order them on my Discord server
RUclipsrs in general are like this, they just don't like asking us for help as that make leak some details of their next video.
It's even worse when they break something, due to being impatient or lacking understanding, instead of stopping there and making the video a 2 parter so they can ask for help.
Every time i see your video with a new board i expect you to use the PNP machine to mount at least a few components or at least to dot pasta on the board
Never happens
Would be more ironic than the title.. Using a machine that builds circuit board to build a circuit board for a machine that builds circuit board
too much dude face, but nice footage
Creepy emotional outbursts 🙄
Sprzętu za tyle kasy na stole ale lutować to ty chłopie nie potrafisz...
First