One thing I noticed was that the crystal hits the LCD IC, and the programming header hits the SD card slot. So if there is a V2, maybe these could move and the assembly could be about 2mm thinner.
First thing I did was drill out the 2mm holes to 3mm. The holes seem to line up pretty well with the LCD.
Edit, Bugger! Just noticed my programing header is offset one hole.
@SeanHacker Cool that the PCBs arrived. So that’s some 11 days for shipping to US. Good to know.
Nice work on the acrylic enclosure. I actually thought about doing the same, but then I went for cardboard instead. Not pretty, but easy to work with and it does the job.
Yeah, I was about to tell you. It shouldn’t be hard to desolder if you have a solder wick. I think I have sent you a spare header. If you can’t desolder it as a whole, you can cut all the pins. Then you can desolder them one by one, which is much easier.
I’m aware of that. The crystal is already fixed in v0.3:
The header is not a problem, IMO. It actually doubles as a spacer – keeps the two PCBs parallel to each other. Also, you have a hair of space underneath the header.
The best way to solder it on is if you solder only a single pin first. Then take the PCB in your left hand, press the header firmly against the PCB and re-heat the soldered pin. Then let it cool while still pressing firmly. It won’t move after that and you can solder the remaining pins next. That way you don’t get any space under the header.
I don’t believe that. You definitely don’t have 2mm of clearance above the MCU. If the crystal is moved and the header is not soldered on (you can make a harness instead), you can maybe make it 0.5mm thinner, but no more than that.
The crystal only touches the plastic housing of the chip. It won’t short anything. I still didn’t like it so I moved it for the next version, but I honestly don’t think it’s a big deal.
Nice to see the progress !
It seems that there is a lot of space left on the PCB.
Would it be nice to add a NTC on the PCB for having the external temperature ?
You probably have some spare ADC on the Atmega.
Just trhowing ideas for v0.3
Nice! In fact, the parts that you’re missing are only needed to reset the chip while programming. You can program the chip using your arduino. Then you’re good. The only problem is that once you solder on the display, it will be very difficult for you to solder additional components.
I’m actually waiting for the chips to come in still. They were supposed to be here on Sunday but something happened. So from what it looks like they should be here tomorrow along with the rest of the components.
Question. Its not bad to bend these 20pf capacitors like this is it?
Aha, I remembered seeing the MCU with crystal and caps on one of the pics and I thought that one was from you, but I was wrong, sorry (it was from JonathanLau1983).
As for the capacitors, it’s probably not ideal, but I have done the same with mine and haven’t had any problems so far. I ordered these for the kits, which are smaller and I hope they will fit without bending. You could also use SMD capacitors like here.
@Pimousse Thanks for the idea. I prefer to keep it small, but I encourage anyone to experiment with add-ons. You could fork my PCB design on EasyEDA and add anything you want to it. Then order from JLCPCB. For 10 PCBs it’s some $8 shipped if you don’t mind waiting a bit.