Hacking COMPLETED My dongle project, internal/external SAMD Loader with CR2032 Holder

[MatinatorX]

Great work man, enjoy that well-earned cold one!

Holy cow, nice work and my gosh that machine was sexy. What is the flashes it makes btw?

I feel like that kid at the back of the class with his hand raised as high as humanly possible. You know the one. It's OPs baby so I'll let him answer though

 

[electronrancher]

Ha ha! You could have answered if you wanted to MatinatorX, no problem!

But the flashes are the machine taking a picture of each component after it picks it up. It checks the size and rotation, and then it knows exactly how to turn it to place it right on top of the PCB footprint. I did a project with this bitcoin chip a while back and it has incredibly tiny leads that are only visible from the bottom. It was not possible to get it placed accurately without a vision placer, so I took the plunge. I'll take a video of the placer's monitor tomorrow, it draws a neat little bounding box and calculates the center of the component right as that flash goes off, it's pretty interesting to watch if you're a huge nerd like me.

 

[electronrancher]

OK, we had a busy day so I didn't get to put up the video until now. Here you can see the monitor of the pick and place as it calculates offset and rotation as it snapshots each component. On bigger components like USB, you can actually see the crosscrosshairs it draws to identify the center.



This was the first run of a whole board of 9 loaders, worked pretty good!

 

[isoboy]

All I have to say is: Skynet.

 

[starburst]

I do not really need one, but I would purchase one from you just to support stuff like this.
It is fun to see how something is done, specially when I have no idea how it works.

 

[Patxinco]

Just found this thread, amazing.
You should consider selling them,pretty sure there's potential buyers around here.

Btw, could it fit in a DS cartridge case? Seems almost same size...

 

[electronrancher]

Just found this thread, amazing.
You should consider selling them,pretty sure there's potential buyers around here.

Btw, could it fit in a DS cartridge case? Seems almost same size...

Thanks! I will offer some for sale later this week, more details to come. Still have to get things set up and documented.

What's the size of a DS cartridge case? It might fit, I'm not sure - I love the idea though!

 

[Yasars]

Where can i buy and how much ? Nice work love to support this...

 

[KsAmJ]

Just found this thread, amazing.
You should consider selling them,pretty sure there's potential buyers around here.

Btw, could it fit in a DS cartridge case? Seems almost same size...

DUDE I want ONE ASAAAAAAAAAAAAP. let me know where and when to get it

 

[Patxinco]

DUDE I want ONE ASAAAAAAAAAAAAP. let me know where and when to get it

Pretty sure you're talking to @electronrancher here xD

And DS cartridge case is 4,3x4,4x0,7cm

 

[Cyan]

really nice to see how it was build from the idea to final product.
it's missing the programming & calibration, and the electronic board creation, like knowing which element to use, which value, draw the board, etc.
but it's still great to see steps of the creation like these


I did a board once, drawing all the connection and using a UV machine to burn it. then placing everything manually. It wasn't that small though.

 

[electronrancher]

really nice to see how it was build from the idea to final product.
it's missing the programming & calibration, and the electronic board creation, like knowing which element to use, which value, draw the board, etc.
but it's still great to see steps of the creation like these


I did a board once, drawing all the connection and using a UV machine to burn it. then placing everything manually. It wasn't that small though.

What a small world - I used to do all my boards with UV exposure! I have a little box I made with 6 germicidal UV bulbs just for that purpose. It makes really beautiful boards if you get the photoresist right, but I always had a hard time putting an even coat of resist on my PCBs. I still use it from time to time if I have something I want to build quickly.

If you guys are interested in further details, I am happy to share. For programming, I use an STM32 board (the ones called "blue pill") that is flashed to the CMSIS-DAP firmware from github to act as the SWD (single wire debug) interface that is available on all ARM micros. I use openocd to flash the firmware. You kind of have to use openocd or the expensive atmel debugger to flash initially, because the raw chips don't come with any bootloader. But after I flash the UF2 bootloader, then changing firmware is as easy as plugging into USB and dropping a new file onto the flash drive that the SAMD impersonates.

Here's a pic of flashing using an STM32 blue pill. I bend the header pins down so they can press against my programming contacts, and they give a nice springy connection.

 

[Testo90]

Really good looking project!

 

[MatinatorX]

OK, we had a busy day so I didn't get to put up the video until now. Here you can see the monitor of the pick and place as it calculates offset and rotation as it snapshots each component. On bigger components like USB, you can actually see the crosscrosshairs it draws to identify the center.



This was the first run of a whole board of 9 loaders, worked pretty good!

Yeah, I need one of these. It's all I can think about now while I'm hand soldering SMD stuff. I think I'm going to take a chance on one of the AliExpress ones once the November 11th sales kick in.

Thanks for the awesome vid! I'll probably pick up one of your boards for the same reason as starburst, it's important to support this kind of stuff and I'll surely learn something

What a small world - I used to do all my boards with UV exposure! I have a little box I made with 6 germicidal UV bulbs just for that purpose. It makes really beautiful boards if you get the photoresist right, but I always had a hard time putting an even coat of resist on my PCBs. I still use it from time to time if I have something I want to build quickly.

If you guys are interested in further details, I am happy to share. For programming, I use an STM32 board (the ones called "blue pill") that is flashed to the CMSIS-DAP firmware from github to act as the SWD (single wire debug) interface that is available on all ARM micros. I use openocd to flash the firmware. You kind of have to use openocd or the expensive atmel debugger to flash initially, because the raw chips don't come with any bootloader. But after I flash the UF2 bootloader, then changing firmware is as easy as plugging into USB and dropping a new file onto the flash drive that the SAMD impersonates.

Here's a pic of flashing using an STM32 blue pill. I bend the header pins down so they can press against my programming contacts, and they give a nice springy connection.

Another maker joins the fray! I thought about making my own SWD programmer but they're less than a cup of coffee on fleabay with a nice anodized aluminum case so I went that route. I've always been interested in making my own boards from scratch, but I don't think I'd ever be able to make anything close to as small as 6 mil traces without royally borking something.

For the SWD/SWC programming pads, I just bought some spring pins and press fit them into a little laundry clip kinda thing I 3D printed to the shape of my board. Works great!

 

[electronrancher]

Where can i buy and how much ? Nice work love to support this...

DUDE I want ONE ASAAAAAAAAAAAAP. let me know where and when to get it

Thanks for the enthusiasm, it's really great to hear! I'll need a couple days to get things ready, but I'd say that by the end of this week I should have a pile of 20-30 completed units and I could start filling orders.

I'm asking $15 for a complete unit flashed to either hekate or SX Launcher, plus $3 for 1st class shipping inside the USA. I will sell a slightly cheaper unit later for internal install that does not contain the battery clip, switch, or USB socket. Reflashing is as easy as dropping a new firmware file on the "virtual flash drive" the device sets up when you double click reset. So it's no big deal to change hekate to SX or vice versa later.

I just found out that I cannot include a CR2032 battery without marking the package as containing "Lithium Battery for Ground Shipment Only", so a user would need to supply a CR2032 and a micro USB B to USB C cable. I am looking for a good deal on the cables in bulk, but for the moment I can recommend the "AmazonBasics USB Type-C to Micro-B 2.0 Cable - 6 Inches (15.2 Centimeters) - Black".

Very busy with family stuff tonight, and unfortunately not much time to build boards. But I'll leave you a pic of a board freshly stenciled with solder paste and about to be popped into the placer!



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Yeah, I need one of these. It's all I can think about now while I'm hand soldering SMD stuff. I think I'm going to take a chance on one of the AliExpress ones once the November 11th sales kick in.

Thanks for the awesome vid! I'll probably pick up one of your boards for the same reason as starburst, it's important to support this kind of stuff and I'll surely learn something



Another maker joins the fray! I thought about making my own SWD programmer but they're less than a cup of coffee on fleabay with a nice anodized aluminum case so I went that route. I've always been interested in making my own boards from scratch, but I don't think I'd ever be able to make anything close to as small as 6 mil traces without royally borking something.

For the SWD/SWC programming pads, I just bought some spring pins and press fit them into a little laundry clip kinda thing I 3D printed to the shape of my board. Works great!

Oh they are a great tool - will definitely kick your making into high gear!

I should have bought one of those SWD programmers, I know exactly the ones you mean! I'll putter along with my little blue pill, secretly hoping it breaks so I can upgrade!

And I'll tell you what - I don't have a 3D Printer and can't CAD to save my life. I'll send you a loader for free if you wouldn't mind printing up a little case for it. All I ask is that I get one, and it goes on Thingiverse. I have heard, from my non nerd friends, that some people don't want to look at a bare PCB. Can you imagine that? Who are these people?!?

 

[isoisoiso]

Just buy SX pro

 

[electronrancher]

Just buy SX pro

Meh, what's the fun in that?

 

[Zonark]

The tada blink! How much are you wanting for one of these

 

[electronrancher]

Just buy SX pro

Meh, what's the fun in that?

The tada blink! How much are you wanting for one of these

$15

 

[Zonark]

Blamo where you selling it at I want one

 

[linuxares]

@electronrancher We normally don't allow selling outside the selling section. But I will talk with the other mods about it.


EDIT: I also would be intrested in one