I have sometime a hard time to translate everything… lol
But do you make them all assembled from PCBFabExpress ?
Nope, just bare boards, that you then need to solder all those little pins 
I have been told by some other people I should upgrade my soldering station from my current ones (Weller WDL and Hakko) to a newer Weller WD1001 and use water soluble solder and flux would make soldering those things a lot easier… I am still trying to decide if I want to update my station or not…
Kurt
Ok so … to be easy for me…
What would cost me to have all parts from you and solder it myself ?
I would probably solder them with a heatgun and solder paste
It’s been a long time since I’ve been active on here so I’d like to talk about what I have done in terms of a DIY remote. I have a working pcb design that is powered by a standard Arduino Duemilanove. The pcb supports 16 analog/digital inputs, a 16 key matrix keypad, a 128x64 graphic lcd, xbee bidirectional communication, speaker, and up to six buttons for gui navigation. My remote consists of two Aurora gimbals, three slide pots, four toggle switches, two standard pots, and four push buttons. The pcb design is fairly simple. The circuit to control the hardware consists of:
1x 74HC595
1x 74HC166
1x MCP23008
2x 74HC4051
1x Xbee Series 1 Pro
Along with other various support components like resistors, caps, leds, level shifters, and voltage regualtors.
The Remote Code currently has the following features:
-Inverting analog/digital channel via software
-Programming Xbee while installed in remote
-Joystick calibration via software
-bidirectional communication
-battery monitoring
-signal strength monitoring
-A visual interface including text and graphics
-PS2 based api for interfacing with remote’s raw data
Previously planned features included:
-Software configurable Throttle curving
-displaying information from connected robot
-information screen which displays raw data from the remotes inputs
-failsafe mode for loss of signal / low battery
-model memory
Currently the pcb has smd chips but I could easily redesign the board to use all through hole components.
I also currently has a fully functional hardware prototype using a protoboard that I soldered together by hand.
If anyone is interested in more information or the source code just message me. My only wish is to further develop this remote into something that anyone could recreate at home.
To give you an idea about the price of the parts…
All prices are in US dollars.
Index Quantity Part Number Description Customer Reference Available Quantity Backorder Quantity Unit Price Extended Price
1 3 102-1155-ND BUZZER 2.4KHZ 12MM PC MOUNT SPKR 3 Immediate 0 1.31000 $3.93
2 1 160-1426-1-ND LED GREEN CLEAR THIN 0805 SMD PWR 1 Immediate 0 0.34000 $0.34
3 12 160-1428-1-ND LED YELLOW CLEAR THIN 0805 SMD L, RSSI, RX, TX 12 Immediate 0 0.27700 $3.32
4 3 24LC512-I/SN-ND IC EEPROM 512KBIT 400KHZ 8SOIC U7 3 Immediate 0 1.94000 $5.82
5 3 277-1721-ND CONN TERM BLOCK T/H 2POS 3.5MM J2 3 Immediate 0 0.36000 $1.08
6 6 399-1113-1-ND CAP CER 22PF 50V 5% NP0 0805 C10, C11 6 Immediate 0 0.07000 $0.42
7 33 399-1168-1-ND CAP CER 0.1UF 25V 10% X7R 0805 C1,... 33 Immediate 0 0.04900 $1.62
8 3 399-3706-1-ND CAP TANT 10UF 16V 10% 1411 C16, C17, C23 3 Immediate 0 0.52000 $1.56
9 3 497-3468-1-ND IC REG LDO 5V 1.5A D-PAK U5 3 Immediate 0 1.02000 $3.06
10 6 A26508-40-ND CONN HDR BRKWAY .100 40POS VERT 6 Immediate 0 4.10000 $24.60
11 6 A34268-40-ND CONN HDR BRKWAY .100 80POS VERT 6 Immediate 0 7.65000 $45.90
12 3 ATMEGA644PA-AU-ND IC MCU 8BIT 64KB FLASH 44TQFP U9 3 Immediate 0 7.39000 $22.17
13 3 BAV16W-FDICT-ND DIODE SWITCH 75V 400MW SOD123 D1 3 Immediate 0 0.20000 $0.60
14 6 EG2510-ND SWITCH TACTILE SPST-NO 0.05A 12V Reset1, BTN 6 Immediate 0 0.36000 $2.16
15 3 MC74HC244AFELGOSCT-ND IC BUFF/DVR TRI-ST DUAL 20SOEIAJ U6 3 Immediate 0 0.88000 $2.64
16 3 MMBT6428CT-ND TRANSISTOR GP NPN AMP SOT-23 Q1 3 Immediate 0 0.23000 $0.69
17 20 RR12P1.0KDCT-ND RES 1.0K OHM 1/10W .5% 0805 SMD R2, R4, R5, R9, R10, R11 20 Immediate 0 0.10200 $2.04
18 10 RR12P10.0KDCT-ND RES 10.0K OHM 1/10W .5% 0805 SMD R3, R6 10 Immediate 0 0.10200 $1.02
19 10 RR12P30.0KDCT-ND RES 30.0K OHM 1/10W .5% 0805 SMD R1 10 Immediate 0 0.10200 $1.02
20 20 RR12P390DCT-ND RES 390 OHM 1/10W .5% 0805 SMD R7, R13, R14, R16 20 Immediate 0 0.10200 $2.04
21 10 RR12P4.7KDCT-ND RES 4.7K OHM 1/10W .5% 0805 SMD R8, R21, R22 10 Immediate 0 0.10200 $1.02
22 10 490-1729-1-ND CAP CER 0.33UF 25V Y5V 0805 C20 10 Immediate 0 0.29700 $2.97
23 10 RR12Q49.9DCT-ND RES 49.9 OHM 1/10W .5% 0805 SMD R12 10 Immediate 0 0.10200 $1.02
24 25 S9001-ND CONN JUMPER SHORTING GOLD FLASH Shunts 25 Immediate 0 0.12480 $3.12
25 6 S5751-10-ND CONN RECEPT 2MM SINGLE STR 10POS XBee socket parts 6 Immediate 0 1.11000 $6.66
26 3 X1103-ND CRYSTAL 16.000 MHZ 20PF 49US X1 3 Immediate 0 0.81000 $2.43
27 3 568-1456-1-ND IC MUX/DEMUX DUAL 4X1 16SOIC U8 3 Immediate 0 0.56000 $1.68
Subtotal $144.93
This would be pretty close for an order for the parts to build 3 of these boards. So this comes out close to $50 per board plus about $15-20 for the fabrication, plus…, there are some obvious cost savings that can happen. Like I am using the gold break away headers, also including double row versions of these as they are a lot easier to get one 1x4 with one 2x4 and get them soldered in properly so servos plug in easily, versus three of the 1x4s, the the 1x4s are cheaper (actually not…), but could go to simple tin ones…
It is pretty easy to order the stuff from my list, you can simply go to digikey, go to order stuff, then click on Fast Add and then you click simply enter the parts and quantities. I simply have the Excel sheet up, click on a part name, do copy, go to their order thing, type in quantity and do a part for part number… The only complication is some parts you have to order in quantities of 10…
As I mentioned, I may go ahead and fabricate a few (a batch of 5 boards to play with as 2 costs $68, 3 $69, 5 $75) and build some for the fun of it. It is actually a pretty nice little board for General Purpose stuff.
But still wonder if we should do like I mentioned and Devon has now mentioned and instead build a board specific for this project. Depending on what we settle for it could be Devon’s board or could be something similar. From our discussions earlier I believe it will be different as I believe we all wanted to go the touch screen approach. What do you think?
What should go on the main board?
XBee holder, plus status leds?
Button?
Sliders? Maybe 3? Need to look for
Keypad: Probably not, do all with touch screen?
Sound? Maybe not, Touchscreen has sound, need to figure out how to use
Connections for Touch screen: maybe on bottom
Connections for Joysticks: again on bottom?
???
Should most of the face of this shield be visible or only cutouts for things?
Again round and round…
But as I said, would probably end up lower cost in the end as over $20 of connectors on current board, plus speaker that may not be needed, plus leds that wont be visible…
Sorry about this?
Kurt
Here’s a picture of my PCB design. All of the inputs are in the form of 3 pin servo connections. The keypad has its own 8 pin connection.
You can plug this into an arduino or solder a mini in to make this a standalone board.
Here’s the BOM, no prices just the info from my eagle libraries.
Qty Value Device Parts
1 +5v M06SIP JP10
2 +5v M081X08 JP3, JP6
1 0.1uF CAP0805 C3
2 1uF CAP0805 C1, C2
7 10K RESISTOR0805-RES R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R10
6 10k RESISTOR0805-RES R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16
1 10uF CAP0805 C4
1 20K TRIMPOTPTH R8
1 50 RESISTOR0805-RES R9
2 74HC4051_MUX 74HC4051_MUX U$1, U$2
1 74LS166D 74LS166D IC3
1 74LS595D 74LS595D IC2
1 ARDUINO_MINI ARDUINO_MINI U$5
1 ARDUINO_SHIELDNO_SILK ARDUINO_SHIELDNO_SILK U1
1 AX Bank1 M081X08 JP2
1 AX Bank2 M081X08 JP5
1 BAV16W DIODESOD-123 D1
1 BSS138 MOSFET-NCHANNELSOT23 Q1
1 BUZZER12MM BUZZER12MM SG1
1 Buttons M06SIP JP14
2 GND M081X08 JP4, JP7
1 IN M02PTH JP9
1 IN M025MM JP13
1 Keypad M081X08 JP1
1 LM2937 LM2937 U$6
1 M18_ M18_ U$4
1 MCP1700 MCP1700 U$7
1 MCP2300X/SO MCP2300X/SO IC1
1 MMBT6428 NPN-TRANSISTOR_SOT23 Q2
1 RESET TAC_SWITCHPTH S1
1 SPKEN M02PTH JP
1 XBEE-1B1 XBEE-1B1 U$3
nice…
i have plenty of promini
I was thinking that it would be easy to add a resistive touch screen to my board. Personally I like the keypad/nav button combo. I have a love/hate relationship with touch screens XD
I hear you… With buttons you have the advantage of tactile feeling of the buttons, with a touch screen you do not have any feedback. I sort-of shutter when I hear car companies talk about their new systems for controlling everything without any buttons. Talk about distractions… But back on subject… The plus is that when you are doing other stuff like configurations and the like, touch screens are pretty cool as you can make them specific to the task at hand…
I am torn. Devon, In a lot of ways I like the idea that you simply used a board which is basically an Atmega328 with a few support chips… and integrated it into your board, versus actually having to solder them into your board. But this is an interesting trade off as then you still have to solder in several other small components, so you could have just soldered in an Atmega328… So if you see a hobbyist building your board, you should probably convert to through hole components, but if you are going to have them produced and populated, then it may be cheaper and easier to take the components off of the Arduino Pro Mini and put them on your board, as you will need to either find way to solder the Arduino Pro mini to your board, or add pins and sockets for it… And then your board like mine, requires the person building the remote control, to take it and then add everything, for example the 3 sliders, keypad, extra buttons, solder wires to them, maybe add 3 pin connectors for each of them to then plug into my/your board to make it work and then you have to be careful on your wire lengths and the like to get everything to fit…
Versus: Suppose I start off with an Arduino Mega pro board: $50 from Amazon.com cheaper if you go with DFRobot…
Then build a very large shield, that maybe is not fully rectangular as to leave out the location of the joysticks, but in this board, we mount the XBee, plus LCD like you did, can use as many IO pins as we want as we have lots, also we plug in the Keypad, plus mount in the Nav buttons, Power switch… On the bottom of this board we could add connectors for the joysticks, plus bring out some of the extra unused inputs to make it easier to add some custom things in. We could also for example add tilt sensor or leave that is a customization… We would probably not need very much logic actually on this board, simply routing, plus voltage conversion for XBee…
My guess is that this approach would have a slightly higher cost, but my guess is that it would make it a lot easier for others to build.
Not sure if this makes sense…
Kurt
I concur with kurte. waiting to see more.
Question on the Touch screen. I used a touch screen with a PIC a while ago. LINK i found that i kept having sausage finger issues when moving the sliders and had to use a stylist. It also used alot of pins on the PIC. Which screen would you recommend to use with the arduino?
Thanks
I did a little hacking with diptrace and started an all in one board… Not far yet, but this picture may give you an idea…
The board is about 8.5" by 4.75"…
Will git rid of all all SMT components… Shown with a Arduino mega to plug into… Also instead of putting all of the XBee stuff on the board, was thinking of simply putting in holes to mount a Parallax XBee adapter where you could simply have a hole in the top plate that this sticks part way into and you can plug your XBee in and see all of the RX/Tx/Power… leds… (parallax.com/StoreSearchResu … ch=xbee+5v)
I show it with cutout for my 1.5" OLED. The boards leave out the portion where the joysticks would attach to top plate, could potentially include this and see about making a hole big enough… Would add connectors for Joysticks to plug into, likewise display, keypad… Obviously would change this for Larger display with touch screen…
What do you think, is this an approach that makes sense…
Kurt
looks promising, could attach it to the back of the face plate with some standoffs
As I mentioned in the previous post, I am thinking along the lines of my previous post, to instead of a GP board, build a board that is specific for this remote… But again before I go much farther, it would be good to get input on what we would like:
a) What type of display? Is Touch worth it? If not, OLED? Or the one that RobotDude/Devon wanted to use or something cheaper like the original.
b) Keypad? Gives tactile feedback, if so I would like to stick with the 16 bit keypad.
c) Sliders and or Knobs? Preference on location.
d) Other toggle switches?
e) Other inputs? 2 or 3 d accel?
I am open for options, especially from those who have used setups like this and or advanced RC…
If we can come up with a standard, maybe someone can make nice front plates and other case parts. Goal would be to make it easy for one most people with limited soldering skills.
The other thing I was playing with an all in one type of control like the Arbotix Commander, but with more stuff… The beginnings of this are shown below:
What I was trying to do was to emulate the controls of a PS2, that has XBee. The top switches are right angle double switches… Also shown with a small LCD display (Sparkfun 8x2)… Then would just need simple handles like the Arbotix ones…
Kurt
I really like to have the nice touch oled screen…
But i will go with what everyone would like.
I can cut G10 (Fiberglass) pannel once we are set.
As input, i never made a walking robot yet… lol
So other could tell what is really helpfull on that point.
I think cheaper is the way to go since it will interest more people.
So…?
HaHa…!
On my side i am better on the Case aspect.
So mostly wait for what we will use as hardware and how we want to go.
Then i could design a cut something… 
Been busy on other projects, including hacking on the Turnigy 9X… Would be nice if we could simply use some off the shelf parts with simple mods… I now have Smartyparts programmer installed, may add their 2nd board as well… (Different thread)
Assuming we do other type remote, not sure which approach would be best. Could go along the lines of Devon and Robot Dude were pursuing, but would probably then go with non SMT components, then easy for most people to solder. Could go along the line of my Atmega640P which my own has been using. Or could try along the lines I was working on that has as much of the stuff mounted on the main circuit board.
Will take a look again soon.
Kurt
Taking a 9X and case it in another way could be nice too.
Yes I’m still looking to recase my 9x (as standard). Hint hint…
From an animatronics point of view 'being able to move some of the pots and switches will make some of my projects far easier to control.
I’m going to move this next question to the 9x thread…