R.I.P. Right Angle connector.
Why? Well.. when I built the RXAMP board I put on the 4-pin straight connector on the wrong side of the board. I then fixed it and noted that the silkscreen on the PCB's show, with the white outline, what sided of the board the connector's top should be mounted on. That stuck in my brain. Like cyanoacrylate esters apparently. The instructions for the I/O build, which I read no less than 5 times prior to the build... said "important: Mount on the back of the board for it to fit in the cube.". (Interestingly enough there is a issue with this... I'll come back to it.*) Well.. somehow in my soldering and building zen trance I work myself into while constructing.. I did the autopilot thing and put the right angled connector on the wrong side of the stinkin' board again.. I caught myself with only about 10 pins soldered.. but it was too late.. even with my best solder sucker, to get that right angled sucker off of the board.
RTFM.. LEARN THE F'IN MANUAL.. LIVE THE F'IN MANUAL. You'd think I'd learn that.
If I had.. the job would have been less than 30 minutes to build the board. It was about 50 with the mistake and R.I.P the connector.. I stole the one off the DSP Board. That'll make the interconnect test not doable until I get a replacement.* I'll come back to it I said...
Anyway.. I recommend putting on all of the "flat" 0805 and 1206 parts (which on this board the parts are 1206) first.. it's easier to finagle the parts into place if building this way. Also cleaning the board at this stage is a great idea to get off the flux and other nasties on a flat surface. It gets harder if you try to do it all at the end. The next two pictures show the board at the "flat parts" on stage... cleaned with the last of my beloved fluorinated hydrocarbons. I'm starting the ultimate experiment on "what should replace" my "environment destroying" (or isn't it offsetting global warming?) wonder chemicals. R.I.P Good board cleaner...
Ah, the sweet smell of Trichlor. Anyway.. this is what I suggest. As long as it's not headers, I'd trust me. The method I used to mount the caps on this board, by the way is flux.. solder drop on both sides.. place the cap, use two grounded ESD irons to "surface tension" draw the part into it's perfectly centered space. Notice how straight the parts are and how well centered they are while using this method. It's highly recommended.
BUT NOT ON THE ELECROLYTICS!
If you attempt to do this on the Electolytics.. WELL you can but it will be very hard and take forever. The way I recommend doing those parts is to flux both sides.. solder blob one.. carefully position the electrolytic.. and then flow it into the blob and adjust several times until you get it perfectly centered. Tack the other side and when done and really pretty-- reflow the original side. Clean the flux off of each electrolytic as you do each one.
The "inventing the new (swear, curse) word" line is actually out of George Heron's instructions. He's right. But the less creative (swear, curse) words came later in the build with the @#$#ing right angle connector. It's worth noting that his comments about the NUE-PSK Mini DIN connector is true. The footprint on the PCB is.. well a bit hosed. The case ground holes are a tad bit too small and one of the side ground holes is too close to the inside of the connector. This means some trimming of the ground leads is needed and one of the has to be formed to be pushed into the board. Then by doing this the case will pry off of the connector on one side. Simply use a common screwdriver bend it back on. If done right it doesn't look that bad unless you get up to it really close. Even then it's not too bad. All well that ends well.
It passed it's "initial smoke test".. and I didn't seem to damage the board in the rework of the right angle connector. The connector from the DSP board looks pretty good here, doesn't it? ;O)
Here is the final product of my build. Again -1 point for the rework. * I'll get to that later...
The Spinner Household "junque box" has a lot of stuff in it but not right angle 0.100" headers. Since I could have used them on this project and the sr63ng both.. I guess it's time to start searching e-bay for a Chinese vendor to send me a lifetime supply of them just like the draw full of straight headers and chip resistor and cap kits and the other goodies I've lately stocked up in.
But.. probably.. the next part I break on a kit will be one I don't have... it's an inevitable part of kit building.
It's late.. I need my beauty sleep.. and more luck tomorrow. The build of the next two boards will be trouble free! (I hope)...
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