I know several places to get PCBs but I’m more worried about the surface mount soldering. I’d like to find someplace that can do the whole board and parts.
OK, Seeed are probably worth a look then. A couple of the open hardware platforms that have come from Dangerous Prototypes, including the Openbench Logic Sniffer that is just coming, have been SMT soldered. I know the Bus Pirate I have in front of me uses larger parts than my Fez Domino board has, but maybe they have capability for smaller parts too?
GHI uses very small parts to keep the board size to the minimum. You defiantly wouldn’t want to use 0603 R/C on your board. You can even replace all R/C with through hole parts so you can hand solder it.
Actually, all parts on FEZ Domino can be replaced with through hole for easy soldering (if this is what you want) but the only thing that need machine soldered is USBizi 144 pin chip.
Is ther such a thing as a 144pin socket?
Yes but they are very expensive…maybe $50 or more
I think I’ve figured out Eagle to make some headway here. What chip pins should i not bother connecting up, or should I do the lot?
Also wondering do i need anything other than to present them on headers?
USBizi manual will tell you need.
I can certainly tell you from experience that you do not want to try and solder that chip by hand.
I know I am coming late to this, but a Domino Mega would be a great board. The Mega shields are numerous, not quite as numerous as 2009’s. The additional sensor lines are nice for larger projects of all types. I ended up using two Panda class brds to control my wife’s porch irrigation which I could have done easily with one Mega. I am going to go back and replace the two board system, I would LOVE to do it with a Domino Mega. Example, I have a robotic lawn mower that I am working on and to use a Domino I would have to use more costly sensors. A Domino version of the Mega would be very useful for small robots which is what the Mega was designed for with its extra IO.
I’m always happy to solder stuff for people… I can do down to 0402 comfortably. Send me the parts, or most common stuff (0603 caps/res, some larger caps, LDO’s, etc) i have and you can buy off me for digikey single prices. I can send you a list of reels i have too if you’re planning.
markh@ rris.com.au