dipmicro support - All Forums

Looking for correct crimping tool.

Sat, 12 May 2012 01:15:46 +0000

I bought a number of the Crimp Pin for Female Cable Connector HDR-PIN-F (DE1550) a while ago.

I have tried using needle nose pliers and several other small crimping tools to try and make them work properly, but have failed miserably.

Is there a specific Crimping tool for using on something this small and if so where can I get one?

Thanks.

What type of crimper to use on these contacts?

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:38:42 +0000

Very interested in using these and plugs for my next arduino kits:

https://secure.dipmicro.com/store/DE1550

What type of crimper to use then? Thanks.

PIC18F Eagle LIB

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:40:40 +0000

This message was posted by nabil:

Quote:hellow,
i am looking for PIC18F eagle lib ,can someone please guive me a valid link because http://www.dipmicro.com/support/showthread.php?tid=105 is dead
thanks for help

We have been moving the site including this forum and some of the website features were affected. You happened to leave the message on the "old" site, that's why I copied it here. This link should work:

https://secure.dipmicro.com/support/show...hp?tid=105

PICKit 3 ?

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:23:36 +0000

Quite a while ago you had Microchip PICKit 3 programmers for sale. I should have got one then. Is there any chance of your having them again?

Anyone selling an Arduino UNO board!

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:20:57 +0000

Hey,
I'm wondering if anyone is selling arduino UNO micro-controller board. Or this site even; I tried to find it but couldn't so if anyone is selling please let me know the price. Thanks.

Simardeep Gill

MicroSD connector - Bad Footprint

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:23:16 +0000

Just to let you know, the footprint you have from Roman Vaughan for this part (DE1594) is pinned backwards.

I wrote him about it, and he had already realized it, and made a corrected version - attached here.

Just wanted to save someone from making a batch of PCBs with a bad footprint for that part.

dipmicro.lbr (Size: 2.61 KB / Downloads: 0)

Replacing electrolytic capacitors

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:16:41 +0000

Recently a customer asked us if we sold 680uF capacitors.

We have 470uF and 1000uF. Common aluminium electrolytics have usually +80 -20% tolerance.

This customer wrote to me: It is for a LCD monitor that has a few bulged capacitors. Two being 1000uf 25v and one 680uf 25v. Do you think it would be better o go with the 470uf or the 1000uf?

I would personally go with 470uF because actual real capacity of new part will be higher (up to +80%), maybe even 840uF. New 1000uF may have capacity 1800uF (+80%) and rectifiers will be working harder.

Did you notice consumer electronics manufacturers sometimes install electrolytic caps right beside huge source of heat? And these caps are low-temp rated parts ! This is a time-bomb sabotaging your device after warranty expires. The hotter working temp, the lower lifetime of caps causing entire device to stop working. How many consumer electronic products go to landfill and all that's needed is to change electrolytic capacitor?

I would find cooler spot for replacement capacitor close-by, glue it there and wire it to the original location. Use the wire gauge at least the same as capacitor leads, preferably thicker. It's extra work, but will add many years of lifetime to your device.

How to find short on PCB

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:53:45 +0000

Came to my attention that approx 1 in 10pcs of our PK28 board has short between Vdd and GND. Our suppliers tell us they do electrical test, but apparently some take shortcuts. Anyway, we stopped using particular supplier who delivered last batch of PK28 some time ago and using higher quality PCB fab.

I do sometimes wave electrical test on very simple boards without narrow spacing, e.g. proto board PB1. However, PK28 uses "spilled ground" and this was exactly the problem - one of the Vdd pads touched this spilled ground (see image below)

Set your scanner to at least 1200x1200 dpi, full 24-bit color and custom size slightly larger than your PCB. I used 10 x 6cm area and when increasing resolution, 4800 dpi gave "not enough memory" warning despite 4GB in the system.

Take two scans - top and bottom. Paste each scan into it's separate layer, mirror the bottom one and align them in your favorite photo editing program (I use Paint.NET for quick jobs like this one).

Now you can zoom and move image and inspect both layers at the same time. Turn layer visibility on/off as needed.

ceramic disc caps tolerance

Tue, 31 May 2011 20:04:02 +0000

I ordered 50 ceramic disc capacitors, 33nF -20% +80% tolerance. I was hoping to be able to pull 20 capacitors out of this bunch with tolerances around ±2%, using my DMM to measure them (which does have a capacitance meter). According to my DMM, they were all much closer to 50nF than to 33nF, the lowest being around 43nF and the highest in excess of 53nF. Is this typical? These values are within the tolerances specified so I can't complain, but can I assume that if I order 22nF caps with the same tolerance that their actual values will be centered around 33nF? Are there any assumptions I can make that will make this easier for me?

Big font on character LCD version 2, now in library

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 01:09:21 +0000

After some major upgrading, the phi_big_font has rolled out of the “Liudr factory”

Here is how big they look, on a 20X4 screen, showing both regular and inverted fonts.

Details are in the phi_big_font library page.

FYI, dipmicro has 16X2 character displays that you can use to display four numbers big enough to see from at least 10 feet away, nice for a clock like the following:

I used an arduino microcontroller board and a Phi shield.

Here is a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep3uXntdLB8

Board Codes

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:12:07 +0000

BB codes available on this board are listed here:

http://wiki.mybb.com/index.php/MyCode

breadboard compatible switches

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 01:48:07 +0000

Could someone confirm that these switches are compatible with a standard breadboard? As far as pin size and spacing that is.

I've bought similar switches from Sparkfun and they won't stay plugged-in.
Thanks in advance!

http://www.dipmicro.com/store/MJTP1230

http://www.dipmicro.com/store/TL1105XF160Q

Sale March 5 - 14, 2011

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 09:16:37 +0000

We will be closed during March 5 - 13, but online store remains open and orders start mailing on March 14th. We expect bit of a backlog, so do not panic if we do not reply to your question or do not mail your order right away.

To reward customers for waiting, we will credit back (refund) portion of your payment according to below schedule (shipping cost excluded). The longer you wait, the higher the reward:

The credit will not show during checkout, you pay full amount and receive refund on March 14/15, 2011.

Canadian customers: if you are getting ridiculously high shipping costs like $30 or $50, please note we will also adjust shipping charge to actual cost of mailing Expedited Parcel by CanadaPost from L2E2L5 (click to get CanadaPost quote and use 30 x 20 x 10cm dimension for the purpose of estimate).

Code:

|  PAYMENT DATE |  ORDER > $10  |  ORDER > $20  |

-------------------------------------------------

|  March 5      |    10% off    |    20% off    |

|  March 6      |    10% off    |    20% off    |

|  March 7      |    9% off     |    18% off    |

|  March 8      |    8% off     |    16% off    |

|  March 9      |    7% off     |    14% off    |

|  March 10     |    6% off     |    12% off    |

|  March 11     |    5% off     |    10% off    |

|  March 12     |    4% off     |    8% off     |

|  March 13     |    3% off     |    6% off     |

|  March 14     |    2% off     |    4% off     |

Beginner wants to start with LED project

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:08:17 +0000

What should this person buy ?

breadboard and jumper wires
some batteries and battery holders, or DC adapters
several types of LED
some resistors (maybe we should have resistor set for LED projects)
pushbutton ?
digital voltmeter

What else ? Anyone ?

I think we should have an inexpensive set with nice article with it.

20mm coin holder - carry both types ?

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:14:00 +0000

I would like to ask if we should continue carrying this holder:

http://dipmicro.com/store/DE3635

I actually ordered it by mistake and we are currently out. Normally we stock this one:

http://dipmicro.com/store/DE1269

Persistence of vision display for microcontrollers

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:36:48 +0000

Any interest in this persistence of vision display for microcontrollers? Hopefully dipmicro will sell this. The rotation stage is not included. You can get a large PC case fan for a stage of less than $10, from a surplus store.

PCB for the persistence of vision display head:

Displaying messages:

More with a real time clock chip on board. It becomes a clock!

Here is my real time clock module:

Projects I did with the Arduino Phi-1 shield

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:07:58 +0000

Here is a short list of projects I did with the Arduino Phi-1 shield, which I designed a while back. It is very versatile. Here is it's link on dipmicro.com

http://dipmicro.com/store/JL-PHI-1
Shield's home page:
http://liudr.wordpress.com/phi-1-shield/

List of finished projects (codes and details are available on my blog)
Alarm clock: fully-interactive with infinite number of alarms on weekends, weekdays, one day or off. All you need is an arduino and the Phi-1 shield.

http://liudr.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/ar...-1-shield/

Morse code trainer: you can key in Mores codes and the arduino recognizes it letter by letter. You can also "type in" words so arduino will translate it into Morse code. No additional parts are required.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qfc1B6O2...r_embedded
http://liudr.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/mo...d-decoder/

GPS interactive logger: you can log your trip and export your coordinates and more to PC. You will need a GPS module and connector.

http://liudr.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/fu...ps-logger/

Car reverse/backing obstacle sensor: you can tell the distance between the back of your car and an obstacle behind it, be it a small child or another car. Audio alarms are available at various settings to alert you that you're approaching an obstacle. You will need RJ11 cable, breakout board, and a sonic ranger for the project.

http://liudr.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/ar...ng-sensor/

Network cables - copper or aluminium ?

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 19:14:49 +0000

I bought a CAT5E AWG24 cable from eBay and noticed material was described as 1Gbit ready CCA alloy.

Here is nice article about Copper Clad Aluminium: http://www.icf.at/en/6049/copper_clad_aluminium.html

An article about CCA performance in network applications: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_..._aluminium

It got me interested, it should not be that bad because of skin effect, the 1MHz signal is mostly distributed by outside 66um of the copper wire and 100MHz signal only 6.6um, so the wire should be as good as solid copper plus it's half the weight (apparently plane manufacturers like using CCA wiring). The first article about CCA talks about 10% copper, which should account for 43% of wire weight and average density 37% of copper (= 3.3g/cm3)

How much copper is in this eBay wire? Density of Al is 2.7g/cm3 and Cu is 8.94 g/cm3. I stripped all 8 wires from exactly 2ft of this cable. Core diameter was 0.5mm, so AWG rating was fairly accurate. All metal from this 2ft piece together weighed 2.64g - that means we have 0.958 cm3 of material with 2.64g weight, average density 2.756g/cm3 - not quite what was expected.

Conclusion: approx 0.9% of this alloy weight (~ 2.3um thin ring) is copper, rest is aluminium.

This was from US seller (likely China importer). It's fine for most purposes, in 10' patch cable aluminium should be as good as copper even at 1Gbit, but I would not recommend networking a larger size home with this material. Also keep in mind Al has almost double resistance of Cu when considering a Power over Ethernet application.

This research took me about 2hrs, I hope it will save you some frustration when you decide to network your home or business. Suddenly 1000ft ATUP-V305T-R @ $96 or CR5.30.07 @ $135 from DigiKey seem like great deals.

Should you buy CCA cables? If you are a contractor, or specifically need copper core, then no. If you are making a patch cable to connect your sensor network or a printer that is in the next room, the CCA will be fine.

How to recognize CCA cable? cut or scratch core and look inside the cut. Is it solid red inside or it's red only on surface? If you cannot see clearly because core is too thin, make a high-res picture without using flash at daylight and zoom or use 200x microscope toy you bought for your kid last Christmas.

More details: for completeness, here is more details from my experiment. Sorry for mixing feet and metric units, use 304.8mm/ft conversion. I measured also plastic jackets, but ended up not using the information:

Core diameter: 0.5mm
Core weight: 0.33g @ 2ft
Core jacket diameter: 0.9mm
Core jacket weight: 0.25g @ 2ft
Cable jacket outside circumference: 15mm (cannot measure diameter accurately, too squishy)
Cable jacket thickness: 0.6mm
Cable jacket weight: 7.08g @ 2ft
All core jackets weight: 2.00g @ 2ft
All core weight: 2.64g @ 2ft

Disclosure: measurements by inexpensive digital caliper and jewelry scale, not a laboratory grade equipment.

AA Battery Holder Modification

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:25:12 +0000

Came to my attention that one of our battery holders does not make contact with the cells. This mod shows the 4x AA holder but it can be applied to other battery holders that have similar design issue.

I compared no-name 4x AA holder and Keystone 2478 (click images to zoom):

http://dipmicro.com/store/BHAA4W

http://dipmicro.com/store/BH2478

and found out the no-name holder has weaker negative contact springs and is 1mm shorter in weight - so cells are stuffed more and need even higher force to push them towards positive contact.

In no-name holder, there is a little plastic tip beside each positive contact. Remove them carefully using utility knife, they have no function and if cell button is not exactlu alligned , they prevent the contact.

There is 3 plastic separators inside the holder between the cell. One side of each separator has a hole and contact going throuhg, other side is solid plastic. Remove the plastic on the solid side and leave less than 1mm from the holder wall. Do not remove this plastic piece all the way down but leave about the height as the separator has in the middle:

GBC H220 Laminator modification for PCB transfer

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:34:53 +0000

The unit is too fast out-of-the-box. To slow it down approx 4x, do the following:

1) open the unit (6 screws, image #1, 2)
2) unmount the motor assembly (3 screws, image #3)
3) swap gears, small gear should be on motor's shaft (image #4, 5)
4) mount motor assembly back, close unit

Pulsar also published the modification procedure, check it out: http://www.pulsarprofx.com/special/H-220/

Click images to magnify

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5