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ABS for QMX+. Version 1.1 (Current) Group Buy and BOM Information
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Greetings to all who have been following Sardar's project over the last few months. I'd like to extend a special welcome to all the future builders who are already on my email list for the PCB group buy. Thank you for your patience while waiting for our first ABS for QMX+ "release." I will be sending an email to everyone on the list in the next few days with updated information and I'll post here too.
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In the meantime, here is my current Digikey BOM. There are other places where you can satisfy the BOM but this is where Sardar and I have sourced most of the required parts. Between the items listed in this Digikey BOM and the SMD components that will come pre-installed on the ATU board, almost all the parts are covered. The other two boards (ATU Mount Board and Companion Board) do not feature any SMD parts--other than the battery management system (BMS) sub-board, which has large solder pads on it. I used the biggest tip available for my 60W Weller soldering station AND a somewhat more powerful butane powered soldering pencil at the same time on each of those solder joints, so please anticipate the need for soldering tools that can make some heat for this step. Installing the BMS board to the Companion Board is not delicate SMD work, but an SMD hot air blower soldering tool might work too. I have never used one for this task. Also, a few more parts must be obtained from Amazon (or elsewhere) and some of the Amazon parts can, alternatively, be obtained from Digikey, but they are not in the following Digikey BOM:
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I'll provide more information about the Amazon portion of the BOM later, or you can visit the excruciatingly long thread where I discussed it hundreds of posts ago (I think it was hundreds--it sure feels like it) :
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The thread linked above will soon become inactive, now that Version1.1 is nearing formal release (perhaps little more than a week away, when I expect to receive the latest Companion Board PCB). Then I'll total up how many people wish to get in on Sardar's fun and very useful QMX+ add-on that will fill up all the voluminous space in your QMX+ that Hans so cleverly designed into it for these sorts of experimenter projects!
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The PIC and ATmega MPU chips are not in any of the BOMs for this PCB group buy, because I will provide those two chips to group buy builders, pre-programmed and tested, in shipment with the three PCBs needed for the project. Builders will need to obtain the other items in the BOMs I post here on their own, or they can organize together for group purchases. I'm sorry but, with all my validation and manufacturing-related activities related to this project, I don't have time to manage any additional elements and "moving parts" in another group buy of parts.
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If you are not on my builder email list and would like to be added to it, please contact me at my ARRL email forwarding address and I'll reply back to you. The ARRL forwarding address is in the usual format (<my_callsign> AT arrl.net).
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73,
Cal (AD8Q)
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On Mon, Nov 18, 2024 at 04:11 PM, <me@...> wrote:
For Companion board v1.1 we will need two of CD4066BE and two its sockets.? I forgot about the second one. That's a bummer. I just placed my order for the new 1.2 Companion board parts about an hour ago. The 2nd IC will be $7 shipping for a 70 cent part. Oh-- I'll need a 33 cent socket too. If I can find my stash of DIP sockets, I could just "borrow" the CD4066BE from my current Companion board and not re-order right now.
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Are there any other connectors to support the new forward-looking features?
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73,
Cal (AD8Q) |
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On Mon, Nov 18, 2024 at 05:54 PM, <me@...> wrote:
not really. The second one U6 is for controlling bypass button on ATU. It can be omitted or soldered later. 750 ohm resistor is more important.Good to hear, Sardar! ?
I'll post a link to my corrected Digikey BOM. Unfortunately, deleting the saved cart that I used to generate the old link does not seem to affect the operation of the link. Neither did revising that cart, which I tried before I deleted it. The old link does have the 750 Ohm resistor, though.
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The other good news is I found my DIP sockets, but I don't think I'll have time to play with the bypass button or ATU code for awhile anyway.
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73,
Cal (AD8Q) |
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Here is a new Digikey BOM link. It contains the second CD4066BE and its socket for potential future feature expansion.
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Assuming that it continues to load the Digikey page (it does now), don't use the old link. It's well worth the extra dollar for these two parts to enable new features, if they are released, so use the link above in this post.
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Again, I will also post a smaller Amazon BOM and some notes, re-written from my similar post on the original thread, but I will probably not get to it here for a couple of days or so.
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73,
Cal (AD8Q) |
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Cal, I just wanted to confirm that the digikey BOM has 29 line items (making sure it transferred correctly).
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All, I checked and see that I can order 10x the quantities of these parts with the same shipping fee and import fee.? Some of the prices also go down a bit at that quantity - likely more than enough to cover postage of re-posting them to others.?? So if I can get a few confirmations that you would like me to do at least an initial group buy (10) of this part of the parts list, then send them to you, I will be happy to do so.?? The price would be $25 each kit plus postage (the BOM estimate is $244.73 - I just rounded up each share to $25).? Payment would be via venmo or paypal, or you can ask me about other methods.
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If interested, please contact me directly, stan dot dye at gmail dot com - you should also be on Cal's list, since I will use that as a communications method separate from this group.
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There are also other parts to order, as Cal has mentioned - I will plan on doing a group order of them also, except for the batteries (and maybe others I don't know about).? Batteries have special shipping requirements, so everyone needs to get their own.? There is a great BlackFriday deal going on right now at TheBatteryStore.com, this is the part that I ordered: .? There is a hefty shipping charge, but even with that they seemed cheaper than other sources I looked at on amazon.
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Looking forward to seeing if there is interest in this.? I am not looking to do this as a business, more like Cal, just interested in moving it along in a friendly way for folks.
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Stan KC7XE |
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Hi Stan,
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It would have made sense for me to manage a group parts buy too, but I know that I would not have the time to manage and deliver the boards, MPU programming and testing, board debug, "customer support" AND parts that would be needed! I knew my limitations and the challenges of these tasks well. It's not my first rodeo, after being an engineering project lead many times in my professional career and also surviving a startup with a friend, who now owns 100% of the business we started over a dozen years ago. Now I'm retired (but I still have no extra time).
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So if you or others wish to donate effort to the cause, it will be very much appreciated, I know!
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You'll have my email list after I send out a group email soon. There are well over 25 people on the list and one or two of them wish to buy multiple PCB sets. I need to put a new timing belt in the engine of my wife's snow car, which is running on borrowed time now, but I'll try to get that email out later tonight when it gets too cold to wrench in the shop!
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Yes--29 items in the latest BOM, but that number doesn't change with quantity changes for existing items in the list. The last additions I made were a second CD4066BE switch chip and a second AE9989-ND 14-pin DIP socket for it. They can be left out, but they are needed to support potential future developments.
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73,
Cal (AD8Q)
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On Wed, Nov 20, 2024 at 11:31 AM, Stan Dye wrote:
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On Wed, Nov 20, 2024 at 11:31 AM, Stan Dye wrote:
Stan, FYI: My previous quote should easily be beat, given the much larger order size and also, hopefully, a Black Friday discount! :)
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Re batteries: Did you see my post here? /g/QRPLabs/message/133986
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Re Amazon BOM: I posted my selections and reasons for them a long time ago. I'm planning to update the information but I've been happy with the selections I made at Amazon and Digikey. Here's my original post, comparing my BOM with Sardar's choices: /g/QRPLabs/message/132179
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When difficult or very expensive to source, my strategy to build headers from long (long tail) or normal single 1x wide pin and socket strips has worked well for me. I did not buy any of the Sparkfun long tail female sockets--I used the ones in my Digikey BOM, where I included extra 8-pin female long tail sockets for modification. The normal male pin strips in the Digikey BOM are sufficient and the long tail male pin strips from Amazon are way more than sufficient in quantity.
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Sardar's tip to use a heavy duty utility knife for cutting male header strips works well. Cutting long tail female sockets to length is a little trickier. I used snips right across a socket pin (sacrificing the pin). It's still tricky to not fracture more of the socket so a cutoff wheel on a Dremel can work better sometimes. Then a belt sander, file, Demel tool, combination of all of them or, ideally, a milling machine can be used to clean up the strips. I have a hobby mill and lathe but avoided using them to complete my project using more common tools. I even bonded by 2xN strips with CA (superglue) and activator but that's sort of asking for a misalignment possibility. They don't really need to be bonded, because they are soldered to the PCB anyway.
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Okay, hopefully useful. I need to get going on the timing belt!
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73,
Cal (AD8Q)
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Cal,
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I found one more error in BOM. Sorry, it is a bummer at this point if you ordered parts already ?:(
The ceramic capacitor C4 on Companion board. The schematic is right and my build is right. Its value is 47nF. However in BOM it went as 47pF with wrong DigiKey part number.
I already fixed readme files and DigiKey lists.
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So, the correct BOM item and Digikey part number should be:
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73, Sardar (AC8L, 4K6SA, VA3DUA). |
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On Sat, Nov 23, 2024 at 05:04 PM, <me@...> wrote:
I found one more error in BOM. Sorry, it is a bummer at this point if you ordered parts already ?:(j I ordered some parts for myself but others may have ordered by now. That 1000x wrong cap could easily explain the crappy sound some of us have experienced. The C4-R5 series RC is important to match to the speaker, as Steve pointed out (copied below). I'm glad you found it!
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We have bigger problems. I just spent the last 2+ hours trying to find a substitute for R1 and R2 for the ATU. It's the 49.9 Ohm 1W 1812 resistor. There aren't any subs available and JLCPCB only has a handful of 1812s in stock at this time (about 10). The 2512 part is common but I don't think you can make it fit without removed the BNC footprint, which I plan to use for a development platform (install BNCs, all three buttons, LCD, etc.). 1218 parts are also available but making it fit with the termination on the long sides is a problem too. Sometimes the 1218 is called an 1812 "wide" (that's what the Digikey part is called). I recall finding a 500mW 1812 with the JLCPCB search function (which is an awful search engine), but the N7DDC schematic says "1W." Maybe we could get by with 500mW (QRP). I'll try to get some info from JLCPCB on chat about 1W availability when they come back to work.
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I also hope my parts arrive to fix my QMX+ before the holiday. I spent 2-day UPS on them! Have you seen my thread?
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73,
Cal (AD8Q)
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On Mon, Nov 18, 2024 at 08:16 AM, Steven Dick, K1RF wrote:
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In my last order I used 750mW variant. If you still can not find it - will send you the lcsc part number. Should be fine for QRP.
-- 73, Sardar (AC8L, 4K6SA, VA3DUA). |
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On Sun, Nov 24, 2024 at 05:50 AM, <me@...> wrote:
In my last order I used 750mW variant. If you still can not find it - will send you the lcsc part number. Should be fine for QRP. ? It is funny to quote myself:)
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This is the substitute 750mW part I used in my last ATU order for R1 and R2: C442079
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If there are some issues - R1 and R2 are located in easy location - at the very edge of the PCB and large enough for fat fingers like mine, they can be changed later with soldering iron. No hot air :)
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73, Sardar (AC8L, 4K6SA, VA3DUA). |
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I use multiple-gauge wire strippers to cut apart male pin headers. The wire cutting area will shear through the plastic header material like cutting through butter. Heres an example of what I use... 73, Larry K3PEG? On Sun, Nov 24, 2024, 8:49?AM Chris Raine W3PB via <w3pb.ham=[email protected]> wrote:
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Chris,
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Thank you, that was very helpful. I did not know about preordering parts until now!
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This feature could be critical if there is a chip shortage, where there is no alternative. That was the case in 2021-23 with pic 1938 microcontroller shortage that killed all smd type of diy projects. Now I understand why.
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Like this ATU. It is socketed. I ordered it then was hunting for a pic for a year! Then bought one from UK for 25$ shipment on eBay :(
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So, in case or resistors and capacitors, even diodes and most mosfets - there are 1:1 substitutes from various manufacturers.
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This 1W resistor seems stubborn :(
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I will let Cal decide how he wants to proceed. Either preorder parts or go with 750mW substitutes.
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73, Sardar (AC8L, 4K6SA, VA3DUA). |
Tisha Hayes, AA4HA
Chris Raine W3PB
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