Foal of un1b0x

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danboid
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Foal of un1b0x

Post by danboid »

Last year I tried to hack together a Euzebox, the ill-fated un1b0x, but it was too ambitious for an electronics newb like me. Uze sent me a Uzebox PCB a while ago but its only today I finally found the time and patience to work out what parts I was missing to create a regular UB and get them ordered. I'm glad that most boring bit is done now. Check out the receipt:
Screenshot at 2021-11-30 12-49-12.png
Screenshot at 2021-11-30 12-49-12.png (19.45 KiB) Viewed 4587 times
If you do do another revision of the UB Uze, note that 493-3286-ND and LM7805ACT-ND are no longer stocked by digi-key. I had to order EEU-EB1H100S and MC7805ABTGOS-ND instead.

It should be simple enough to put together a UB now I have a PCB. I'll update this thread with my progress and results and yes, I plan to finish my Combat remake after getting this put together.
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danboid
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Re: Foal of un1b0x

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I think I've got all the components I need to start putting together my UB now.

As part of the process I am going to give my feedback on following the UB assembly guide ( http://uzebox.org/files/UzeboxAssemblyGuideV1.7.pdf ) as an electronics newb so that if Uze does decide to update it he might take some of my suggestions into account to make it even more beginner friendly.

The construction guide begins with a UB PCB with the AD725 encoder already attached. I don't think such boards are available any more so in the next revision of the guide I'd like to see it start from a bare PCB and explain how best to attach the AD725. It appears that soldering the AD725 onto the board will be the most difficult bit of soldering involved so it kinda makes sense to start with this and get the most tricky and most likely to fail bit out of the way first.

What is the best way to do this? Its a bit risky and very likely not the best solution but I'm going to super glue the AD725 onto the PCB to keep it firmly in place for me to attempt to solder it. Wish me luck!
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danboid
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Re: Foal of un1b0x

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I have superglued it to the board now.

As long as the contacts are aligned correctly, could that actually be enough for the encoder? Of course I'd need to solder it into place to ensure reliable contacts but it might be an idea for me to try it without any soldered contacts first (after attaching everything else) or is that wishful thinking?
Last edited by danboid on Sat Dec 04, 2021 7:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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danboid
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Re: Foal of un1b0x

Post by danboid »

On p11:

"To insure it hold firmly, bend the pins on the soldering side."

To ensure it holds...

p12:

"Insure the opposite pin (the longest one) inserts in the hole which has a little "+" next to it."

*Ensure.
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danboid
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Re: Foal of un1b0x

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I have got as far as p12 in the assembly guide so far. If I measure the voltage between pin 1 and 7 on the first SNES pad, I only get about 2.5V for a split second before the voltage quickly drops to down to nothing. If I measure the voltage at the power jack I get a steady 4.1V, despite the power adapter claiming to provide 5v 600mA.

Is that OK or should I be getting a steady 4/5V across the SNES pins?
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danboid
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Re: Foal of un1b0x

Post by danboid »

It's fair to say my soldering skills have a lot or room for improvement. The first few components took several attempts to solder because I didn't have my soldering iron set to a high enough temp, all standard beginners mistakes I'm sure.

Do we think I might've butchered this PCB already or might this mess actually work?
IMG_20211205_123705.jpg
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danboid
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Re: Foal of un1b0x

Post by danboid »

OK so I am actually getting 5v between the two SNES pins.

My two newb mistakes were I had my meter set to AC instead of DC and I had to set my PSU to 5V when really it needs to be set to 9V (or something above 7/8V) for the voltage regulator to operate.
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danboid
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Re: Foal of un1b0x

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To answer my own question about how to attach the AD725, I asked one of the EE techs at my work/uni and they recommended I use solder paste.

I've not had the time to do any more work on my UB the last few days, I was working until about 2AM last night but I will be back at it this weekend.
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danboid
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Re: Foal of un1b0x

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By the end of p13 I should have everything attached to get sound out of the UB but this is presuming that the user has already flashed the UB firmware onto the MCU. Maybe someone somewhere is selling pre-flashed MCUs but its more likely that the MCU hasn't been flashed so I think it would be better, if the assembly guide got updated, to have the user attach the 6 pin header and give links to guides on how to flash the MCU under Linux, Windows and MacOS before it suggests testing the sound. Currently it doesn't even mention that the MCU might need to be flashed first.
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danboid
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Re: Foal of un1b0x

Post by danboid »

I only found enough time to solder the DIP socket this weekend but Ill be back to it tomorrow.
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