PCBs arrived. Unfortunately, all of the ones I’ve seen so far haven’t been perfect. The surface mount stuff is fine, but the LEDs and phototransistors seems to always have at least one in at an odd angle; not leaning in a way that can just be bent, but leaning to the side, with more of one leg above the board than the other leg. Needless to say, this completely craps the bed for accuracy.
I’m looking into options now to fix this or somehow get proper working boards with as little manual labor as possible. I could rework each of them, but that’d be a serious bitch. I’m thinking I’m going to try to use my toaster oven as a reflow oven, and get something heavy and non-combustible like a ceramic tile to set on top. I’m hoping that the oven can heat the solder enough for it to melt, allowing the weight of the tile to properly press down on the top of the LEDs so they go in perpindicular, but I have no idea how well that hack will work. I’m gonna try a different fab service and try to point out the problem to see if they can make sure they’re in perfect. If not, I’ll have to order the boards with everything BUT the LEDs and phototransistors soldered on, and solder those in by hand myself. That would suck too, but not as bad as reworking the existing ones.
Toodles, bringing in his Macgyver skills. Good luck with the toaster oven thing, it sounds like it’s going to be a lot of trouble, especially when it comes to using the tile to heat to solder. I mean, in theory it sounds like it will work, and I think you’d be able to melt the solder, but wouldn’t you also risk superheating the PCB itself and damaging it?
While I’m not sure how well the toaster oven approach will work, keep in mind that most mast produced electronics are soldered in a reflow oven. The PCBs need to be able to take that kind of heat.
I dont know if the graph paper helps or not, but you should be able to see the lean in the left LED. Grr. Such a frustrating project. So close. I just got to find or figure out a way to get the boards made with a bit more precision.
Toodles, you custom sanwa flash is seriously a gold mine you got going!
I think between 50-75$ should be reasonable esp for first batch as you could drop the prices if sufficient quanities sell
About those bent/odd angle led soldered in, shitt man this prob goes back to perfect 360’s till to this day! and they are a biatch to fix! I say if you can’t find a vender with strict QC, then we are better off doing this mod ourselves!
This is just a wild idea for getting the leds soldered in correctly. If there was a “mold” to place led’s in and then place the pcb on top of them (think in off this as an upside down procedure). And then solder the led legs from the underside of the pcb and walla!
fyi- you gotta be careful also not to prematurely burn out the led when soldering, that heat travels fast and fawk your led/photocell thangs
If you end up needing someone to thoroughly test them, i’d throw one in my stick and give it the run around under heavy play, i’d throw you shipping etc and send it back afterwards, im not looking for an early copy. I know that’s not the step you’re at right now, but if you get to it and would want an outside tester, i’m here.
been following this thread since forever (stuck a Chtuhlu board in my personal stick nearly 2 years ago and it’s still working as if it was new, great stuff), I’m definitely going to purchase at least 2 of these when they come out (shipment to Italy’s gonna cost me an arm and a leg though lol).
I’d pay up to 100 Euro pre-shipment costs if I could fit the tech in my Sanwa JLJ-PL2-8V’s somehow (although I’m not sure whether that’s possible or not, I’d be up to mod them heavily tho), 60 Euro otherwise.
Not kidding either btw I hate the “click-clack-clack” noises these sticks produce cause they constantly wake up my dachshund puppy (and my fiancee) when I play at night (sounds silly I know but it’s an actual issue for me lol).
EDIT: this is a Sanwa JLJ for those who’re wondering if it was a typo.
I have no idea the price of these and how much they are worth but the estimates seem a bit higher than I though they would be. =( I’ll def buy one regardless though eventually.
I have no idea if you have actually settled on a finalized price, but I would pay a good $30 or $40 for a kit, provided it was idiot proof. I can solder fairly well, but I am concerned with the issue of making sure everything gets lined up. I have watched your work for quite some time, and even though I never purchased a chip of yours, they have impressed me(I never needed to make a console stick, but I am getting the urge to build one). I would gladly spend the extra cash on one of these. Would you sell them through LizardLick like the Chimp? If so I am in, I would buy from them anyway.
I am not concerned about a time frame on this either, I prefer quality… and I probably won’t get one from the first batch, I don’t have the cash to build my stick yet.
I’m not in immediate need of an optical PCB, but I am very excited to see what people will have to say about this product once it’s available, and sometime down the road I’ll probably get one if and when they become affordable enough for my budget… You are definitely taking these production problems well, Toodles-- certainly much better than I would be! You’ve done so much for this hobby already, and I certainly understand that you would not want to put your name on a product that you did not feel meets the high standards that you have set for the community.
Hopefully the reflow thing will work out-- at least you’ve got a better chance of success than all those ninnies on Youtube who fry their PS3s using heat guns, since there’s not that much that can go wrong here. It’s all a matter of getting the solder hot enough without damaging anything, although I suppose some strategically-placed tin foil could help in that regard.
