kit assembly
get help and post any problems to the forum
parts labeled visually:
note: the 2×5 header is not included in the kit and is not needed for normal operation. it’s helpful if you plan on reprogramming the firmware (which you more than likely will not be doing.)
each part has a corresponding location on the board which is marked in white text. there are only a few places where you can insert something backwards, and i’ve tried to highlight these parts with big red arrows. the order of parts soldering presented here is suggested based on part height (lowest to highest) which makes for easy assembly (parts won’t fall out when you flip the board over against the table, so you don’t have to use tape, etc.) here we go.
iset resistor and crystal
bend leads of resistor, insert, solder, inspect, clip leads. the orientation of these parts doesn’t matter.
74HC164 and 75HC165
super super important! make sure the half-circles match! don’t put this in backwards, you’ll be very sad later.
you’ll see on the board they’re marked as LS parts, disregard this. you might have trouble getting the leads into the holes, so bend all of the legs on one side just slightly by tilting the part against a hard surface.
resistor network
important! the dot must go towards the outside as shown!
sockets
don’t insert the chips before soldering these parts. note that these parts are theoretically optional, though we highly highly suggest using them, which will make fixing problems much easier, in addition to swapping your firmware physically with a new chip, or replacing a burned out driver, etc.
again, line up the half-circles. this sockets have more of a square bite than a half-circle.
ceramic capacitors
the orange ones, 0.1uF and 22pF respectively. the 22pF have a small “2” whereas the 0.1uF have a small “1” on them. orientation doesn’t matter. insert, bend leads, solder, clip. solder hot and quickly, as the ground planes will sink your heat (solder will cool faster than you’d like.)
electrolitic capacitor
the black can, marked 10uF.
do not insert this backwards! the white line is (-) which is the short lead. insert the long lead into the (+) side.
headers and UM245R
the headers are were the key and led matrices connect. the 5×2 is for jtag programming, which you don’t need if you’re never going to use it.
the UM245R is gives us USB. aren’t you glad you didn’t have to solder that surface-mount chip? don’t change the jumper positions, it won’t work if you do.
finished
grid assembly and connection
led orientation
arrange your board as shown. insert leds and bend the leads to the opposite sides while holding the led in place. take care aligning each led.
diode orientation
for soldering the diodes we suggest first putting a dab of solder on one pad, then place the diode with tweezers while that first dab of solder is hot. then you can go back and solder the other leg.
solder on the headers last, otherwise they’ll make assembly more difficult.
ribbon assembly
ribbon connection to grid pcb
help
again, get help and post any problems to the forum
further considerations
logic board dimensions are 2.6” x 3.4” and height is 0.75” (the usb port being the highest point.) you might be able to do some creative modification to lower this height requirement (such as removing the standoffs from the ftdi breakout board or replacing the type A port with a type B).
led selection
more thorough discussion is ongoing.
what color? (nm value, google “visible spectrum”) what size? (you want T1 = 3mm) how bright? (higher mcd = brighter)
on print version of the jameco catalog, all of the standard and medium brightness leds that are T1 (3mm) will work just fine. some of the super-brights might also work.
here are some suggested part numbers from jameco
- yellow: 3333294
- red: 333260
- green: 114681
note that 137411 has a Vf of 4.8, this won’t work! get led’s with a Vf at or below 3.5 to be certain, though i’d be curious to have someone test out higher Vf leds. just get a few, test them out without soldering them in.
more leds, brighter:
- red: 333374
- orange: 333358
- blue: 334749