electronics

Updated delivery schedule and a bonus

Another month has passed, and so it’s time for our monthly status update! This one will contain a bad bit of news, a good bit of news, and lots of news bites on our progress.

Updated delivery schedule

Over the last few months, a lot of you have been giving positive feedback on our progress and appreciated the detailed updates. According to our Crowd Supply campaign page, the goods are expected to ship at the end of September.

We’re trying our best to deliver on time, busting our ass day by day, usually even on weekends, and still, it’s quite apparent that we can’t meet this deadline even if we bend over backwards. So the delivery schedule needs to be revised:

  • The keyboard and palm rest are expected to deliver by the end of December
  • The modules are expected to deliver in April 2017

Please let us explain the reasons.

Our April delay that was caused by our previous bank (which we abandoned forever) has definitely contributed to this one, as it caused a lot of overhead, and we could only pay to our mold making contractor in a delayed manner.

Another reason is design delays. We have just finished the design of the feet and the palm rest. Getting the design right has definitely taken longer than expected and now the molds of the feet are about to be made. As a rule of thumb, we rather take the time to get the design right than to rush things and end up with a mediocre product.

We have to focus on the core keyboard first and implement the modules afterwards. So the mold of the modules will be created right after the mold of the keyboard. We will pay the extra shipping fees because of the separate shipment of the modules. That’s the least we can do.

We’re running things in parallel as aggressively as we can to hit our updated schedule. For example, a mold of our special keycaps just got ready in Taiwan, the mold of the case and the cutting tool is being created in Serbia, and our contractor for the LED display has just started to work on their mold.

We’re very sorry for this delay. We understand that you can’t wait to put the UHK under your hands and waiting sucks. We’re asking for your patience and to remedy the situation a bit we’d like to offer something, which is an...

Anodized aluminium palm rest

There are plenty of ways to make a palm rest and we have considered various designs over time. One of the candidates involved a beautiful anodized base plate milled from solid aluminium.

Of course they come in pairs. This is the left one.

Of course they come in pairs. This is the left one.

It was clear from the get go that it won’t be cheap and we were thinking about making it available as a premium product later. But now, it’s our golden opportunity to make up for the delay of the project schedule. So I’m here to announce that we will provide this anodized aluminium palm rest to those who purchase the palm rest pledge before keyboard shipment! The price for the aluminum palm rest will go up afterwards.

Now that we wrapped up the bad and the good news let’s move on to the rest.

Tented UHK prototyped

Since our latest update we got the feet 3D printed, screwed it onto the back of a prototype and shoot a picture of it.

Tented UHK prototype

Everything feels right about the feet and we’re satisfied with the overall design. The palm rest is yet to be fabricated. We’ll make sure to show it to you as soon as it gets ready.

The state of the mold

The molds of the bottom cases are complete. This is the left one.

The molds of the bottom cases

The remaining molds are also in the works, and in our true style, we’ll be posting more pictures as they get made.

Injection molded UHK keycaps

The UHK features two keycap types that are non-standard. One is a concave-shaped, 1.75U, row 4 keycap used by the Mod and Space keys, and the other is convex-shaped, 1.5U, row 1 keycap used by the backspace key.

I’m happy to let you know that recently, our keycap supplier got the molds ready for these keycaps and sent us a couple of samples:

Injection molded Mod and Backspace keycaps, take 1

Injection molded Mod and Backspace keycaps, take 2

These custom keycaps are impeccable and totally consistent with the rest, just as expected. They put a smile on our faces because custom parts like these are major milestones for the project.

The state of the modules

Not much has been said about the modules recently, so it’s time to share some information on them. We’ve actually made a couple of videos of them in action, so that you can get an idea how the modules feel and behave.

Please note that the plastic case and electronics of the modules are not ready yet. So far, the key components have been chosen so we show you the guts of the modules directly connected to the PC.

If you are curious about the exact ICs that we use inside of the UHK, or in the modules then you’re welcome to delve into our datasheets repository.

As for the number of buttons of the right-handed modules we’re not exactly sure yet but we’re aiming for two buttons per module.

Let’s see what we have!

Trackball module

The trackball module features an ADNS-3530 optical sensor which is remarkably tiny and communicates over SPI. This demo board translates SPI to USB but we’ll use a KL03P24M48SF0 microcontroller to translate SPI to I2C which is spoken by the UHK.

Trackpoint module

The trackpoint module features a sensor of an unknown part number (our supplier signed an NDA with the manufacturer so we don’t know) but it’s remarkably similar to the now defunct SK8702 trackpoint module which features the SK7102 controller. Our supplier only provided an incomplete datasheet to us, which is not a major problem because the module speaks PS/2.

We’ll use the FlexIO capability of the KL03P24M48SF0 microcontroller to implement a protocol translator which will translate from PS/2 to the I2C protocol of the UHK.

Touchpad module

This is an Azoteq ProxSense TPS43 touchpad driven by the Azoteq IQS572 capacitive controller. The touchpad is connected via the Azoteq CT 210 configuration tool to the PC.

Being an I2C device, the controller will directly connect to the UHK. We’ll have to design a custom-sized touchpad, however, featuring the IQS572. Luckily, Azoteq provided a design guide for that.

It’s not a coincidence that I mentioned the name of Azoteq a fair number of times above. Back in the day I blogged that we’re looking for a suitable part, then they contacted to us and provided the most awesome support ever!

Key cluster module

The key cluster module features a couple of keys and buttons which are simple to scan by the microcontroller. The tiny trackball is a Blackberry trackball which uses hall effect sensor along the 4 axis. We haven’t yet hooked up the Blackberry trackball to control the mouse pointer but you can find plenty of videos on YouTube of its various applications. I recommend watching Sparkfun’s video of their trackballer breakout board which explains it in detail.

Introducing our firmware developer

A while ago, we reached out to you looking for a firmware developer. We’ve gotten quite a few excellent applications and please let me take the opportunity to thank every one of the applicants for contacting us.

Without further ado, let me introduce you our firmware developer, Santiago González Fabián from the sunny city of Madrid.

Santiago González Fabián

My name is Santiago González and I've been playing with electronics and computers since I can remember, but I discovered the amazing world of embedded systems in the Electronics Engineering Bachelor where I felt in love with 8051 and ASM code.
I've programmed 8 bit and 32 bit MCUs in C and Assembly mainly, and my focus the last 4 years has been the Cortex M world, working at Freescale and NXP as Field Application Engineer trying to solve all kind of issues with Embedded Systems all over Spain, from Automotive to Industrial equipments, from 8 Kb Flash devices toggling LEDs to 2 MB Cortex M7 doing Ethernet, Motor Control and RTOS scheduling at the same time.

Embedded systems are my job and my hobby (Although I also climb mountains in the weekend) so in my free time I look for new challenges in several places (Stack Exchange, HackADay, Electronic Forums...) and that's how I met László and UHK, in my weekly check of NXP Community. After having a look into the project and the open source philosophy behind it, I decided I would love to help if possible. Now the UHK PCBs have arrived to Spain, so I can begin the Bootloaders development :). I cannot wait to start coding!

The new prototype sitting on Santiago’s desk

The new prototype sitting on Santiago’s desk

Since first getting in touch with Santiago, I’ve exchanged almost a hundred emails with him about deep technical stuff. It’s apparent to me that he’s highly knowledgeable, a truly excellent communicator, and his enthusiasm clearly shows. We couldn’t ever wish for more than that.

The bootloaders of the UHK are a lot more complex than those of regular keyboards (not that most keyboards have a single bootloader to begin with). This is because our design is highly modular, composed of separate keyboard halves and modules, each running separate firmware images. So naturally, we want to enable you to upgrade the firmware of every module over USB with a click of a button.

The idea is that the right keyboard half will run the master bootloader that will directly upgrade the application firmware from the PC. The left keyboard half and the modules will run the slave bootloader which will connect over I2C to the master bootloader, which will in turn relay the firmware image from the host computer over USB.

KBOOT 2 already supports the above scenario, but a fair amount of customization has to be done by somebody who really knows what he’s doing.

Apart from implementing the bootloaders, Santiago will be working on parts of the firmware that require deep knowledge of the Kinetis platform, like the FlexIO based PS2 to I2C protocol translator of the trackball, and such.

Still reading? Then pat yourself on the back because you deserve it! Talk to you on 2016-09-15.

The feet and palm rest design is nearly complete

Howdy all! It’s time for our regular monthly progress report. Let’s get right to it!

Feet and palm rest design

András has been busy designing the feet and palm rest of the UHK. The current design is close to final, so we’re excited to show it off.

But first, please fasten your seatbelts. The UHK is highly modular and configurable in nature and the feet and palm rest are no exceptions. There are a lot of combinations of feet configuration so let’s dive in!

The design

There are 4 feet mounting positions per keyboard half located in the corners of the halves:

feet mounting positions without palm rest

When using the palm rest, the number of feet mounting positions (4) is unchanged, but their location spreads across a larger area because the bottom 2 feet per keyboard half are mounted to the palm rest:

feet mounting positions with palm rest

A foot can be mounted with 3 screws and can be rotated in 90 degree increments:

foot-degree-animation-640

In any of the 8 positions, a feet can be unmounted (no elevation), mounted and closed (slight elevation), or mounted and opened (large elevation):

foot mounting animation

The bottom of the feet are rubberized, even sideways, and the UHK has its own small rubber feet so the keyboard won’t slide in any configuration:

Rubberized foot

The palm rest is fixed to the keyboard with 2 screws per keyboard half, screwed into the stainless steel inserts of the UHK:

palm rest screws

Given the number of combinations, we can’t go over every possibility, but we’d like to highlight the most popular ones.

Positive tilting

4 closed feet are used in the top positions of this configuration. The palm rest is not featured on these pictures but you can use it if you want to.

Side view

Side view

Isometric view

Isometric view

Bottom view

Bottom view

Negative tilting

In this configuration, 4 closed feet are used in the top positions and another 4 opened at the bottom positions mounted to the palm rest.

Side view

Side view

Isometric view

Isometric view

Bottom view

Bottom view

Tenting

4 opened feet are used in the inner positions and oriented towards the center of the keyboard.

Side view

Side view

Isometric view

Isometric view

Botttom view

Botttom view

There are so many possibilities that we’ll surely end up writing a manual just on this topic. Stay tuned!

Mold and cutting tool progress

It is apparent that our Serbian contractor is hard at work. This is the sheet metal contour cutting and bending tool. It’s already functional, but we have to wait for the assembly of the rest of the tooling so that the holes of the MX switches will be cut, too.

sheet-metal-contour-cutting-and-bending-tools

And this is the injection molding tool of the case buttons which is also functional:

injection molding tool of the case buttons

We’re happy about the progress of our Serbian contractor and can’t wait to see even more hunks of steel.

The 6th generation PCBs are being fabricated

Lately, I’ve been working on redesigning the schematic and PCBs of our latest prototype. These are the fruits of my labor:

The back side of the right PCB

The back side of the right PCB

The back side of the left PCB

The back side of the left PCB

The improvements are plentiful, featuring:

  • the super powerful MK22FN512VLH12 and MKL03Z8VFK4 MCUs
  • IS31FL3731-SALS2 LED driver ICs per keyboard half allowing for per LED backlighting (we can’t provide LEDs and translucent keycaps yet but the ICs will be on board)
  • 2x5 0.05” ARM programming header + Tag-Connect TC2030-NL header + TC2030 header per board for extra developer goodness
  • optionally solderable reed switch per board to reset the MCU without disassembling the case to make it easy to hack the firmware even if jump to bootloader feature gets screwed
  • optionally solderable I2C breakout header for developing modules in a breadboard friendly fashion
  • optionally solderable test LED per board for debugging purposes
  • pogo pins and I2C (versus the previous UART protocol) between the keyboard halves enabling the use of modules mechanically and electronically

A small batch of these boards are being fabricated right now at Eurocircuits and can arrive in any moment. I’m also about to order loads of components real soon which will be soldered onto the boards. These PCBs are supposed to resemble the final production boards very closely, so we’ll make sure to give them a fair amount of testing.

If you are one of those people who grok electronics please don’t hesitate to check out our electronics GitHub repo and give us feedback about the schematic and boards. We consider every single suggestion as we really want to get the design right.

Progress on Agent

Agent has been heavily refactored lately as we port the legacy jQuery codebase to Angular 2 step by step. This is one of those things that’s hard to notice by looking the application but it’s very significant regarding the long-term development of Agent.

This brings me to the star of the month. Give it up for Mr Nejc Zdovc from the beautiful town of Celje, Slovenia!

nejc

My name is Nejc Zdovc and I have been programming for the last seven years. I have a Master’s degree in Computer Science and Information Technologies. I was drawn to Angular 2 community last year and ever since, I’ve enjoyed pushing its boundaries. At the beginning of this year, I was having wrist problems and that’s why I was looking for a new ergonomic keyboard. I stumbled on the UHK and, with a little research, I found out that this is an awesome project, so I decided to start contributing. For the last few months I have been helping József with Agent.

Nejc has been helping out a ton with the Angular 2 port. Previously, only keymaps were managed by Angular 2, but he made the whole application governed by Angular 2 by componentizing it. He ported the side menu to Angular 2 and wrapped select2 into a component. This is serious progress and requires a lot of dedication. The work is not over yet but his help has been a quantum leap forward.

You know what’s crazy? Nejc and Sam don’t have a UHK at their hands yet and still, their contribution has been above and beyond expectations. I wouldn’t have expected developers contributing substantially before we deliver the hardware, but apparently it’s already happening. This is Free and Open Source at its best, folks! I can’t even imagine what will happen after delivery. I’d love to see our GitHub repos blown away by contributors!

As a token of our appreciation, Nejc and Sam will get a well-deserved developer unit soon, then eventually a final UHK with all the bells and whistles. It’s really the least we can do for them.

We’ve just arrived to the end of this update. I hope you enjoyed it, and talk to you on 2016-08-18.

The mold design is almost finished

This is a beautiful day, as it marks our 5th post-campaign update, just as scheduled. Let's get right to it!

Our Serbian contractor is hard at work. So much so that they're almost ready with the design of the mold. We thought you'd appreciate a couple of CAD images, so here they are.

The mold for the top-left keyboard half

The mold for the top-left keyboard half

The mold for the bottom-left keyboard half

The mold for the bottom-left keyboard half

The mold for the case buttons

The mold for the case buttons

So far so good! They're pretty close to starting the actual manufacturing of the molds. We're visiting them in Serbia this weekend to discuss the last details of the molds before getting them manufactured.

Expect real life photos of hunks of steel in future updates.

Mechanically testing the 6th generation prototype

Due to the nature of mold making, it's critical to get everything from the beginning, because it's hard to go back. And what better way to test the design than to build an up-to-date prototype?

András has made some final changes to the case to make it accommodate Matias switches, not just Cherries. This 3D printed case has the same design as the mass-produced injection molded case will - apart from the vast difference in quality because 3D printing vs injection molded plastic are worlds apart in terms of quality and accuracy.

6th generation UHK case prototype, top view

6th generation UHK case prototype, top view

6th generation UHK case prototype, close view

6th generation UHK case prototype, close view

In the meantime, I've been busy updating our PCBs to correspondwith the new mechanical CAD files. The shape of the PCB should now be finalized, (including the positions of the mechanical components), but the electronics routing has yet to be fully redesigned. Let's see the fruits of my labor.

The panelized PCB

The panelized PCB

Once the PCBs are depanelized, and some components soldered in, it starts to resemble the UHK much closely.

The depanelized PCBs with all the mechanical components (but the switches) soldered in

The depanelized PCBs with all the mechanical components (but the switches) soldered in

I’m especially pleased with the way the pogo pin connector turned out. This connector has a crucial role in interconnecting the keyboard halves with the modules. The new solution features 2.5mm-thick PCBs perpendicularly soldered onto the main PCBs. Pogo pins are stuck through the male PCB, and flat pads are featured on its female counterpart. The new design is a lot more robust and pleasing to the eye than the previous battery spring connector.

The male and female pogo pin connectors

The male and female pogo pin connectors

This mechanical PCB is useful without the electronics because it allows for mechanical testing. The schematic is being updated from AVR to the Kinetis platform, and as soon as it gets done, the PCB will be rerouted, fabricated, and tested.

We have almost finished creating a Cherry and a Matias mechanical UHK prototype, but we're waiting for the new metal plates to arrive to finish them off.

Our GitHub repos are on fire

Since our previous status update, a whopping 222 commits have landed in our GitHub repos! Now that's what I call true teamwork! This leads me to some much deserved words on our newest contributor!

Let me introduce Mr. Samuel Rang!

SamHello everyone!

I'm Sam Rang, and I've been helping out with the serialization and deserialization of configuration files for Agent. I am a graduate of Duke Engineering with a degree in Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering, and work for Red Hat Consulting. I am a big mech keyboard nut (much to my fiance's chagrin) and was really excited when I heard about this project and that excitement is still going strong! I'm so glad that the team has let me in and I'll keep contributing as long as they let me.

Sam got in touch with us about a month ago. He asked me what could he contribute. It was quite a challenging question because Agent is in heavy flux at this point, and isolating a discrete part that can be worked on is far from trivial. But I found something: the configuration serializer.

That's why I was working so heavily on the serializer a month before: to lay down its foundation and hand it off to Sam. And boy, did he deliver! He went berserk and ended up implementing all the 37 classes to be serialized.

Sam is still working on Agent a bit, then he'll put on his firmware hacker hat, and implement the configurator deserializer of the firmware. What a journey it will be!

In the meantime, Józsi is on a mission to put the Angular 2 application logic behind Agent, making it not only beautiful, but also functional. At this pace, you'll be able to get stuff done with Agent by the next month.

Árpi is continuing to refine the frontend of Agent until perfection is attained. He's pretty close to finishing the keymap editor, and then he'll transition to other parts of Agent. He's just pushed the latest and greatest version of Agent to GitHub Pages, so be sure to take a look at it!

And that's it, Ladies and Gents! Excited to talk to you again on 2016-06-16!

Agent is coming together, looking for a firmware developer!

A month ago in our previous newsletter we promised to send you an update on the post-campaign happenings on January 14th, so here it is! There is a lot of ground to cover, so fasten your seatbelts and we’ll get right to it!

Extra keyboard cases & keycap sets are for sale

UHK cases

Some of you contacted us to purchase extra keycap sets and cases, and we’ve been very much willing to serve your needs, so why not offer them as extra perks? You’re welcome to purchase them on our campaign page.

Meet Agent, the configuration application for the UHK

UHK Agent main window

We’re proud to show you the first screenshot of Agent, our cross-platform configuration application. It’s being developed by Árpi, a new developer of ours. Please keep reading for more.

The mechanical design is being finalized

András is hard at work finalizing the mechanical design of the keyboard case. Mold making is by far the most time consuming task of the manufacturing process, so it’s supremely important we start as quickly as possible in order to deliver on time.

We’ve already struck a deal with the manufacturing firm for the injection molding tool for the plastic case and the cutting tool for the steel plates, and we’re in the process of discussing relevant design issues with them. Sourcing of the raw material for the steel guides is also in progress - from a well-esteemed Austrian company.

From the very beginning, we’ve been mindful to design the UHK for manufacturing, but there are some details yet to be finalized. One such detail is the connection between the two halves and the modules.

pogo-pins

Originally, we used a battery connector because it was easier to use an off-the-shelf part - but later we figured out a much better way: dedicated pogo pins. This is a more robust and better looking solution than the battery connector. The 6P4C connector was also replaced by a 4P4C connector and its wiring has been reversed. This way a standard telephone cable can be used to interconnect the two keyboard halves.

There are a couple of details like the above, and András is rapidly moving forward to address them, so that we can submit the CAD files to manufacturing as soon as possible.

Two developers have joined to our ranks

Árpi

Back in August we were contacted by Árpád Csányi, who expressed interest in the UHK. Fast-forward to November, and we managed to meet in person over a couple of beers after I gave a talk on the UHK in Szeged, Hungary. It was apparent that he was interested in the project, but I wouldn’t have thought in my wildest dreams that he’d end up being the front-end developer of Agent, our configuration application! Árpi is not only a powerhouse of UI/UX ideas, but he’s very much willing and able to implement them.

After I created some mockups of Agent he quickly followed up to present his ideas and improvements. He then started to write HTML and CSS to make the mockups go alive! We’re making rapid progress and are aiming to freeze the UI/UX specification of Agent by the end of January.

Please note that these mockups are a work in progress but you’re welcome to add your suggestions to the docs. Don’t forget to uncheck the View -> Print layout option in Google Docs or else some pictures will be cropped.

Spencer

Right after open-sourcing our design a, mysterious GitHub user started contributing to our electronics repo. Say hi to Mr. Spencer Owen, who is very much into devops and using his rad skills, he set up a visual diff mechanism in our electronics repo, so that now we can actually see the changes of the circuit boards that get modified by contributors. This is very much needed because unlike plaintext files, circuit boards can’t be diffed in the traditional way.

Right now Spencer is working on making the PCB compatible with Matias switches. Due to the lack of compatible keycaps, this doesn’t mean that we’ll be able to provide Matias switches from the get go, but we’re trying to future-proof the PCB so that the opportunity will be there, and eventually we can make it happen.

Moving to ARM, and looking for a firmware developer

It’s been a pleasure and privilege to work with Árpi and Spencer and I’m very much looking forward to further expand our team. It may surprise you, but we’re not actually primarily looking for an AVR developer. We’re looking for an ARM Cortex-M4 developer! Why’s that? Let’s consider the following table:

Processor name ATmega32U4 MK20DX256VLH7 Units
Processor core AVR8 ARM Cortex-M4
Rated speed 16 72 Mhz
Flash memory 32 256 kbytes
RAM 2.5 64 kbytes
Price 3.6 4.55 US Dollars

The above numbers are pretty telling. The ARM processor costs only a buck more than the AVR but it’s about 10 times more powerful! The plan is to replace the AVR on the right keyboard half with ARM, and keep using AVRs in the left keyboard half and in the modules - which don’t need as many resources as the right half.

We could possibly stick to the ATmega32U4 and implement the planned feature set, but the available 2.5 RAM is very tight. It’d require us to always think about how to not exceed memory and vastly optimize the firmware for memory consumption. This would slow down development and wouldn’t give us room to implement more sophisticated features later on. Bulkier AVRs are moderately more powerful and considerably more expensive, so I truly believe that ARM is the way forward.

It’s also very important to note that the MK20DX256VLH7 is not just another ARM microcontroller, but the brain of the Teensy 3.1 and 3.2 development boards. This is great news because there’s a huge amount of support available out there!

Are you familiar with the Teensy 3 platform, or do you know somebody who is? Do you enjoy the thrill of Open Source? Would you love to work on a one-of-a-kind mechanical keyboard, and help push innovation further? If so, we’d love to have you on our team!

What’s next?

We’re making rapid progress on multiple fronts, but there’s still a lot to do! We plan to finalize the UI/UX specification of Agent by the end of January. I’m sure that we’ll have a lot to talk about in our upcoming updates.

Thanks for reading, and talk to you soon - on February 18th!

Introducing the factory reset switch

As the saying goes, "With great power comes great responsibility". This is especially true in the case of the UHK.

You are given the great power of reconfiguring this keyboard in all kinds of wonderful ways, but you can also abuse this power. Imagine binding every key to the letter "A" and setting it as your default keymap. As you might imagine, you end up with a keyboard that is practically useless. Time to meet the factory reset switch!

factory-reset-switch-distant

The switch from the distance

factory-reset-switch-close

The switch up close

factory-reset-switch-on-pcb

The switch on the PCB

Upon pressing it, the keyboard loads the factory keymap that is stored in the flash, ignoring the default keymap that is stored in the EEPROM, leaving you no way to make your keyboard useless.

I think this is one of the small touches that can make or break a product in some situations.

Upgrading the firmware with a neodymium magnet

Under normal circumstances, it's possible to upgrade the firmware of the UHK by sending a special USB control request from the host to the keyboard to reenumerate it as the bootloader.

However, when developing the firmware, one can easily screw it up so badly that it won't be possible to reenumerate it as the bootloader via USB. In such scenarios, one has to pry open the case and short the GND and RESET pins in order to enter the bootloader. This is obviously cumbersome, and it would be great to be able to easily reenumerate the keyboard as the bootloader without opening the case, even when the firmware is screwed up.

When I was thinking about this problem, I figured why not put a reed switch inside of the case to short the pins, so I silicone-glued a switch onto the PCB and wired it. Apparently, this is working like a treat.

As it turns out, most reed switches have molded glass bodies that break like a toothpick under the slightest pressure. This is quite a problem for a mechanical device like the UHK. Luckily, not all reed switches are that fragile, and I found one that I especially like due to its rigid body and small size. The PCB of the 6th generation prototype will have a footprint for such an optional reed switch to be soldered by hardcore developers.

This is yet another useful, unique, developer-oriented feature that we can boast.

Assembling prototype PCBs

A couple of years ago, I was completely new to electronics and never soldered a thing in my life. Fast forward to the previous week, I was soldering the 5th generation prototypes of the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard. It's been quite a journey and although I am by no means perfect at this stuff, upon reflecting on it I realized that I was able to push my PCB assembly productivity to the next level several times in a row, so let me show you what I learned.

Given that you asked for panels from the fab everything starts with depanelization. Even though this is a no brainer and doesn't require any skills or equipment other than a flash cutter, I decided to show it because I'm sure a lot of people have never seen it in action.

Next up, PCB assembly follows, so it's time to heat up the soldering iron.

Some words of advice:

  • You can notice at the beginning of the video that it takes me about 4 minutes to find the MCUs which is exactly what you want to avoid. A while ago, I purchased way too many AVRs, put them into a drawer and didn't take the time to organize them properly which causes me a time penalty every time I search for a specific AVR. I have yet to solve this problem but regarding passive components I already solved it by buying a resistor and capacitor book and a blank SMT storage book. The productivity boost is incredible.
  • It's easier to solder large components first. It's not a coincidence that I started with the AVRs.
  • After soldering large components, it's worth progressing by the descending number of components used per type. In order to generate such a list I ended up writing a node module (and its dependencies) to extract this information from KiCad files.
  • For passive components that have two or three pads it's worth pre-tinning a pad per component before actually soldering them, then soldering the components using the pre-tinned pads, then soldering the rest of the pads. You only have to grab the soldering 3 times this way instead of hundreds of times.
  • Adding easily readable reference designators and component values to the silk screen can be a major productivity booster. Component values are especially handy.
  • There is no such thing as too much flux and a flux pen is the best choice to deploy flux. I use a Circuitworks CW8100 pen which does a great job.
  • DRC is your friend so use it extensively. Even better if your fab provides you a state-of-the-art PCB visualizer that checks your gerbers, like in the case of Eurocircuits.

Often times, it comes very handy to salvage SMD parts from previous prototypes which can be hard to desolder but with Chip Quik it's so much easier. On the video below it takes me 21 seconds to desolder a TSSOP 20 after starting to heat up the Chip Quik with my soldering iron.

Reusing PTH parts is usually much simpler but it can still be a pain. A desoldering station to the rescue! I purchased my ZD-985 desoldering station for about $100, probably the best bang for the bucks ever.

I'm pretty sure that I missed a lot of things but this is a very broad topic and I mostly wanted to give a glimpse into the world of PCB hand assembly. You're welcome to correct me, add suggestions and ask questions!

The 5th generation PCB has arrived!

We're glad to announce that we've just received our 5th generation PCB! Compared to the previous version it's compatible with the ISO layout. Its contour is also a lot more complex to make place for the stainless steel inserts of the back side. Last but not least, the silkscreen became a lot more helpful, clearly showing the values of the various components, making assembly a lot easier.

PCB out of the box, shrinkwrapped

The PCB is out of the box, neatly shrinkwrapped by Eurocircuits

The front of the PCB

Front side

The back of the PCB

Back side

Near the MCU

Near the MCU

Redesigning the PCB always involves a ton of work and at this point it's more than mature so we don't plan to reiterate any more before the campaign.

Wanna see a bunch of high resolution pictures of the PCB? Head over the Google Plus album!

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