c0nsumer

As long as the Willem programmer will do ATmega8 chips then it'll be fine. The AVRs are socketed, so you'd just pull it, reprogram it in the Willem, then reinsert it. Or you can just use the onboard programmer; your choice.

I must say, I find it a bit amusing that both of the SDrive maker guys on here are named Steve.

Programming the ATmega8 microcontrollers...

Thanks for the offer, but that'd be even harder to deal with. I'd then have to track both deposits and full payments, go after people for partial payments, etc. I'm just going to stick to payment in full upon ordering with orders only being taken once products are ready to ship. -Steve

No, sorry. I'm not going to be taking orders until they are done and ready to sell. What I'll do is post the date/time at which orders will begin, and then I'll take orders starting at that time and ship them ASAP. I'm a bit paranoid about accepting payment for products that aren't yet built, so I'm just going to finish assembly, testing, and packaging before accepting orders. -Steve

The enclosure and component orders showed up today. No photos yet since I haven't fully unpacked everything. It's a bit intimidating, though, as I'm planning on doing 30 assembled units and 20 PCB+Panel+uC sets. Now I'm just waiting on the end panels and to find some time to begin assembly. That'll likely be some time next week.

...just received the invoice for the end panels, which means those are under way too. 15-Jul-2011 estimated ship date for those. And yes, those are being made in the US. I just completed visual inspection of the PCBs and they look good, so this afternoon Today I'll be ordering the enclosures and components so hopefully I can start assembly next week.

I really wanted to go with a US supplier, but it would have been something like 3x the cost per-PCB. That would have bumped the cost up another $20-ish, and thus I couldn't justify it. I did do whole part kits last time, but only sold two of them, and picking/sorting the parts was (to be blunt) a HUGE hassle. Since the BOM is readily available both in the US and EU, that covers most of the market and people can then just order the parts they need without running them through me, a middleman. Since most people who ordered PCBs also ordered preprogrammed ICs last time, I think it's worth adding them into the PCB/Panel bundles. It's only another $5 for them anyway, and takes out a big part of the hassle of building the device. I'm still not sure I'm doing this, but it seems like a good idea. Also, it turns out I can get all the same parts as used last time, so I'm going to go with the exact same BOM. Some of the parts were rather hard to pick, in particular the SD card connector. I could only find one (!!!) device which was hand-solderable. While it's surface mount, it's not that hard to solder. All of the other ones that I came across were surface mount but required an oven for soldering, since the contacts weren't accessible with a typical iron. I really wanted to go for an microSD connector on these when I originally designed them, but again, no hand solderable parts were available and if I'm going to offer an even somewhat DIY option, that's required. I guess I could have gone all SMT and had them assembled for me (saving some time), but I really didn't want to go that route. Through-hole is nice for DIY, and I think that my doing final assembly myself here in the Detroit area it adds a bit to the device, if nothing else a bit of certainty that it was hand-built by the same person who tested it out and offers his assurance that it will work as promised.

Well then, here you go. Here's 50 PCBs received this afternoon from the Chinese supplier. Here is another nifty photo showing a cross section of the PCB embedded in acrylic the cut and ground, used for showing that the board meets specifications. Now I just need to wait on the end panels, order the parts, and get to assembling. I think that for this round I'll be offering PCB+Panel+Preprogrammed IC sets and complete units. I'm not yet sure if the complete units will include 2GB SD cards or not this time. I got a super deal on them last time around and was able to include them for free, but this time it looks like I won't be able to secure such a discount.

Woo! I received the ship notice for the PCBs this morning. As soon as they arrive and I've confirmed that they look good I'll order the parts and begin assembly.

I buy up all the Atari kit I can find on eBay (working or not) and pull them. Just kidding. I bought both batches from Best Electronics. They are the second (or third, if you count the two end panels as one unit) most expensive part of the whole device, but I think they are imperative for good fit and finish. B&C Computer Visions also sells them, but they are pulls and thus of substandard quality. (Not that they are broken, but there was a tremendous lead time, the pins still had solder blobs on them, some were a slightly melted, they had to be cleaned, and the pins weren't as straight as they could be.)

Forgot to specify fully assembled. Sorry about this, but just to be clear, I am not taking preorders on these yet, and not via forum reservations. Sorry. It'd just be too much to handle via here. When the time comes to take orders I'll be posting instructions here how to order, and it'll likely be via a Google Checkout page that goes live at some predetermined date/time. I've only received the SIO connectors and the PCBs are being made. I still have to order the components, program the micros, assemble and test everything, etc. It'll likely be a month or so until I'm ready to handle orders.

PCP might make it a bit hard to solder.

Well, the SIO connectors have arrived... Thirty of them. PCB and end panel quotes are out and will hopefully be on order soon.

It would just be ordering a case, not finding. The board and panels are designed to fit a particular standard case. Thanks, Kurt. That's correct. This PCB and the end panels are designed to fit snugly into an off-the-shelf Hammond 1455L1201BK enclosure which is available world-wide. Well, he mentioned earlier in the thread fully-assembled will probably be about $150, like the first run of devices. Currently price should be in line with the previous pricing from two years ago. I'm waiting on responses for the end panel and PCB quotes and thus far I'm pretty certain there won't be a price change.

It'll likely be a month or two out at this point. I still have to get the PCBs and end panels made, and I haven't even begun going down that path. I may also not accept orders until I'm ready to ship, but that remains to be determined.

Dom, Thanks for the interest! Orders aren't being taken yet (I'm still getting the parts ordered) but I'll be sure to let everyone here know when they are open. -Steve

It took me a while to break in my lady as to my late nights in the retro-computer/electronics "Man Cave" aka the small utility room in the basement. But, after 24 years she has accepted the fact that the reason our marriage has lasted for so long is that I had a place to go and get out of her hair when things got a bit hot. So, I hope your new bride will find the same benefit in your hobbies as mine has over these many years. Congrats on her saying "YES", have a great wedding, and a wonderful honeymoon. The Dawg I think it's important that people get time to do their own thing. Personally, I've spent most of my free time lately doing mountain biking stuff and trail building, but for some odd reason I'm itching to getting back to an electronics project.

Well, I just ordered 30 new SIO connectors. I guess I'm committed. I'll post updates here as I get to know things. Expect prices to be similar to last time. ($35 - $40 for PCB/panel sets, $150-ish for wholly assembled and tested units.) I'm not sure about doing kits yet, as they were a bit of a hassle.

Congratulations, I wish you a happy marriage! Thank you. For what it's worth, the whole BOM from normal suppliers is still available. I'm just going to have to check on the SIO connectors and getting another run of the PCBs and end panels made up.

Thanks for all the interest, everyone. I'm a bit busy right now (getting married in a week and a half) but hopefully I'll be able to find some time to confirm the design and that the parts are available and get some pricing together.

Hey there. Fore those of you who don't remember me, I did the SDrive NUXX about two years ago. I've been getting email from folks interested in them again, so I've been thinking about doing another run of PCBs and possibly a limited number of assembled devices. So, I figured I'd ask here. Would any of you be interested in any of these? And if so, would you be interested in just a PCB/end panel set, or a fully assembled device? (I won't be selling kits this time, as picking parts is a huge PITA.) -Steve

Just as a suggestion, pull that plastic off within a year or two. The adhesive used on protective plastics like that tends to go weird after a while and leave the surface below gummy. The SDrive NUXX panels are anodized and pretty darn durable, so I wouldn't worry about needing much protection over it. Normal use shouldn't affect it at all.

Looks really good. Just as a suggestion, press on the front panel around the switch and the LEDs. They fit snugly thorough the front panel, and provided that there aren't any burrs / flashing in the holes (there shouldn't be) you can push the round part of the switch and the LEDs through the panel so it sits a little more flush. See here and you can see how it can fit.

Are you using Vista or Win7? There's actually no particular order to the files that you control, it's the order that your OS displays them in.