BluepillF4 PCBs

victor_pv Sat Feb 03, 2018 5:55 pm

**UPDATED**

Seems like Squonk has the final design in the F4 board, and perhaps we can order the PCBs soon.
As mentioned in the AllPCBs thread, thanks to all the people that signed up with the link, I can order PCBs with the bonus.
Just found out while ordering that the bonus can’t be used to pay for an order, but just to obtain a 10% discount, so the boards were not free.
Anyway I am ordering a bunch of 40 for the US, way more than I would assemble ever, so the offer stands to ship some to people willing to assemble some.

I live in the US, and have a diy reflow oven that has worked fine for me so far. I am not set for volume production though.
I can ship a bunch of bare PCBs to anyone in the US for the cost of shipping, that should be under $1 (I believe we don’t need bubble envelopes for bare PCBs).

I can reflow a few with the passive components, and you are left to solder voltage regulators and MCU, since they are larger they are normally easy to solder with an iron if you have a bit of experience, but that will depend how many people ask for it, since like I said I’m doing it manually so it takes a good amount of time.

These are still prototype PCBs, so we may find flaws, you may find traces that you need to cut and run a piece of wire, you may even have to trash a board altogether if there is a short that kills your MCU, so ask for PCBs if you understand this is not to get a final commercial product, but rather to contribute with your time to check and test them, and each board will cost you a few $ in components and a few hours of your time. There are a lot of small 0603 components.

If you want to assemble a few and test them, please post here how many PCBs you think you will want.
If you can’t deal with the 0603 components but think you can take care of the MCU, regulators, usb port if I reflow the 0603 components, say so, and I’ll see how many I can reflow.

Bare boards will go first, and only I have enough time and after I assemble some for myself, may be able to reflow a few for other people.

Replies

racemaniac Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:45 pm

[ahull – Mon Feb 05, 2018 3:09 pm] –
[racemaniac – Mon Feb 05, 2018 12:46 pm] –
[ahull – Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:42 am] –
Having the eyesight of a 20 year old would also help, but I’ve checked on ebay, and nobody appears to be selling this.

Thank god i got my eyes from the good side of the family XD
my sisters have to wear glasses, while i’ll probably have eagle eyes till i’m 60 ^^

All bets are off when you hit 50
I had pretty much perfect vision till I was in my late forties, I now use reading glasses and complain about the writing on packaging, but I can still spot an eagle at 1000 yards.

60 is maybe a bit optimistic indeed, it’ll be the same as my mother i guess, once past 50 hope for the best, but that gives me about 20 years of not needing glasses at the least :p

ChrisMicro Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:30 am

60 is maybe a bit optimistic indeed,
The picture at the bottom shows the minmum seeing distance versus age.
The worst decrease is between the age of 45 and 50.
Image

parasole Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:24 am

I did follow this topic since do have an interest for few boards, however instead of joining group buy I will order the boards myself, the postage will kill all the economy with group buy…
What I want to ask if you guys considered panelization, most vendors will offer 100×100 min.5 boards on same price as smaller ones, so may be we may benefit some cost down from panelization?
Squonk, is a big deal for you to panelize the design for say 100×100 PCB?
I know some vendors do not accept panelization and would charge you more (allpcb.com as an example), however there are plenty of them who just don’t care, and from well known vendors seeedstudio.com seems to be the one…

Squonk42 Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:54 am

Right now, there is no economic goal with this batch, we just want to make them work

I did a pre-version from EagleCAD as a 100 mm x 100 mm panel with 5 boards (4 in one direction, 1 perpendicular) using SeeedStudio Fusion, I ended up paying $15.05 for 10 panels (50 boards), but I had to wait for 3 weeks before receiving them.
Image
Image
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2633&p=38319#p38319

As we wanted to test these asap, we went through AllPCB with free and fast DHL delivery for $26, we should receive them this week or beginning of next week.

If you are EU or US, we can ship you some bare boards for <$2 using snail mail.

racemaniac Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:58 am

[parasole – Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:24 am] –
I did follow this topic since do have an interest for few boards, however instead of joining group buy I will order the boards myself, the postage will kill all the economy with group buy…
What I want to ask if you guys considered panelization, most vendors will offer 100×100 min.5 boards on same price as smaller ones, so may be we may benefit some cost down from panelization?
Squonk, is a big deal for you to panelize the design for say 100×100 PCB?
I know some vendors do not accept panelization and would charge you more (allpcb.com as an example), however there are plenty of them who just don’t care, and from well known vendors seeedstudio.com seems to be the one…

indeed, if we want to go for bigger batches, and don’t care for it taking a few weeks, making a panel and then ordering it via seeed/dirtypcb/… is cheaper, but that’s not our current goal
if you need panelized gerbers, let me know, and i’ll create some (with mouse bites in between the panels)

victor_pv Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:36 pm

The status shows “shipped”

Update:
Got a text from DHL, boards will arrive on Friday

parasole Thu Feb 08, 2018 8:56 am

[racemaniac – Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:58 am] –
if you need panelized gerbers, let me know, and i’ll create some (with mouse bites in between the panels)

Thanks for your offer racemaniac, gladly would receive the panelized gerbers…

racemaniac Thu Feb 08, 2018 9:02 am

[parasole – Thu Feb 08, 2018 8:56 am] –
[racemaniac – Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:58 am] –
if you need panelized gerbers, let me know, and i’ll create some (with mouse bites in between the panels)

Thanks for your offer racemaniac, gladly would receive the panelized gerbers…

I’ll do my best to create some tonight

parasole Thu Feb 08, 2018 9:06 am

[Squonk42 – Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:54 am] –
If you are EU or US, we can ship you some bare boards for <$2 using snail mail.

Yes Squonk42, I would take two boards, I may solder quickly one board (using STM32F405RGT6) and do a basic check exept for card reader which I don’t have yet…

Squonk42 Thu Feb 08, 2018 9:40 am

[parasole – Thu Feb 08, 2018 9:06 am] –
[Squonk42 – Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:54 am] –
If you are EU or US, we can ship you some bare boards for <$2 using snail mail.

Yes Squonk42, I would take two boards, I may solder quickly one board (using STM32F405RGT6) and do a basic check exept for card reader which I don’t have yet…

If you are located in EU, I can send you some boards as soon as I receive them, along with some microSD Card connectors, I have a few of them. Please send me your address as PM.

parasole Thu Feb 08, 2018 9:43 am

Yes it is in EU…

Squonk42 Thu Feb 08, 2018 9:48 am

[victor_pv – Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:36 pm] –
The status shows “shipped”
Update:
Got a text from DHL, boards will arrive on Friday

Mines are in Pudong International Airport (Shanghai), handled by TNT, but no ETA yet.

parasole Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:55 pm

[Squonk42 – Thu Feb 08, 2018 9:48 am] –
Mines are in Pudong International Airport (Shanghai), handled by TNT, but no ETA yet.

Let’s hope they will ship them out before weekend, next week the whole country enter to spring festival holidays…

racemaniac Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:43 pm

Would anybody need it (but i’d advise to be a bit patient until we tested these boards), here is a panelized version of the bluepill f4 gerbers

Squonk42 Fri Feb 09, 2018 5:52 am

[parasole – Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:55 pm] –
[Squonk42 – Thu Feb 08, 2018 9:48 am] –
Mines are in Pudong International Airport (Shanghai), handled by TNT, but no ETA yet.

Let’s hope they will ship them out before weekend, next week the whole country enter to spring festival holidays…

Mine arrived at Liege euro hub at midnight CET, so they made it out of China before CNY!

But I doubt I will receive them today, more likely on Monday.

Squonk42 Fri Feb 09, 2018 3:26 pm

I received the PCB from AllPCB today, see this post!

victor_pv Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:25 pm

My boards arrived yesterday.
I have to place an order for a few components that I am missing and then can reflow some.
If anyone wants to start trying with the bare boards, send me a PM with your address.
I would appreciate a paypal pay of $3 for 5 boards to offset cost ($1 stamp+envelope $2 for boards).
F103 and F405 MCUs should fit and use all pins, other MCUs may loose Pin PB11 (F411 for example), so if you want to use a different MCU check the datasheet for differences with the F405 series.

When I get the crystals and buttons from Mouser I can reflow my first.