Friday, February 4, 2011

x0xi0 #330-133.5 : Custom Board VCO

I took a shot at just populating the VCO. This is how the Adafruit documentation suggests one goes about it. As you can see though, this is quite different! The VCO is no longer in a cluster like the original.

So yes - it may make sense to build the x0x outright, then calibrate later (and hopefully not have to troubleshoot). The multiple x0xio headers do allow one to calibrate this though. There are so many jumpers that it must allow access to it. I just need to check.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

x0xi0 #330-133.5 : Custom I/O Full

Finally back in the game. A solid draft of the documentation finally made its way to the ten of us using these PCBs so some of us are getting a head start while the manual is being finalized.

This build approach is different since one drops each component in by type first. I'll need to do testing later because the boards are really only populated fully in the in the end rather than being able to test sections incrementally. This concerns me a little bit because it may complicate troubleshooting. The documentation may eventually include test procedures in phases but we'll see.

Note that my own sourced parts, namely the resistors, are also 1/4W instead of 1/8W. I purchased all my parts before getting the mod kit. I hope I don't kick myself later for replacing them with the smaller ones. It appears I have clearance in the I/O but it's also quite obvious that the through holes and spacing on the PCB were design for 1/8W.