Little amateur pr0n for Zetr0

[ferix]

Here is a pic of my selfmade ps2 mouse to amiga:

http://eab.abime.net/picture.php?albumid=229&pictureid=1290

Edit:
I forgot to say that I found the schematics (and code) at http://www.bneven.com/mouseps2.html, so It's not my design.
I only designed the PCB.

Edit (again):
It works like a charm :D

[Zetr0]

OOooOooo

now thats a hot little number =D

well done indeed, might I ask -

what method of PCB fabbing did you use -

press and peel or perhaps photo-resist ? It looks great!

[Cammy]

..

[ferix]

@ Zetr0
I knew you would like It, but I have better jobs ;)
I used the photo-resist method, and chemical tinning for the finish.

@ Cammy
It can be done, but what do you want to plug into?
If you want to plug an USB mouse that supports PS2 protocol, It will work.
But if It's a USB only mouse, It won't work. If you want to plug one of those mice, you'll need a more complex microcontroller, and the software too... It isn't worth It
What I can do is to replace the minidin connector by an USB one, ore simply add It, so you have two options to choose.

[AlfaRomeo]

@ ferix

Great Work, very professional. Congratulations

[Allen1]

@ ferix

That is a beautiful job you have done there, I was looking at a couple of mouse interfaces using a pic16f84 as in the ps2m interface. I would love to get back into electronics and do stuff again, one day I will :)

Where did you get the tin plating crystals/solution from? The last time I managed to get some was over 8 years ago at Maplins, I couldn't get any after that but I haven't tried for a few years so I don't know if they ever got it back in stock.

[ferix]

Thank you to all of you.
But if you like It, take a look to my last project:
http://eab.abime.net/picture.php?albumid=230&pictureid=1291
http://eab.abime.net/picture.php?albumid=230&pictureid=1292

It's still unfinished. I'm waiting for two chips to come.
As you see, It's a sd/mmc card reader for Amiga computers. It plugs into the parallel port.
It's the first prototype, so It lacks some things, like card's presence detector.
It also has no decoupling capacitors. I don't put them on prototypes, I solder them over the sockets pins, It's much faster for pcb design.

@ Allen1
I got the tin powder from farnell.
http://uk.farnell.com/mega/600-021/tin-plating-powder-450g/dp/769885
It's a bit expensive, I know.

Regarding to the mouse adapter, It's made with recycled parts from older projects and dead PC boards, except for the DB9 connector, and the pcb, of course.

[Allen1]

Cheers ferix,

I think it was about £18 for the tinning kit I got from Maplins years ago. That was a heavy plastic seal-able bag and the crystals, you added water and placed the circuit board in the bag and it would plate over the copper tracks etc. That saved a lot of time when soldering the parts in place and the price of the crystals today compares fairly well to what I paid so long ago.

Are you using a bubble etch tank or are you using an old ice cream container where you rock it back and forward to try to even out the etching process like I used to do. The heated bubble tanks are great but I couldn't afford one back then.

[ferix]

@ Allen1:

I use a 5 liters plastic bottle with a cutted side, so I can use It as a tank and I can also drain It easily by taking the lid off.
Something like this:
http://www.agrostar.cn/images/pac10.jpg
I shake It during the etching process, until all the copper is gone.
The trick is to use destilled water at about 40º C.
I use a fish tank heater for heating the water before mixing It with the chemicals.

[Allen1]

@ ferix

that is a much better system than I used, my solution was cold and took forever at times to etch the boards. I bought an air pump for a fish tank in an effort to construct a heated bubble tank but I never did get round to making one. The 5 litre plastic bottle idea is brilliant, I wish I had thought of that, it is also as you mentioned an easier way of draining the container when finished.

The CAD program I used is an old Protel version that worked on windows 3.11, it still works on XP but I have not used it for a few years either, before that I used Electrocad on the Amiga, it worked but was very blocky especially on track angles :)

[ferix]

@ Allen1:

I also tried a bubble generator, but It did nothing at all... It's better to shake the tank.

Regarding to the pcb design...
I use Cadence's Orcad and Cadsoft's Eagle. First one is the best for me, but It's expensive, and requires a lot of learnig.
Eagle It's much cheaper, and It has reduced free versions. It also runs under Linux.
I've been using Orcad from the DOS times. ;)
Now, I use Orcad under a paravirtualized windows machine, on my Linux box... not an easy task, I know :P

[Allen1]

That's a shame about the bubble generator not making a difference, I had hoped for an even etching effect, there is nothing worse than having an area that takes too much time to completely etch and that is where other tracks can start to get eaten away and you see your hard work become not quite what it should be.

I have tried a few different CAD programs out since getting used to Protel but found that I was more comfortable with what I got used to. Even newer versions of Protel were not the same, the only problem I had was having to switch off the multilayer options and silkscreen and the likes as I only use single sided board as I have no means of lining up a board for accurate double sided exposure (sometime its hard enough positioning the artwork squarely for a single side). ;)

[AlfaRomeo]

@ Allen1

Look at this:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-using-Ferric-Chloride-etchant!--A-better-etc/step1/Ingredients-The-Starter-Etchant/

It´s cheaper than the crystals

[Boo Boo]

Now that looks Sweet! SD card on A500;)
http://eab.abime.net/picture.php?albumid=230&pictureid=1291
What kind of price would that cost to produce?
Anychance of makeing that USB instead of SD card:D
Great Stuff:great

[alexh]

Anychance of makeing that USB instead of SD card:D
Non I imagine.

SPI protocol = very easy, little software support.
USB protocol = insanely hard, MEGA software support.

If you want USB on A500 buy a Subway + A500 clock port adapter. (At some insanely stoopid price)

[Boo Boo]

Non I imagine.

SPI protocol = very easy, little software support.
USB protocol = insanely hard, MEGA software support.

If you want USB on A500 buy a Subway + A500 clock port adapter. (At some insanely stoopid price)

Just thought I would Ask;) -I guess a new driver will be needed for this anyway? But still Great Stuff:)

[alexh]

I guess a new driver will be needed for this anyway?
Yes but it accessing the card be relatively easy and there are lots of C-code sources to borrow.

Learning how to create an API that AmigaOS will recognise as a hard drive which can then interface with filesystems such as fat95 will be the challenge.

[Allen1]

@ Allen1

Look at this:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-using-Ferric-Chloride-etchant!--A-better-etc/step1/Ingredients-The-Starter-Etchant/ (http://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-using-Ferric-Chloride-etchant%21--A-better-etc/step1/Ingredients-The-Starter-Etchant/)

It´s cheaper than the crystals

Cheers AlfaRomeo,

that looks excellent for etching the boards, I still have about 10 litres of industrial use Ferric Chloride at the moment though, there was a circuit board manufacturer here a few years ago and I knew a few people ;) (that saved me a fortune when I eventually got my act together) :)

I've bookmarked that site, it really looks like a very good place to spend some time browsing and picking up some more tips like this one :great

[Dimlow]

Thank you to all of you.
But if you like It, take a look to my last project:
http://eab.abime.net/picture.php?albumid=230&pictureid=1291
http://eab.abime.net/picture.php?albumid=230&pictureid=1292

It's still unfinished. I'm waiting for two chips to come.
As you see, It's a sd/mmc card reader for Amiga computers. It plugs into the parallel port.
It's the first prototype, so It lacks some things, like card's presence detector.
It also has no decoupling capacitors. I don't put them on prototypes, I solder them over the sockets pins, It's much faster for pcb design.

@ Allen1
I got the tin powder from farnell.
http://uk.farnell.com/mega/600-021/tin-plating-powder-450g/dp/769885
It's a bit expensive, I know.

Regarding to the mouse adapter, It's made with recycled parts from older projects and dead PC boards, except for the DB9 connector, and the pcb, of course.

Why all the circuitry ? I made one of these for the BBC http://members.multimania.co.uk/mmbeeb/ just a bunch of resistors and a voltage reg!

[ferix]

Why all the circuitry ? I made one of these for the BBC http://members.multimania.co.uk/mmbeeb/ just a bunch of resistors and a voltage reg!

Just for speed and timming... I know It can be done using bit-banging, but It means to put a high load on the cpu for doing something so simple as a SPI bus.
This circuit works like a SPI interface, so the cpu only has to read and write to an I/O port.