Homebrew PCB making (CDTV joy port hack)

[T_hairy_bootson]

I want to make my own little PCB for the cdtv joystick port hack. I have looked at some great tutorials on youtube for using laser printers and press 'n' peel sheets, just wondering if the press 'n' peel sheets are worth the extra cost.

As far as I can tell the inkjet photopaper and laser printer method seems very effective. Anyone tried this technique and can comment on where it could go wrong etc..?

I have tried to solder wires to the 40pin socket but keep ending up melting the plastic so I thought this way would be easier and neater.

This is the hack:
http://www.cdtv.org.uk/cdtv-joystick.html

And these are the parts I have so far:

26pin IDC female socket (they didnt have any 20pins in stock )

26pin header

A couple of these for the other end of the old IDE cable:


And a 40pin machined pin IC socket which will be mounted to the PCB (hopefully the pins will be long enough going through the PCB to slot into the socket below). Also the header is mounted to the PCB.

As far as software I am happy to use autocad as I use that for a living and would be able to draw to scale fairly easily unless anyone can suggest some good free software to do the task.

[Fingerlickin_B]

Hey man,

A PCB would be really nice, but if it's just for ease of manufacture/fitment, maybe try the way I did it?

How it was done:
Removed U75 from socket.
Placed new socket on top of chip & soldered the legs together.
Joined the wires on the chip end of things to a header strip and bent it 90 degrees to clear the case lid, then plugged into the "piggybacked" socket.

Pic (slow to load, but it's there):


I'd still like to see your PCB...it'd probably look quite a bit more professional than my job

PZ.

*EDIT* - Forgot to add...in the pic I've only done port 2 (joystick) so far...obviously more connections are required for both ports

*EXTRA EDIT* - Doing it this way only cost me $1.20 too!

[Zetr0]

@THB

my friend, if you have the schematics i could probably make an adapter for you

By far the easiest is the laster toner transfer paper, the trick is to make sure the board is Clean and you dont press on the iron just let the weight of the iron be all thats needed, give t a good five minuets per side

so how it works..

well you print out your design,

cut out the transfer paper to fit (include 12% more for drift)

using masking tape attach it to the paper

then print / CUT / and affix.

Cons:

I find that the print with the laser toner paper shifts down a bit, but you can compensate for that.

Another method would be to get a REALLY fine tipped permanent black/blue pen, a small ruler and a design on paper, then just copy it to the copy, although this method takes longer, you get to do some cool coper doodles , also if you make a mistake you can just clean it off with one of them erasers.

[Zetr0]

@Fingerz

now thats a nice hack my friend

thanks muchly for the first hardware pr0n of the day

[Fingerlickin_B]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

thanks muchly for the first hardware pr0n of the day

Always happy to supply you with pr0n Z-man!

[TheCorfiot]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@Fingerz

now thats a nice hack my friend

thanks muchly for the first hardware pr0n of the day

@Fingers,

Way Cool, Looks perfectly acceptable to me, Nice One

[Fingerlickin_B]

Cheers man, hopefully THB thinks the same...it'll save a few bucks

PZ.

[T_hairy_bootson]

Nice approach fingers never even occurred to me to do it that way, the fun for me will be in making it though, I don't have much experience with it so this would be a fun little novice project to start off with. Will try a kickstart switch next if this goes well. I already have all the little parts I need, cost a little more than $1.20 but the pcb etching kit can be used again for other projects.

@Zetro so when you mention transfer paper you mean the actual print 'n' peel transfers? Was thinking of just doing it with regular glossy paper and then soaking it in water and cleaning the paper off. Saw a few vids on youtube. I will upload a pic of the PCB design when I am done for your appoval before making the pcb though, just to be sure it is doable.

[Zetr0]

@THB

my friend, I have to admit, that photo-paper trick, really sucks... its soooooo much easier to just buy some press and peel, I know its a few quid, but they come up on fleabay from time to time a bit cheaper.

I have tried various photo papers and they are either next to impossible to remove, (even tried the dishwasher in mega hot) mutaic acid (that for disolving the film) and scrubbing the paper away...

in the end i bit the bullet and just bought some paper for £12 for 10 sheets of A4

[Fingerlickin_B]

Hey THB,

Just a word of warning regarding this mod...don't freak out if it doesn't initially seem to work!

When I finished the mouse side of things today it seemed to have not worked...no moving the cursor with mouse, buttons didn't work, etc.

I traced every connection and they all proved good, but the mouse didn't work!

Then after using the CDTV remote in "mouse" setting briefly, the real mouse started to work...but only in that session.

Then I did the same again with similar results.

After a few more restarts, the mouse now works perfectly every time without "prompting" it needed like earlier on.

I figure something circuit-wise needs some "exersise" before the regular mouse starts working 100%...if that makes sense?

PZ.

[T_hairy_bootson]

Thanks for the warning Fingers, will keep an eye out. My press 'n' peel sheetrs arrived from Canada last night so hopefully if I get some time this weekend I will draw this thing up.

[T_hairy_bootson]

v1.0

[Zetr0]

@THB

It looks great m8!

now lets see how it looks in copper!!!!