When finished soldering, again clean up the dry rosin from the PCB with some Isopropyl Alcohol and a clean tooth brush or similar.
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The next step to undertake is mounting and soldering all of the board connectors and passive components. On this project Werk has mounted and soldered all of the surface mount components and modules for us, so a lot of the hard work is already done. That said, do remember to take adequate anti-static measures and be careful how you handle the board. Take some Single InLine (SIP) headers and cut them down if you are planning to mount your TX and RX modules in sockets. I like to also install header pins for the LEDs so that I have the option to bring them out onto the front panel of the enclosure at build time.
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Note when soldering the SMA connectors for your antennas that they will soak up a good amount of heat from your soldering iron and take it away from the joints being soldered. You don't want to sit there too long on the heat, so you may find that you will need to turn up your iron heat a little more when soldering these two SMA connectors. Get in, make the solder joint, get out, and don't over heat things...
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Lastly, don't forget to mount your 100uF 16v electrolytic capacitor, noting the orientation (polarity) correctly. The positive side of the capacitor is closest to the WiFi module.
That's about it for the final board assembly, and not too difficult task to undertake. Take your time, and check your solder joints under the magi-lamp when finished, and again don't forget to clean off the dry rosin from the PCB with some Isopropyl Alcohol and a clean tooth brush or similar.
(21-01-2017, 12:10)Wizza Wrote: [ -> ]That's about it for the final board assembly, and not too difficult task to undertake. Take your time, and check your solder joints under the magi-lamp when finished, and again don't forget to clean off the dry rosin from the PCB with some Isopropyl Alcohol and a clean tooth brush or similar.
Mark, thank you for taking the time to produce a really excellent guide and summary which I'm sure will be an enormous help to anyone starting the PLUS board in particular, but also any WeatherDuino really. I have a good deal of electonics experience fortunately, having put together more PCBs than I care to remember over a number of decades now and I've found all the advice to be spot-on. Even so it's been a very helpful reminder of some things, for example the importance of anti-static precautions as I've become a bit complacent and probably not taken as much care as I should...
Congratulations on the completed board and I look forward to seeing it in action!
Allan.
Next up I want to look at the BME280 module (sensor). The sensors that I ordered came as bare boards again, in that the header pins were not pre-soldered.
Not too much challenge there, however in this case I want to mount my module 'vertically' in a standing upright orientation and I didn't have any 90 degree header pins at the moment. If your careful you can mount some regular header pins and then carefully bend them to 90 degrees after soldering. This is best done with a small set of needle-nose pliers, and just go slowly and carefully. Although the pins bend quite easily, we don't want to go breaking or damaging the sensor PCB. I would also advise if you want to try this procedure, bend the pins one at a time as this will put way less stress on the board and the soldered joints. I wouldn't attempt to bend them all at once with a large set of engineers pliers.
First up solder in some regular header pins. Leave the plastic spacer on the pins until after soldering. After soldering use a tiny screw driver or similar, and carefully slide off the plastic heard pin spacer block before bending the pins.
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All going well, you should now have a module with 90 degree header pins. If you feel a little uncomfortable with this procedure, you can always buy some 90 degree header pins at your local electronics store but if its late at night then this technique may keep you moving.
Nice work Wizza!
I take the opportunity to write a little note, specially for those that chose to use the BME280 sensor (not the BMP280).
As the BME280 will also act as your inside Temperature / Humidity sensor, I think its better install it outside of the Pro2 PLUS box, and connect it to the RX board using some wires.
(21-01-2017, 20:19)Wizza Wrote: [ -> ]Next up I want to look at the BMP280 module (sensor). The sensors that I ordered came as bare boards again, in that the header pins were not pre-soldered.
Interesting! My BMP280 board has 6 pins, (all that I saw at the time I ordered it were also 6 pin) the additional 2 being CS and MISO/SDO as the module can use both I2C and SPI modes. By default the address is 0x76 but it can be changed to 0x77 by tying pin 6 to VCC. Alternatively, the address could be changed to 0x76 in the Meduino sketch, Werk_AG??
An example of the module I have is here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMP280-Module-...Sw74FXO7Cx
Can I ask where you got your 4 pin module please Mark - and does it use the 0x77 address??
Allan
(21-01-2017, 21:15)Werk_AG Wrote: [ -> ]Nice work Wizza!
I take the opportunity to write a little note, specially for those that chose to use the BME280 sensor (not the BMP280).
As the BME280 will also act as your inside Temperature / Humidity sensor, I think its better install it outside of the Pro2 PLUS box, and connect it to the RX board using some wires.
Werk,
Thanks for the note. It made me think about my Rx which has a module purchased on EBay (Item No 191736124959) labelled BME/BMP280, combined temp/press/humidity, which I have installed inside the Rx case but will
move it outside the case ASAP.
It looks identical to the one Wizza has pictured in his post.
In the Config_Rx.h file I selected option 0 (BME280) for inside Temp/Pressure and Barometric pressure and it works OK
Regards
Jim
(21-01-2017, 22:02)AllanG Wrote: [ -> ]Interesting! My BMP280 board has 6 pins, (all that I saw at the time I ordered it were also 6 pin) the additional 2 being CS and MISO/SDO as the module can use both I2C and SPI modes. By default the address is 0x76 but it can be changed to 0x77 by tying pin 6 to VCC. Alternatively, the address could be changed to 0x76 in the Meduino sketch, Werk_AG??
Hi AllanG
If the default address of your BMP280 is 0x76 (and it should be), don't worry it will work.
In the unlikely case you need to change the default address, it can only be done in the library (BMP280.h).
If needed PM me.
(22-01-2017, 02:31)Barrow4491 Wrote: [ -> ]Werk,
Thanks for the note. It made me think about my Rx which has a module purchased on EBay (Item No 191736124959) labelled BME/BMP280, combined temp/press/humidity, which I have installed inside the Rx case but will move it outside the case ASAP.
It looks identical to the one Wizza has pictured in his post.
In the Config_Rx.h file I selected option 0 (BME280) for inside Temp/Pressure and Barometric pressure and it works OK
Regards
Jim
Some manufacturers use the same pcb for both sensors (BME280 and BMP280), which makes them look similar, only the sensor is different.
Very very nice.