Tony Duell wrote:
Notice I said 'provide it as a kit', not
'provided it as a kit or ready=
=20
made'. The point being that if _only_ the kit
is available, people who=20
want it have ot buy the kit, and they have to be clueful enough to put =
it=20
together.
Like I said before, though -- the DiscFerret is an almost completely SMD=20
design. In fact, the only parts of the board that aren't SMD are the USB=20
connector (a Lumberg thru-hole B-type "device" connector), the power=20
connector (Switchcraft RAPC722 2.1mm DC barrel socket), and the=20
interface connector (40-pin right-angled IDC with latch ears).
As a bare minimum, if I made a kit, I'd want to supply it with the power=20
controller chip soldered down (the aforementioned QFN chip -- TI=20
TPS75003). That's simply because the leads don't extend up the side of=20
Is thatere any particular reason that you're using this chip? I haven't
got the data sheet, but what does it do that can't be done with
easier-to-solder components?
Would this be more to your liking?
Err, yes.. But it doesn't need to be 2 separae manuals. Nothing wrong
with a comminder 'operating/sercice manual'
User's Guide / Programming Guide
Software installation / basic usage
Hardware pinouts -- disc interface / power connectors
API documentation and USB control protocol
Firmware theory of operation
(possibly useful if you want to play with it at a lower level=20
than DiscAPI allows)
Firmware source listing?
Service Manual
Schematics
PCB layout diagram (x2 magnified)
PCB top and bottom layer (x2 magnified)
(useful if a trace gets burned away!)
Parts manifest
Assembly instructions (for kits)
Hardware theory of operation (for each major section)
(no sense in building a kit if you don't know how it works!)
FPGA souce? PAL/CPLD equations?
Given the scheamtic and the knowledge that I put
it together in the fir=
st=20
place, it's likely I can fix it.
Unless a failed part is NLA...
Not so. If I genuinely know what the defective part is, there;'s a good
cahnce I can kludge up some replacemnt from bits I can get. Of course if
the unit is am FPGA + PSU + not much else ad the FPGA is what's failed
and NLA, it might be easier to make up a new PCB to take the replacement
FPGA and move the PSU parts onto it...
I can assure you that if parts being NLA stopped me from repairing
something then many of my classic computers wouldn't be operational.
-tony