💬 jModule

[kted]

What about the NRF decoupling capacitor? Is there a provision for it?
In the previous version there were holes for one. Is it SMD now?
Any other details on the new features? My fingers are itching for an order....

[Nca78]

Yes I switched to SMD because the purpose of the board is to be very compact. With SMD everything is on one side and the board can be on the pro mini bottom without any gap.
But the board stays easy to solder too as I have put a 1206 SMD size. If you can solder the SMD nrf24 you can solder a 1206 capacitor. If you can't, keep using the jmodule, but really it's not very difficult :)

I'll detail the board in another thread, I think I've hijacked this one enough :D
I'm making additional sensor boards in a hurry to send to dirty PCB and get them before lunar new year. When everything is sent I will upload to GitHub and post on openhardware.io. But it will need a few more weeks for me to receive and test the boards before before I advise you to order.

[kted]

@Nca78 So, the capacitor is on the other side of the board, it just doesn't show in the photos. No problem with the SMD components, they are large enough if you are a bit careful.
You are wasting precious time writing in the forums. Get back to work! :-)

[hiddenuser]

Hey I have followed https://www.mysensors.org/build/battery and removed the onboard LED and 3.3 VDC regulator. I have powered using VCC pin. Do I need to external power the nrf module ?

[kted]

@SubodhChettri Since you have removed the regulator, you should power the mini with 3.3V.
This is provided either by the jmodule's LDO which is capable to power the NRF, or directly by the battery (2xAA).
If you are using batteries, you dont need the LDO, so you bridge the Vin& Vout, and the 3.3V that feed the Mini go also to to the NRF.

[Nca78]

Panels with "NModule" and sensor shields finally arrived :D

[Cliff Karlsson]

@Nca78 is it possible to buy them somewhere?

[Nca78]

@Cliff-Karlsson said in 💬 jModule:

@Nca78 is it possible to buy them somewhere?

I'm not sure it's a good idea to share the dirtypcb link yet:

• they are not tested
• I don't even have all the scripts ready
• they need a bit of documentation to be usable

I will do my best to test them and share on openhardware.io next week.

[julisses]

jBoard2 arrived............jModule2 is coming

[dakipro]

Great, what are the improvements over the v1?

[ted]

@cabat said in 💬 jModule:

@ted Hello! Can you share the Eagle file of your version of pcb? I mean this one: http://dirtypcbs.com/view.php?share=19651&accesskey=2e5e31a83bf6fe21510c3bc438e12df7

Sorry for the extreme late response. I've busy with work in the past half year. Hope you still find the attached file useful.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13998152/modified_jBoard-panalize_4x4_hole.brd

[cabat]

@ted Big thanks!

[julisses]

@dakipro
The improvements:

• 2 build options
• no SMD elements (AMS1117 replaced by LE33 - TO92 package)
• smaller size: the jModule and the jBoard
• output pins in a one row

[Cliff Karlsson]

@Nca78 Sorry for the nagging, but are you any closer to releasing it to dirtypcbs or similar?

[ted]

@julisses

Switching to TO92 elements is a great idea and will make soldering much easier to do. However, LE33 still has 0.5 mA supply current and will not be a good choice for battery powered sensors. The TO92 package will always be ON per spec sheet: http://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/technical/document/datasheet/98/09/12/54/6e/d1/45/36/CD00000545.pdf/files/CD00000545.pdf/jcr:content/translations/en.CD00000545.pdf

The modification I made previously used XC6206 regulator that only requires 1uA supply current. It works pretty well for my battery powered sensors. However, it does not offer a TO92 package. It will be great if someone can suggest an ultra-low supply current voltage regulator in TO92 package.

[AWI]

@ted The lm-2936z could do the job (15 uA Q, 200mV drop-out ) or the mcp-1702 (2 uA Q, 525 mV drop-out). Both are significantly lower priced than the LE33 (at least where I get them ;-) )

[Nca78]

@Cliff-Karlsson said in 💬 jModule:

@Nca78 Sorry for the nagging, but are you any closer to releasing it to dirtypcbs or similar?

Yes but had some visitors during 3 weeks so progress was slow, I'll restart in 2 days and post something soon.

@ted said in 💬 jModule:

It will be great if someone can suggest an ultra-low supply current voltage regulator in TO92 package.

I would suggest MCP 1700 instead of 1702 as suggested by @AWI
It has similar max current (250mA), ultra low quiescent current too (1.6uF) but the drop-out is way lower: below 0.2V which makes it much better for battery use especially if using 2*AA/AAA batteries. The limitation is the maximum input voltage (6V) but on battery it should not be a problem.

But be careful MCP 1700 (like 1702) needs two 1uF capacitors at input and output, so it's not a drop-in replacement for LE33.

[julisses]

jModule2 is ready :)

[Cliff Karlsson]

@Nca78
Any progress with the n-module?

[Nca78]

@Cliff-Karlsson said in 💬 jModule:

@Nca78
Any progress with the n-module?

Sort of :) Made a temperature/humidity/light sensor and a door sensor.
Both are very similar in size to assembled jModule, but include the sensors and CR2032 batteries. Still have to test the accelerometer child board and make scripts for it and I will put the openhardware.io page online.