Minimal design thoughts

[tbowmo]

@Tibus

In theory ceramic capacitors should be better, it has a lower ESR, and are better suited to reduce ripple, or noise on the supply locally, as it has a faster response to power requirements, than equivalent electrolytic capacitors.

[Mickey]

will it be possible to use this board pcb without soldering the sensor , flash and security chip?

[tbowmo]

@Mickey

Yes, you can use it without those mounted. But I don't think that we are going to sell it without those components mounted

[Roberto Brunialti]

Any good news about the d-day (delivery day :smiley: ) ?

[hek]

Small production run of 200 units started this morning. :)

[Mickey]

@hek said:

Small production run of 200 units started this morning. :)

You would run-out of units very soon...

[Roberto Brunialti]

when preorders will be available ?

[hek]

@Roberto-Brunialti

I will check with Itead Studio if their shop can handle pre-orders.

[tbowmo]

@Mickey

Then we will make another 200 (or more, depending on requests) :)

[hautomate]

What's the expected price point for these?

[tbowmo]

@hautomate

They are going for 14$ plus shipping.. Expected shipping date is set to 20th of May.

(the project is receiving about 1$ for each unit sold)

/ Thomas

[gadu]

Oh! Where do I order?! Been waiting for this!

[tbowmo]

@gadu

An initial product page is up at iteadstudio : http://imall.iteadstudio.com/mysensors-micro.html

We are working on updating product description etc.

[Dwalt]

FYI - ITead is already taking preorders for the board.

[Roberto Brunialti]

Hi, I have ordered some boards from Itead. Just some doubts: is the board a 5v or a 3.3? what's about nrf24 decoupling capacitor? May I assume the nrf24 is correctly powered at 3.3 V by the board?
Sorry but i'm on the "soft" side more than the "hard" ...:-)

[Anticimex]

@Roberto-Brunialti The board is "2XAA" battery, in other words; 3V. Some components on the board won't survive 5V so it is important not to use that voltage. Decoupling for the radio is onboard.

[Anticimex]

The board has it's "own" thread as of now:
http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/1345/sensebender-micro

[Roberto Brunialti]

that ìs fine for me!

[Frank Herrmann]

Hi, i ordered some boards from OSHPark and at the weekend i solder this thing together. Here a pic from my work :)

Ok, it's work. You see, i have old nrf24 Modules they have not the same pinout, but i ordered some here in germany.

Some points to the design:

• this pcb has on both sides small SMD Components, that very hard to solder. I solder my one with an IR Oven and can only solder one side. It's mostly ok becouse on the second size i can solder with an iron, but never 04 components :)
• the size of smd components are too small, i understand this when you use the small Atemag328p MLF and only 04 components. Better are 0603 or 0805.

Ok, enough ... the board are great and give me a lot of ideas to my board. my are a small bigger but use the nrf24l01+ SMD version and a normal arduino pro mini. Please have a look:

[tbowmo]

@Frank-Herrmann

looks nice. And yes, I know that 0603 is prefered for home soldering. However, as we are going to get this SMD assembled in china, there is no problem in using 0402 components.

Also, if I where to use 0603 (or 0804 for that matter), the board would be bigger.

I am working on another pcb now (a GW for mysensors), where I am going for 0603, as I don't have the same size restrictions, as I had when doing this board. This will also be double sided (so far anyways, might change it down the road)