@omemanti Yes I will. This is a long thread to catch up ;-), but I did find that the latest revision of the breakout added room for the inductors to use the DCDC mode.
I guess it takes some more reading & doing to get the firmware loaded on those Ebyte modules, but as others did that already I'm confident that that will be ok!
It will be my first nRF52 application.
@alowhum, you seem to need Jlink Commander:
@toyman said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
@alowhum I intentionally asked you because I know the problem exists.
You need to erase the chip via Jlink Commander. Neither nrfjprog nor anything alse will work (AFAIK)
Actually, it was @NeverDie who found it in the beginning of his quest with nrf52. "The thing that started it all" (c)
Furthermore, It would be nice to have a small step-by-step guide to unlock and then program the ebyte module.
@Omemanti and @NeverDie are using these modules, so should be able to write something up that works for other ppl 
(My ebyte modules are still on their way)
A bit off-topic, but as per the suggestions earlier in this topic I managed to get a toaster oven working with an OSPId reflow controller, and got some test boards with 0603, 0805, 1206 and SOT23 stuff reflowed with 4 year old AIM solder paste (no flux, lead free of course).
Learned a lot. Now should get my hands dirty with some nRF52832 (ebyte E73) modules / PCB's to produce something useful
I see so much nice designs here with that module!
@neverdie No idea if this was difficult as I never worked with leaded solder paste 
I used OSPID's RoHS reflow profile to reflow a test board
The test board looks like this. I was surprised that I managed to place the 0603 (imperial) with a pincet on the board (and magnifying glasses).
No idea how good the connections really are with 4 year old solderpaste. I guess I should not use that for real boards 
@neverdie Yup, cheap but no (adjustable) temperature profile...
I just found it easier to use a reflow controller, as I had no idea how not using a profile would impact the soldering results.
I bought a new, fairly cheap but good €70 oven, and the rest is second hand stuff for around €50; an OMRON SSR (40A), which gets barely warm during a reflow session, an osPID controller and a temperature sensor.
I'm happy with the combination as it gives me reproducible results.
Of course I have no results yet with real boards, but I'm confident that the reflow setup can be adjusted (longer pre-heat and soak times for instance) to meet the PCB, reflow paste and component requirements.
As you can see below, the osPID profile is very easy to setup:
RoHS24X //first row is Profile Name with different crossings
3, 40, 0 //Step Setpoint to 40, wait 0 seconds
2, 0, 0 //Wait for PID Input to cross setpoint
127, 0, 1 //buzz for 1 second as a signal that the oven is starting to heat
1, 150, 100 //PRE-HEAT: ramp setpoint to 150 degrees over the course of 100 seconds
2, 5, 5 //Wait for PID Input to cross setpoint
1, 200, 120 //SOAK: ramp setpoint to 200 degrees over the course of 120 seconds
2, 5, 5 //Wait for PID Input to cross setpoint
1, 240, 45 //REFLOW: ramp setpoint to 240 degrees over the course of 45 seconds
2, 0, 0 //Wait for PID Input to cross setpoint
1, 218, 30 //ramp setpoint to 218 (TAL) over the course of 30 seconds
2, 5, 5 //Wait for PID Input to cross setpoint --> within 5 degrees, 5 seconds
127, 0, 1 //buzz for 2 seconds as a signal to open the oven door
1, 50, 150 //ramp setpoint to 50 over the course of 150 seconds
2, 0, 0 //Wait for PID Input to cross setpoint
127, 0, 2 //buzz for 2 seconds
3, 20, 0 //Step Setpoint to 20, full cooldown!```@toyman said in nRF5 action!:
@mars-warrior said in nRF5 action!:
OSPId reflow controller
where did you get it?
I bought it from someone else, but he bought it from Rocketstream
..
In the mean time I learned how a PID controller works (approx) as described here with this nice GIF from Wikipedia:
And managed to get a very good implementation by OSPid of my (slightly modified) reflow profile for lead free solderpaste (max of 245 degrees):
As you can see much better than my previous posted picture. Note that green = profile, and red is the actual temperature measurements.
The original OOTB PID settings where 2/0.5/2 and I'm now using 2.5/160/40 which gives a very nice result!
I increased the P value a bit. Made I much higher to make it follow the profile much, much, much better and used 40 for the D value to smoothen the temperature and prevent to much overshoot at 240 degrees.
The only weird thing is that the oven is spec'd at max 230 degrees, but I already got it to 280 degrees (that was before I understood PID settings, I entered completely wrong ones) and burning the test PCB with the attached temperature sensor inside it:
So now I have to make a real PCB and see if all this learning (using a stencil, applying solder paste, placing components, reflowing) can produce a working product 
Since nobody seemed to be doing it, I just assumed it was too hard to get it to work...until you came along!
@neverdie No idea if this was difficult as I never worked with leaded solder paste
I used OSPID's RoHS reflow profile to reflow a test board
The test board looks like this. I was surprised that I managed to place the 0603 (imperial) with a pincet on the board (and magnifying glasses).
No idea how good the connections really are with 4 year old solderpaste. I guess I should not use that for real boards
A bit off-topic, but as per the suggestions earlier in this topic I managed to get a toaster oven working with an OSPId reflow controller, and got some test boards with 0603, 0805, 1206 and SOT23 stuff reflowed with 4 year old AIM solder paste (no flux, lead free of course).
Learned a lot. Now should get my hands dirty with some nRF52832 (ebyte E73) modules / PCB's to produce something useful
I see so much nice designs here with that module!
@alowhum, you seem to need Jlink Commander:
@toyman said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
@alowhum I intentionally asked you because I know the problem exists.
You need to erase the chip via Jlink Commander. Neither nrfjprog nor anything alse will work (AFAIK)
Actually, it was @NeverDie who found it in the beginning of his quest with nrf52. "The thing that started it all" (c)
Furthermore, It would be nice to have a small step-by-step guide to unlock and then program the ebyte module.
@Omemanti and @NeverDie are using these modules, so should be able to write something up that works for other ppl
(My ebyte modules are still on their way)
@toyman Thanx for that info!
Never worked (yet) with a hot air station/pencil.
Found some reviews here: https://wiki.ezvid.com/best-soldering-stations. Both the Kendal 853D and the Ayyue 968+ are stations I can afford to buy. I assume the cheaper ones ($50) are the ones to avoid...
Looking at some youtube vids about this subject, it seems doable, even for a novice like me
Of course, any recomendations about hot air stations are appreciated!
I see a lot of nice assembled PCB's on this forum, and just out of curiosity, but do you guys do your own SMT assembly?
I looked at the PCBA options, but just a small batch of 10 PCB's starts somewhere around $140 excluding components.
It would save me I think a lot of work, but on the other hand it feels expensive...
My ebyte modules & STM32 programmers are on there way from AliExpress, so no problem in that area.
@omemanti Yes I will. This is a long thread to catch up ;-), but I did find that the latest revision of the breakout added room for the inductors to use the DCDC mode.
I guess it takes some more reading & doing to get the firmware loaded on those Ebyte modules, but as others did that already I'm confident that that will be ok!
It will be my first nRF52 application.
Nice indeed. I was just about to order some of those breakouts after receiving 4 Ebyte modules (€8 total).
But just to make sure (I didn't read the complete thread...), the capacitors for DEC1, DEC3 and DEC4 are already present on the Ebyte module, so no need to add these on your breakout, @NeverDie ?