Hello EEVBlog folks!
I'm Manoel/Godzil, and I'm mainly a software engineer that have quite a hardware background (my first degree was about electronics, most of my study after was around embedded software development so I never completely leave my foot on the electronic stuff, but it get faint with time unless 3 or 4 years ago when I started to get back on the electronic track, mostly because I started to work more closely to the hardware at that time as I was working for the only european/french manufacturer of eBook reader. That was about the same time I discover Dave's youtube channel and followed it since. (Ok I've clicked on the "Follow" button quite recently, but I was already watchin his channel for a long time before
)
Anyway, at that time I build my first "professional quality" PCB (thanks to seeedstudio) was maybe a bit overconfident on it and mount it, it was mostly a full CMS board, plus a nasty BGA, it was (and still is) half a failure as most of the hardware is working, only two or three data/address line one the pSRAM BGA are not working, not that bad after all for a come back on the electronic stuff
Ok this PCB wasn't my design, it is an opensource design, but anyway, I still build it and it is nearly working! And lost lots of hours trying to recover the BGA disaster to no luck, but that's another story.
That led to a bit of low confidence on myself, and that + other factors (moving to a new home in another country, moved from Paris to London) it wasn't the best moment to work on such personal projects.
1 and half year ago, I restarted to work on my projects, and to finally build my home electronic lab (at that time I had only a crap multimeter and a "crap" soldering iron (not that crap as it is a good branded one) but not a real station) and buy stuffs as I needed at the time, and as I don't need to rush so I take my time on this, I'm still missing some important stuffs like power supply, but I haven't needed one right now, finger crossed.
So last year I finally create my first PCB put a lot of proud on it and ordered it (again from seeedstudio)
Ok it's just a passive thing with some connectors, but I made all the pcb design, cutout, and this one worked on the first time!
Oh I haven't told what my main hobbies are, I'm quite interested in retrocomputer stuffs and retrogaming stuffs, my main two projects are currently an updated version of an old computer which it the Tangerine Oric 1/Atmos, the other one is to build a development cart for the Bandai's WonderSwan.
The first one is going slowly, the second one, I have a prototype for the first hardware step of this project that nearly works (I'm missing some stuff on the software side, but the hardware is nearly OK).
This version use standard SRAM, NOR and a CPLD chip to make everything working, the second step would be a much complex version that use FPGA / SRAM / SD card based solution, and both have to fit in a really tiny cart shell, there is nearly no room at all in this thing, but that make the thing fun to do
So last year the PCB I made was to be able to analyse the cart signal, and ultimately used one of my FPGA board to simulate a cart with it, and all of this was a quite big success as I manage to analyze the missing bits and get a first success in simulating an official cart (I'll pass the details, but there are some sort of a protection mechanism in that.)
Anyway, as it's still a hobby project, after this success last december, I've lost some interest in it, until last june where I started to work on the real thing, the first step, and came to the design of my second board, a bit more ambitious than the first one, as this one include a lots of active parts, SRAM, NOR, CPLD, a regulator, battery holder and some glue around to make things working.
After PCB been build, (seeed again..) and getting the components in hand, I decided that I was too lazy to solder them by hand and bought a mylar stencil, and solder the board using that + hotair. Not a huge success for the first time, but not that bad, I put too much solder paste, and add a lots of solder joint, and part that slightly shift, which is not that easy to recover, but I manage to recover the board, but needed to swap the CPLD with the spare one I had some pins are (still) a bit twisted, I was a bit too angry at that time so I put it on hold and take the second one with better luck. That was two weeks ago I think, do some basic check on it, and finally solder some wires last weekend to be able to program the CPLD via JTAG.
I would invite people interested about that project to have a look in my own blog (you will find a link in my own profile, I'm not here to make a ad just introduce myself)
Anyway, here is my current electronic lab equipment:
- An Atten soldering digital station (rebaged in the farnell brand) which is I think not the best quality ever, but work quite well for my needs
- The infamous Atten 858D+ hot air station (a real Atten one, not a clone of the clone, with correct wiring, in fact the same that dave reviewed)
- A crap DMM that serve me mainly to check continuity and check open circuit battery voltage
- Tons of electronics stuffs (evaluation boards, components, bare PCB, stuff to repairs...)
- A not that bad 34 way / 500Mhz USB Logic analyser
- A lovely Rigol DS2072A that I bought a month ago, and I'm loving it
(yeah "expensive", at least for me, but worth the price, and I want to keep it at lest 10 years)
What I still plan to buy:
- A real DMM (I lurk on the BK Precision reviewed by dave, I find it quite nice)
- A power supply, if anyone have an idea for a good, but low price one, the DP832 could be a good entry point, but a bit expensive for me currently..
- More components (we never have enough)
- A better bench, ad I'm currently using my "normal desk" which is not the best place for keeping all the tools and do solder on it. I have a clue on this one, but will need some space and home that they will sell them.. (there are some nice unused bench where I work with all the thing you need, a shelve, earth plug for antistatic mat, etc..))
Sorry for the big and messy introduction text ^^
That's all for today on that topic
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