this kit is totally NOT for people who don't have experience with
electronic kit building, or preferably electronic repair. i'm so glad that
i own a solder-sucker!
and now for a critical review of what i've done so far...
i decided to destructively remove IC29 (on my board it was a CMOS 40H138,
not a TTL 74138 as described in the docs) in order to minimize the risk of
damaging the PCB.
my Hawk PCB is labeled rev 1.3, and some of the jumpers are a bit closer
than i would have liked them, but i had no problem with the "small" solder
pads. i was also surprised that i needed a jumper on the back.
the docs show the chip socket for the header-cable being different than
the other chip sockets; all of my chip sockets look like the type used for
the header, and some of them hit the jumpers and don't sit flush against
the board, but they're close enough. some of the chips don't feel like
they're seated 100%, so i'll probably hit them with some hot-glue before i
call it finished.
i noticed that D2 is only used to keep a backwards battery from damaging
anything, so i left that out along with the battery holder. i might wind
up using the battery holder in something else.
C1 seems to be used to keep the power lines to the chips clean... but is
it really effective when there's only one of them, and at the opposite end
of the board from some of the chips it's protecting? i thought best
practice was one cap per chip, located as close as practical to each
chip...?
also the ribbon cables... i was expecting the red mark to be towards pin
1; the larger cable had it on the other side, the smaller cable didn't
have a red mark.
oh... when i got to soldering the two capacitors to the board i could only
find one. i searched and dug through the kit to no avail. i ran to jaycar
just before they closed for the day, got a pack of two, got back, put the
second capacitor on the board, and as soon as i looked up i saw the
missing cap, stuck to the tape on one of the IC tubes.
can i remove the battery from the EX800 main-board?
right now i've got it at the point where it powers up and says "FLASH".
since my computers and my synths don't talk to each other, getting the OS
loaded will be a non-trivial task for me. in the meantime i'll be looking
at 1U rack enclosures. i'll hold off on the AtomaHawk until i have a
better idea of the enclosure situation.
does anyone have any fresh leads for a 1U keypad?
all in all, it went smooth, and i probably spent 3-4 hours on the bench
(not including my jaycar trip). one of the things that cost me time was
not having a printout of the docs, so i had to keep getting up and looking
at the computer, going back and forth.
i would highly suggest that anyone without the experience to do this
either find a guitar/amp/electronics repair shop that will quote a price
(or, if they insist on charging by the hour, at least get them to give you
a maximum charge), or work out with someone on the list to do the mod.
it's not for the inexperienced or the faint-hearted. another option for
having it done ~might~ be an electronics shop at a local vo-tech or trade
school... they might be able to assign it to a student as an extra-credit
project, or hook you up with a student who is ∗capable∗ of doing it as a
side project for a few bucks.
for those on the list who are comfortable with doing the kit, i'm curious
how lucrative it might be to sell completed kits on evil-bay...?
--
...atom
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http://atom.smasher.org/ 762A 3B98 A3C3 96C9 C6B7 582A B88D 52E4 D9F5 7808
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"The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a
warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man takes
everything either as a blessing or a curse."
-- Don Juan (Carlos Castanada)