Monday 1 June 2015

The 39 Steps...

Over the past few days I have been working on the rotary table control electronics. This has involved reducing the profile of some of the boards, to ensure they will fit snugly into the enclosure.

On the LCD/Keypad shield, I was able to move the contrast potentiometer from the front to the rear of the board. This allows the LCD to sit closer to the front panel. I also took the ICSP header off the shield; it will not be required in the finished device. Flying leads have been soldered to the buttons to enable these to be piggybacked with the panel controls.

The stepper drive board had it's screw terminals removed. I have soldered flying leads to the stepper output pads on the board which will be connected to the output socket. The capacitors on this board have had their leads extended and led out to the side.

The Arduino has had the power leads soldered directly to the board. All three of the PCB's have been stacked together using various 6BA screws and stand offs.

This view shows the stacked boards and the contrast potentiometer. The conductors for the stepper output, control signals and the button extensions can also be seen.





Here is another view of the stacked PCB's:-




This unit will be mounted to the panel by means of the 6BA bolts through the LCD shield. The intention is to secure these through the panel with acorn nuts.

I shall be back earning a living again soon, so no more practical updates. I'm hoping to use the time to get some more details of the tube bundle chamber design published.