I got my boards from OSHPark, and the port tester works perfectly. I'm a beginner at assembling circuit boards, and at first I wasn't sure about the orientation of the LEDs. I followed the traces on the board and figured out that the negative lead of the LED goes in the hole with the square pad. Here is a picture of the fully assembled board:
Looks good, I like your banana plugs.
To all that emailed me about a kit, please check your email. Everything has arrived and is about ready for shipping out.
If anyone else wants a kit I have 4 left. They are $17.00 each, that includes shipping. Email is in my profile.
rtr12 posted:To all that emailed me about a kit, please check your email. Everything has arrived and is about ready for shipping out.
If anyone else wants a kit I have 4 left. They are $17.00 each, that includes shipping. Email is in my profile.
I'd like one. email sent.
I'd like one too. Email sent.
There were a couple of questions about which PCBs I have. They are exactly like the Red ones GRJ posted earlier in this thread as his finished tester board (the newest revision). The parts are exactly what GRJ posted in the BOM for the PCBs. I added to the list a socket for the 74HCT123N and a two position terminal block so you could easily connect the wire/connectors of your choice to connect to your track, TIU, etc. or easily swap leads if you want to.
Also Stan2004 posted some good tips earlier in this thread on how to calibrate the testers.
Here are some pictures that may help.
Looks great John F and RTR. I have one of the GRJ kits, but must confess I haven't had time to build it yet. I've been spending too much time at my elderly parents' empty house mowing, doing roof and gutter maintenance, and some electrical upgrades.
Maybe the electrical upgrades count for something on an OGR electrical topic. I shudder when I see some of the wiring in this 130-year old house!!! I never dreamed the remaining knob and tube wiring was still live!! Well, it isn't any more!
Mark, I remember my parents' 1927 house, that the insulation on the BX cable would crumble when replacing a receptacle, and no green cable.
JOHNF points this out earlier, but white printed "silkscreen" should show "flat" side of the 3 LEDs on the square pad as shown in hand-edited photo above. Additionally, the large capacitor C7 must be installed with white stripe ("-" side) as shown.
RJR posted:Mark, I remember my parents' 1927 house, that the insulation on the BX cable would crumble when replacing a receptacle, and no green cable.
You got that right!!!
email sent on kit
Thanks Stan! I added a note to the BOM I included with the kits about the LEDs, but you added a lot more help here that I hadn't thought about, especially for those of us less knowledgeable around here. And also all the calibration info you posted above.
I'm out of kits from the current batch, but I have 4 orders toward the next batch. The boards are ordered in lots of 10.
If anyone else is interested, send and me an email (it's in my profile). When we have enough orders I will place the next PCB order and let you all know.
For the first batch, I have emailed everyone payment info and asking for their shipping info.
I've since found that I could use a 5mm LED footprint and get the proper flat represented, you can still pop a 3mm LED in the holes. In the actual silkscreen of the 3mm LED part the holes break up the silkscreen and that part doesn't make it to the board. However, I should have just used the 5mm part, the hole spacing is the same and it would have made it clearer.
Hey RTR12, I just emailed you. I'd like one!
Thanks,
Got it. You're on the list for the next batch.
Here's another picture of all the contents in the kits. I marked all the resistors and a couple of other things. I think the rest should all match the PCB layout markings and hole layouts. Hope it's all clear enough for everyone.
RTR12, please put me in for 2 kits.
Got it Dave, but please send me an email so I can keep track of who ordered what, I'm sure I will miss something trying to keep up with the thread here. Much easier for me to track emails.
Thanks!
You're going the extra mile with the kits, very meticulous! 
Thanks, GRJ!! It was originally self serving, then I thought others might like it too. Stan got me thinking about the markings, from the added details he posted above. (my packaging and shipping still needs some refining)
And thanks to you, Adrian and Stan for making it all possible!! These are pretty neat little devices. 
The one thing to make clear with the kits is the orientation of the LED's, the 3mm pattern I used didn't show the flat on the LED. In all three cases the short (negative) lead goes to the square pad. You might mention the diode polarity as well...
I included a parts list with a note at the bottom about the LED orientation. But I didn't note anything else. Then Stan posted above about all the other things so I didn't add those to the list. I will do that for the next batch of kits. I was going to try and fix the PCBs as you described above, but they went so fast I ordered more before trying to make the adjustment.
My color printer shot craps or I would include one of Stan's detailed pictures on the list. All I have at the moment is a B/W laser printer. Guess I'll try it with that and see how it looks. Probably not too good, won't show the pretty red boards... I was looking at some color lasers, but haven't found one that doesn't need $300-$400 worth of toner when it runs out. Nearly double the cost of a 'home sized' printer! Maybe ink jets weren't so bad?
Batch 2 is sold out. Parts are on order, 3 weeks or so for the PCBs.
I would be happy to do a 3rd batch if there is interest. We need 7-8 orders before ordering the PCBs and parts.
To everyone from the 1st batch, your kits went to the post office this morning.
RTR12, the TIU tester kit arrived today. Thanks. I see that the postage was $3.50, not the $3 you estimated. When you send me info on the price for the TIU protection kits, I'll add the 50 cents.
Thanks, RJR, but I got the envelopes for a little less than I figured so I am good! I figured $1 ea. and they were only about 50 cents each in packs of 6. Tried to use online shipping at USPS, but it didn't seem to like the envelope shipping unless you used priority mail which was like $6.70 or something like that. As you can see, I don't ship much.
Hope you got all the correct parts and the kit all goes together smoothly. You probably know this already, but see the posts above here from Stan, on the correct orientation of some of the parts that could be installed improperly.
Tom, you need to discover https://www.paypal.com/shipnow
You can generate first class postage and print it on half-sheet labels. I believe up to around 4 ounces, it's $2.66 for shipping. I use tons of padded envelopes with this service. Of course, I bought the envelopes in a lot of 250, and they were less than $24, so that's around 10 cents apiece. It doesn't take long to break even if you're paying 50 cents each. I also buy the half-page labels in bulk to save money as well.
Thanks GRJ,
I'll check out the Paypal shipping, wasn't aware of that before. The $2.66 is what the USPS online said, but wouldn't let me use it online. That's when I took one to the PO to be sure, they then said it was $3.50. I guess they considered it a 'Package' and not an envelope so I didn't want to take chances. About a week ago I got a rate sheet from the PO and it said it was even less than $2.66.
As for the envelopes I didn't think I would need all that many? But maybe you have a point as we are on the 3rd batch of these now. 250 is a lot for me though, as I really don't ship all that much other than these things. Most things are 'ship to me' and not me to someone else. PO had some nice small boxes, but they were over $2 each, $2.19 or maybe $2.49 even, nice and perfect size, but a wee bit steep $$$.
You can get smaller quantities and pay a lot less than 50 cents. US suppliers, so shipping won't be more than about a week. Here's one of many, 24 cents each for 25 of them.
I have enough envelopes for the next two batches, but I may try the ones you posted here and see what happens. When I got the ones I have now, I hadn't really thought about shipping until all the parts were here and things were ready to go. Then, oh dear, what am I gonna put these in? Spur of the moment thing... Once I get everything streamlined I'll probably never have anything to ship again.
I looked at the Paypal and I think I'll try it for the next batch. I'll do a dry run with one just to see what it costs and go from there. They ship UPS too, that's nice for bigger things. I suppose they would have to, but I presume the USPS will accept the Paypal rates without any problems? Sure beats stamps!
Also. I guess you use full sheet labels with the sticky on the back? I have a bunch of labels left over from when we moved a few years ago, but they are like 2" x 4" or so and I don't think the printer will like those. Don't think I've printed a label since I had a dot matrix printer...Used to print labels for 5.25" floppies back in the day.
The postage labels you want for printing ebay/PayPal postage are the half-sheet gummed labels.
I didn't think what I had would work in the printer. I will do some more looking around. It will be at least 3 weeks or so for next PCBs get here. Thanks for all the tips here, it's appreciated!
Gotta' get you shipping those kits.
You will make a great hobby supplier, RTR12!!!!
You are at least streamlining the operation a bit here! I got some labels coming to try the Paypal shipping.
Mark, I wish I had the smarts to think these things up on my own. But, just putting these things together (from the work of others) is still kind of fun and it keeps me off the streets! I may change my tune after about 50 or so...
The neat thing about the Paypal method per GRJ is when entering the recipients address to print the label, you can also enter an email address. This way the recipient gets an email with the tracking number; both parties can click to see package progress. This is USPS First Class "Package" service so you can use thicker padded envelopes to protect the components. I believe there is a thickness limitation on basic envelope service of 1/4" of something like that so you couldn't use the less expensive envelope rates anyway (which also don't include tracking #).
If shipping just the raw board without parts (which would be less than 1/4" and less than 1 oz.) you could use just an envelope and pay the non-machinable surcharge since the stiff board can't bend thru USPS sorting machines. I think with surcharge it's like 75 cents and there's even the butterfly stamp for that purpose. But unlike package service, no tracking #.
Perhaps obvious but after printing the label at home with the bar-code tracking number, you can drop it any mailbox (don't need to go to PO).
I've been using PP for years to ship, it's much more convenient to print stuff at home, and if you have any Priority shipments, they'll even pick it up at your door!
Thanks Stan, more good info. According to the rate sheet they gave me, it is 1/4" thickness for letters and 3/4" for the larger envelopes. But their rates were more when I took the first kit up to the PO to make sure I was using the correct postage. I didn't know about the special non-machinable stamps either? You guys are way ahead of me on this stuff!
The PP service looks neat and the tracking email sounds really nice too. I am going to try it on the next batch of kits. You can learn all kinds things around here! As for the mail box, I think the closest one is at the PO. We have those nifty community mailboxes spotted around the neighborhood. They have an out slot, but it's only about a 1/4" to 1/2" opening. Probably not enough for kits to fit in.
I received my kit from RTR12, and was surprised at the small size of the traces. Which piques my curiosity: When sending a files for production of a board, do you specify the necessary ampacity of the traces?
They're only carrying signals, the total current all over the board isn't more than 40-50 milliamps!
As for the boards, you specify the copper weight and the trace width. You can also pick specific nets and have different trace widths. Many times, I'll go for heavier traces for ground and power traces, for instance. In the case of this board, that was totally noncritical, so I just went with a nominal trace width of .012" and 1oz copper.
Just FYI, that trace width is good for 1 amp for external layers for a 3 inch trace. In other words, way more than sufficient for anything on the board.
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