Eggtimer Flight Computer Assembly Manual Board Rev C
Contents
1. 500 Interval ms Batt 3 12 D 0 Main Enable lt 0 Off 1 IGN 2 Servo CCW 3 Servo CW gt E 400 Main Altitude lt 100 2000 by 50 0 Apogee gt F 1 Main ON Time lt 1 9 0 Cont gt G 0 CHB Enable lt 0 Off 1 IGN 2 Servo CCW 3 Servo Cw 4 Airstart gt H 1 CHB ON Time lt 1 9 0 Cont gt I 1 Burn Timer lt 1 20 gt J 0 Airstart Delay lt 0 9 gt K 0 Telemetry 0 Comments Options Esc A 0 Hit the Enter key a few times you should see the P and A values change slightly If it looks pretty much like this then Congratulations Your Eggtimer is now working To test the Breakwire short the BW terminals together and hit Enter you should see the BW status change from 0 to 1 meaning that BW was detected To test the deployment channels you will need to connect a battery to the B terminals and add some kind of load to the output channels A common 9v battery makes a good test battery you can get a battery clip from Radio Shack and simply tack solder it to your tinned pigtails Make sure that you match the polarity red goes to and black goes to For a test load we recommend using the bulbs from a strand of miniature Christmas tree lights the little ones not the big ones simply unravel a few from the strand cut them off from the strand leaving about 1 of wire on them and strip and tin about 1 8 from the wire Tack solder them to the pigtails of the Main and CHB channels When you bring up the Eggtimer prog2. 6 optoisolator chips from the anti static foam or tube in which it was shipped Identify the notch at one end of the chip this notch needs to line up with the notch that s marked on the PC board Some chips don t have a notch they have a dot instead the dot should line up with the notch marked on the board Gently insert the chips into the holes and turn the board over Solder ONLY two opposite corner pins of each chip then turn the board upright again and make sure that 1 you have the chip pointed in the right direction and 2 the chips are seated completely against the circuit board If you made a mistake you will have to carefully unsolder the chip s and fix the problem If it looks good turn it back over and finish soldering the rest of the pins Mount the luF ceramic capacitors Insert the four 1 uF ceramic capacitors marked 104 into the appropriate holes These are not polarized so it doesn t matter which way you mount them Turn the board over and solder them to the board Trim the excess leads Mount the push button switch Insert the push button switch into the holes on the board It has a little kink in the leads so it will stand off about 1 16 if you have the kink centered in the middle of the hole Note that one side is a little longer than the other side and it s not polarized so you can t mount it incorrectly Turn over the board and solder the leads to the board Mount the RED IND LED Insert
3. Resistor orange white red bands Bend one lead back on the 3 9K resistor Locate its position on the board and insert the resistor in the board Turn over the board and solder the resistor in place trimming the leads flush afterwards Mount the 4 7K resistors yellow violet red bands Bend one lead back on each of the four 4 7K resistors Locate their positions on the board and insert the resistors in the board Turn over the board and solder the resistors in place trimming the leads flush afterwards Mount the 10K resistors brown black orange bands Bend one lead back on each of the six 10K resistors Locate their positions on the board and insert the resistors in the board Turn over the board and solder the resistors in place trimming the leads flush afterwards Mount the 820 ohm resistors grey red brown bands Bend one lead back on each of the two 820 ohm resistors Locate their positions on the board and insert the resistors in the board Turn over the board and solder the resistors in place trimming the leads flush afterwards Mount the 10 uF electrolytic capacitor Insert the 10 uF electrolytic capacitor into the holes on the board making sure that the lead with the markings next to it is inserted OPPOSITE the hole marked Double check to make sure that you have this inserted correctly Turn over the board and solder the leads to the board Trim the leads flush Mount the 6 pin header Note th
4. one and can go to a few hundred dollars if you want to get really fancy Weller makes a good one for about 50 if you make the investment that will probably be the last soldering iron you will ever need to buy These solder stations usually have a little well with a tip cleaning sponge so they end up taking less room on your workstation too You may also want to buy a portable battery powered or butane soldering iron to have in the field in case you need to tin a wire or repair a solder joint in the field They work fine but we recommend that you do not use them to assemble the Eggtimer they generally do not put out as much heat as the electric irons and you may not get really good solder joints especially 1f you use non leaded solder which has a higher melting point than leaded solder Step 1 Sort the Components Before you start soldering anything you need to lay everything out and make sure that you are familiar with all of components and that you have everything Yes we ARE human and sometimes make mistakes if you are missing something let us know immediately so we can send you whatever you need You should have the following parts check them off as you sort them Qty Description 1 Circuit board pre populated with surface mount sensor and memory 1 Atmel ATMEGA328P PU processor chip big 28 pin IC 2 MCT 6 Dual Optoisolators 8 pin chips 2 TIP 120 Transistors 3 pins ze l 3mm Red LED l 3mm Yellow LED a 1 Piz
5. sure that it s a simple SPST type so that when you close it it s simply bridging the SW terminals You don t HAVE to use a power switch if your battery is removable i e you are using some kind of connector between the battery and the 3V pigtails then you can simply solder a wire across the SW terminals We do NOT recommend this for complex applications like multiple deployment using pyro charges with HPR rockets and definitely not for airstarting Check the Eggtimer User Guide for switch recommendations If It Still Doesn t Work There is of course always an outside chance that you have a bad component We test each PC board and the surface mounted components before they leave us and we also test each processor transistor and opto isolator Nevertheless it is always possible that something may be wrong there may be a bridge on the PC board itself etc If you have gone through all of the troubleshooting steps and the board still doesn t work let us know at support egetimerrocketry com A high resolution picture 5 megapixel or better of both sides of your circuit board and a description of the problem would be very helpful
6. Egetimer Flight Computer Assembly Manual Board Rev C 2013 Eggtimer Rocketry All Rights Reserved Before You Start e Go to our web site at www eggtimerrocketry com and download the latest Release Notes e Go to our web site at www eggtimerrocketry com and download the latest Assembly Instructions e Read them thoroughly before starting it will save you some grief later we promise e We recommend that you apply the latest Flash Updates after validating your Eggtimer s operation you should do this BEFORE you perform a Master Reset since it may affect how memory is used e Before you can program or fly your Eggtimer you need to perform a Master Reset See Appendix A in the Eggtimer Users Guide for details a a eo a ta tae D ta a te a to ea ta Pt St A a Pt a a ee a ee Ra co Re Ro he na Re ee he ee ee a a na Re Re ee no Pt eo ee a ne ne a e ee ee he ee ee he eee Thanks for buying an Eggtimer flight computer We re sure that you are ready get started but before you do you will need to get some tools together The tools that you will need are Low wattage soldering iron 15W or less with a fine tip Fine rosin core solder 022 032 60 40 tin lead or similar lead free solder Small needle nose pliers Small diagonal cutters A small damp sponge for cleaning the tip of your soldering iron A lighted magnifier for inspecting solder joints not essential but very helpful A well lighted place to work prefe
7. asking tape to temporarily hold them in place until you solder them DO NOT use Scotch tape or electrical tape for this plastic tapes can pick up static electricity If you have been doing this kind of thing for awhile you have probably noticed by now that we do not include sockets for the processor or the optoisolators There are a couple of good reasons for this First they add cost and weight although not much Secondly they add about 14 to the height of the board which can make it a tight fit in 29mm motor or BT 55 body tubes Finally and most important components CAN be dislodged from sockets during a flight due to acceleration and vibration We have seen it happen and the results are not pretty particularly if you are doing electronic recovery system deployment Soldering these components to the board completely eliminates this possibility Neither the processor nor the optoisolators are going to be damaged by the low heat soldering that you will use to mount them to the Eggtimer PC board as long as you keep to our recommendations for the soldering iron and solder Eggtimer Assembly Checklist Before you solder anything make absolutely sure that you have the correct part and that it is inserted in the board correctly The board has all of the component values outlines and polarities silk screened on the top so there shouldn t be any doubt about what goes where and how Nevertheless if you have any questions about th
8. at the header is not symmetrical one side of the pins is a little longer than the other side Insert the header into the holes at the front of the board using the SHORT side The LONG side should be on the TOP side of the board You will probably need to use masking tape to hold it in place you want to make sure that it s absolutely vertical and that it s seated completely against the board Turn over the board and solder the pins to the pads Mount the pizo buzzer Insert the pizo buzzer into the holes on the board It is not polarized so it doesn t matter which way you mount it Turn over the board and solder the leads to the pads Trim the leads flush Mount the resonator Insert the 16 000 MHz resonator into the holes on the board making sure that it seats completely You may need to use some masking tape to hold it in place Turn over the board and solder the leads and trim if necessary Mount the transistors Hold one of the TIP120 transistors horizontally with the metal tab facing down The plastic side of the transistor with the writing should be facing up With a pair of needle nose pliers bend the leads upwards 90 at the point where the leads get skinnier Repeat for the other transistor Turn over the PC board and insert them into the board FROM THE BOTTOM SIDE they should be facing the front of the board the side with the header If you bent the transistor leads correctly the plastic side of the transistors will b
9. e heat it up and use a solder wick or a vacuum bulb to remove the excess afterwards we recommend resoldering the joints Another thing to look out for is cold solder joints they look dull and blobby compared to a nice shiny tented solder joint If you have a cold solder joint it won t conduct well at the low power that the Eggtimer uses this could easily keep things from working If you have a cold solder joint heat it up and put just a little bit of solder on it the main idea is to get a little more flux on the joint If you have separate flux you can use that in place of the solder If there s too much solder use a solder wick or preferably a vacuum bulb to remove the excess then heat it up and resolder the joint Check Your Component Polarity Most of the components aren t polarized with some notable exceptions The outline of the parts is silk screened on the board so you should be able to see readily if you have a component soldered in backwards Components that are polarized are e The 28 pin processor chip the notch needs to face to front of the board towards the header e The opto isolators the notches need to face up e The transistors the plastic side should be laying against the bottom of the PC board with the tabs facing forwards towards the header e The 10uF electrolytic capacitor the side marked should be OPPOSITE the side marked on the board e The LEDs the long lead
10. e assembly procedure do not hesitate to drop us a line at support eggtimerrocketry com before you solder the parts to the board You may have to wait a day for the answer but it could save you a lot of grief later on The Eggtimer Limited Warranty does not cover damage to parts while attempting to desolder them because you inserted something incorrectly We spent a lot of time making sure that the assembly instructions were clear but once again if you have any questions about the assembly procedures drop us a line at support eggtimerrockety com before you solder Mount the Atmel ATMega328P PU processor Carefully remove the processor chip from the anti static foam or tube in which it was shipped Identify the notch at one end of the chip this notch needs to line up with the notch that s silkscreened on the PC board Gently insert the chip into the holes and turn the board over The holes are small so you may have to wiggle it around a bit to get all 28 pins into them Solder ONLY two opposite corner pins then turn the board upright again and make sure that 1 you have the chip pointed in the right direction and 2 the chip is seated completely against the circuit board If you made a mistake you will have to carefully unsolder the chip and fix the problem two solder joints are a lot easier to fix then 28 If it looks good turn it back over and finish soldering the rest of the pins Mount the Optoisolators Carefully remove the two MCT
11. e laying against the bottom of the PC board Turn over the board and solder the leads to the pads ON THE TOP SIDE OF THE BOARD This is the only component that is soldered on the top of the board Trim the leads flush Assembly of your Eggtimer is now complete Inspect the solder side of the board carefully looking for cold solder incomplete solder joints Cold solder joints appear dull instead of shiny and may appear as blobs of solder and not have the nice wetting of the pad that you will see with good joints A magnifying light is good for checking the board If you want you can also use some spray flux remover on the component side of the board a small brush like an old toothbrush will help remove any flux residue This will make it a little easier to spot for incomplete solder joints Warning DO NOT spray flux remover directly on the top side of the board it may damage the pressure sensor Note When you first get your Eggtimer the flight memory is NOT initialized Please see Appendix A in the Eggtimer Users Guide for instructions on how to clear the flight memory by performing a Master Reset You will need to do this before you can program or fly the Eggtimer or unpredictable results may follow About Wiring Your Eggtimer The Eggtimer does not use terminal blocks to mount the wires instead there are solder pads to which you can solder 24 stranded wires The wires in terminal blocks CAN work loose with the forces of fligh
12. o buzzer element round plastic component with two wires and a hole _ 1 16 000 MHz ceramic resonator 2 820 ohm 1 8 watt resistors bands are grey red brown PES 1 1K ohm 1 8 watt resistor bands are brown black red a 4 2 2K ohm 1 8 watt resistors bands are red red red 1 3 9K ohm 1 8 watt resistor bands are orange white red 4 4 7K ohm 1 8 watt resistors bands are yellow purple red 6 10K ohm 1 8 watt resistors bands are brown black orange E 4 1 uF multilayer ceramic capacitors marked 104 1 10 uF electrolytic capacitor tubular component with two wires one is marked on the side of the case 1 6mm push button switch 1 6 pin header Note that some of the components notably the Atmel processor and the surface mounted components pre soldered to the PC board are static sensitive so you should avoid sources of static electricity while you are handling them We recommend that you assemble the Eggtimer on a wood or metal surface unless you are fortunate enough to have a high temperature anti static mat don t buy one just to build the Eggtimer however Avoid putting it on plastic surfaces that generate static and preferably put it together in a room that s not carpeted That being said it s very unlikely that you will zap any of the components in the Eggtimer with static electricity but consider yourself notified of the possibility Also note that some of the components are pola
13. older go to http www psma com ul_files forums leadfree aim_lead_free_guide pdf A low temperature Sn Ag Cu alloy is best look for one that melts at 217 C or lower and is suitable for high vibration applications European Union countries have a regulation known as RoHS Restriction on Hazardous Substances that prohibits the use of leaded solder in consumer products Kits such as the Eggtimer are exempt from this regulation however we abide by the principle regardless We use unleaded solder paste when we mount the SMT components on the board and all components are certified by their vendors as being RoHS compliant However we do not certify the Eggtimer as RoHS compliant because we have no control over what solder alloy is used to mount the other components This does not currently apply to the US or Canada but who knows when it might be adopted here For soldering components on a board like the Eggtimer we recommend a small pencil soldering iron about 15W If you are only going to use it occasionally Weller makes a decent cheap 12W iron it s about 15 We like it but the copper tips seem to oxidize and corrode rather quickly compared to some more expensive irons fortunately the tips are replaceable and cheap Better would be a fancier soldering pencil with iron tips those run about 30 but they ll last forever The best iron would be a temperature controlled solder station they typically start at about 50 for a cheap
14. ou can find it the plenum rated cable is the best the jackets are heat resistant Teflon instead of the more common PVC Testing your Eggtimer You can test your Eggtimer very easily on your workbench you do not need to install it into a rocket first with a full blown electronic deployment setup All you need to do is to solder some pigtail wires to the board 12 is a good length At a minimum you will need to connect the battery and short the switch wires together but you can also test the deployment circuit easily as well You will need a 3v 4v battery to power the Eggtimer two AA batteries works well for testing and optionally a separate battery for deployment testing a 9v battery works fine You will need to use an USB TTL interface cable conveniently the Eggtimer comes with one The header is pinned for a standard FTDI type 6 pin connector but you can also use a cable with individual pins TX RX GND by simply plugging those pins into the corresponding pin on the connector You will need to install the driver software for the USB TTL interface that you are using on your computer before you can use it The one that comes with the Eggtimer uses a Prolific PL2303 USB serial chip your operating system may already have the drivers installed for it but if it does not you can get it at http prolificusa com pl 2303hx drivers They have drivers for Windows x86 and x64 versions MacOS and Linux Since the Eggtimer
15. rably with a wood or metal surface also preferably not carpeted Each installation step has a check off line we strongly recommend that you check them off as you go and that you perform the steps in sequence We have listed the steps in order to make it easiest to assemble the Eggtimer deviating from them isn t going to make your life any easier About Soldering Your Eggtimer Assembling your Eggtimer isn t that hard but we recommend that you don t choose it as your first kit project You must be able to solder small components using fine solder and get nice shiny solder joints If you have never soldered before you need to learn anyway because if you are going to do rocketry electronics you re going to be doing some soldering If you want to get into advanced projects like telemetry you re probably going to be doing a lot of soldering We recommend that you get a few small kits from Ramsey or SparkFun put them together and hone your skills on them first There s a lot of fun stuff out there so go for it We recommend using the finest solder that you can find either 025 or 032 rosin core solder We recommend Kester or Multicore brands a good 60 40 solder 60 lead 40 tin works great and those brands an alloys are readily available If you do not wish to use leaded solder or you can not due to environmental regulations get the lowest melting non leaded solder you can find if you want to read all about lead free s
16. ramming screen hit Enter and both the CHB and Main statuses should change from 0 to 1 indicating that there is continuity on those channels If you remove one of the bulbs the status for that channel should go from 1 to 0 To perform a deployment test hold the button down while powering on the Eggtimer You will see the MON gt prompt which means that it s in the utility monitor mode To test the deployment channels hit the M key to select the Main channel and you will hear a continuous tone to let you know it s in test mode Press the button down and the Christmas tree bulb on the Main channel should come on for two seconds then turn off To test the CHB channel repeat the procedure but hit B key to trigger the CHB channel The CHB light should come on for two seconds then shut off If both of these work then your Eggtimer is 100 operational Troubleshooting If your Eggtimer doesn t work after assembly and testing take a deep breath get out a beverage to clear you mind and start troubleshooting Check Your Solder Joints The very first thing you should do is to check out all of the solder joints under a lighted magnifier The most common reason for things not working are solder bridges i e putting too much solder on the pads and shorting two adjacent pads together Most of the holes and the pads are very small so it doesn t take much solder to get a nice tented solder joint If you get a solder bridg
17. rized 1 e it matters which way you put them in If you solder one of these components in backwards the effect will range from something not lighting up LEDs to nothing at all working processor It is CRITICAL that you test fit the parts before you solder and that you make SURE that you have them pointed the right direction before soldering Like the old adage says Measure twice cut once If you solder a part onto the board incorrectly it can be a minor pain to remove if it only has two pins or it can be virtually impossible for something with a lot of pins like the processor The Eggtimer Limited Warranty does not cover incorrect assembly so if you mess up badly enough you may end up having to get another kit and starting over neither of us want that There are several different resistor values so make sure you get the right ones in the right place They are marked on the boards but once again you need to make SURE that you have them in the right place before soldering Unsoldering parts on a small circuit board like the Eggtimer isn t a lot of fun even if you have a vacuum desoldering tool Trust us we ve been there before In general you are going to assemble the Eggtimer from the lowest profile components first and work your way up to the taller components This will make it easier to keep parts from falling off the board as you turn it over to solder them To help keep parts from falling out you can use a little paper m
18. s should have been inserted in the pad marked Unfortunately once you clip the leads it may be difficult to tell if you have inserted it correctly If you inserted a component incorrectly you will have to carefully unsolder it clear any solder residue from the holes and resolder it This can range from being relatively easy for some of the larger two leaded components LEDs 10uF capacitor to very difficult for the processor If you find that a component was soldered incorrectly you will have to use a vacuum bulb or vacuum desoldering tool to unsolder it If it s a two leaded component like an LED it may not be terribly difficult if it s the processor or even one of the 8 pin opto isolators then you are going to have a major chore on your hands We cannot stress enough that you need to check the orientation of the parts before you solder them The Eggtimer Limited Warranty does not cover damage to a component while attempting to unsolder it so make take your time and make sure you get it right before you solder Check Your Power Supply Make sure that you are using one of the recommended batteries to test with For testing we like to use two AA alkaline batteries in a little holder they re really cheap and they ll last a long time Make sure that you have the polarity correct The RED wires must go to the side and the BLACK wires must go to the side Check Your Power Switch If you have a power switch make
19. t so it s better to solder the wires on the board and to whatever switches or battery clips you are using If you are going to use removable connectors such as for batteries the connectors used for RC model servos Deans JST etc work very well just buy a servo extension and you will get a 12 or longer pigtail with both a male and female connector We recommend against using slide switches for power reset etc they have a tendency to bounce under high G forces which is going to cause your Eggtimer to lose power or reset and will ruin your whole day at the field See the Eggtimer User s Manual for some suggestions on switches shunts and jumpers You will need to solder some wires to the Eggtimer board in order to test it we like using the 4 stranded twisted pair wiring that s used with Ethernet network cables Get the cheapest ones you can find we ve even seen them in dollar stores cut off the ends and carefully strip about 1 of the jacket off at a time until you get the length you want The nice thing about these cables are that the wires are color coded so it s going to make it easier to trace your wiring and the wires are twisted together so it s easier to route them They are also in solid striped pairs so it s easy to make sure that anything that s polarized such as the battery connections is hooked up properly by convention solid goes to the side striped goes to the side If y
20. the RED LED into the holes for the IND LED make sure that the LONG lead is in the hole maked LEDs are polarized if you put it in backwards it will not work so double check Turn the board over and solder the leads to the board Trim the leads flush Mount the YELLOW RDY LED Insert the YELLOW LED into the holes for the RDY LED make sure that the LONG lead is in the hole maked Double check to make sure Turn the board over and solder the leads to the board Trim the leads flush Mounting the Resistors The resistors are going to be mounted vertically so you will need to bend one lead back against the body of the resistor in order to do this They aren t polarized but we like to have all of the color bands facing up to make it easier to identify them the fourth band is a tolerance band and will probably be the same color on all of the resistors except for the 1K and the 3 9K resistor Mount the 1K Resistor brown black red bands Bend one lead back on the 1K resistor Locate its position on the board and insert the resistor in the board Turn over the board and solder the resistor in place trimming the leads flush afterwards Mount the 2 2K Resistors red red red bands Bend one lead back on each of the four 2 2K resistors Locate their positions on the board and insert the resistors in the board Turn over the board and solder the resistors in place trimming the leads flush afterwards Mount the 3 9K
21. uses a serial terminal interface this means that you can use just about any computer you want with it See the Eggtimer Users Manual for suggestions on suitable terminal software many of them are freeware The USB Serial cable that comes with the Eggtimer has three separate wires rather than a 6 pin FTDI standard header You need to connect it to the Eggtimer as follows depending on the colors of your cable s pins we have several suppliers and the colors are unfortunately not standardized Black Red White Cable BLACK Eggtimer GND pin RED Eggtimer RX pin White Eggtimer TX pin Black Green White Cable BLACK Eggtimer GND pin GREEN Eggtimer RX pin White Eggtimer TX pin Orange Blue Red Cable ORANGE Eggtimer GND pin BLUE Eggtimer RX pin RED Eggtimer TX pin Plug the serial interface into a USB port and confirm that your OS assigns a serial port to it Open up your terminal program select the serial port that your OS assigned to the USB interface and connect Connect power to the Eggtimer after a few seconds the IND light should come on it should start beeping and you should see the programming screen Eggtimer Build_1 44 Flight Settings T 23 50 A 100 LDA lt 50 500 by 50 gt P 97804 00 B 10 Burn Coast Samp sec lt 4 5 8 10 15 20 25 33 gt A 975 39 100 Interval ms Main 0 C 2 Descent Samples sec lt 1 2 4 5 10 gt CHB 0
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