Single-Board Universal Module

I got the 0.9.4 boards in. I finished my pick-and-place machine, and used it to build the bottom of the board. It will take me some practice to get fast at using it, but it is a lot less stressful to align and place the part. at the moment it probably takes me about the same time per part, but it is a lot easier. I need to verify the 3.3V regulator is working well before I build the top of the board. Also, I need to sort all the parts I ordered from Digikey, which takes just as long as actually building the board. Hopefully I'll get it finished tomorrow.

if I were to motorize my machine, it would only be to add a joystick like control. The hard part of automated p&p is (a) managing the parts tray, (b) determining if you have a part, (c) determining its orientation. The platform is the easy part.

Anyhow, bad news: the 3.3V regulator isn't working. I think it is a soldering problem (visually it doesn't appear most of the pads are soldered). Unfortunately I also learned that my hot-air gun is no longer heating. So I now need to see if that can be repaired 1st.

Completely off topic but I have all the parts to build an FLA-100 mill lying around. Just need to find the time to build it. I have several 3d control boards as well. Not sure which I'll ebd up using for that project.

As far as the UniversalTx goes....My hot-air gun seems to have bigger issues than the heating element. I had a spare, but that isn't the issue (also, it turns out the glass insulator was shattered, so I couldn't safely put it back togather after disassembly anyhow. I opened up the cheap 2-in-1 I've been using for years, and don't see anything obvious on the board. With multiple issues, it isn't worth my time t try to fix it. So I just ordered a new cheap chinese 2-in-1 to replace it. If it lasts as long as this one, I'll be happy. Hopefully I'll be up and running later this week.

I prefer having a proper rework station with adjustable air flow and temperature. As I said, it is already ordered and should be here this week. I already checked the board for power/ground shorts before assembling it.

parts list is built into the schematics.
open the schematics, and type the following into the entry box:
run bom-xs
(you may need to add the ulp path to make this work. the bom-xs is in the hg repo in the ULP/ subdir)
I have part numbers from Digikey and Mouser (only the Digikey ones have ever been used though). The RF chips are much cheaper from china (and some are only available there)

the other problem is that it requires a separate baseband chip which makes developing for it more difficult.

I got my new hot-air rework station:
yihua-soldering.com/product-1-3-5-hot-ai...rk-station-en/147667

I really like the sleep mode and auto gun shutdown. It also takes up a lot less space than my old one.

It took me a couple tries (I really hate working on these tiny qfn packages) but I was able to get good joints and the 3.3V supply seems to be working now. I still need to populate the front of the board, and I'm under the weather, so I'm not sure when I'll get to it.

I think the stencil put too much solder on the ground pad and caused the chip to float up. Someone mentioned that could be an issue. the vias may be too small to suck down the solder.

I was actually planning on the 858, but my old station was a 2-in-1, and while the iron still works fine, I don't have room on my bench for the old 2-in-1 and for a new hot-air station. The 995 lets me replace my old station with something with equivalent performance.

I got it from ebay. Prices are pretty uniform there. eevblog has a few reviews that are generally positive. that was good enough for me. The grounding seems fine, and I've had no issues with it so far(though it hasn't gotten too much use as yet). Apparently the iron has some of the logic embedded which means replacing it is more complicated, but I'll deal with that should the need ever arise. I haven't taken it apart (and don't plan to as long as it continues to work) as mucking around with my tools isn't really high on my priority list.

The screen just has the temp of the iron and air-gun as well as air-flow and the auto-timer. Nothing super fancy, but I'm notsure what else you'd need in a soldering station. I haven't used it long enough to determine how well the PID works. I personally don't exactly fine-tune my temperatures. It is either hot enough, too hot, or good enough, and I adjust the temp until it is the one I want. the iron does cool down very slowly if the air-flow isn't maxed and a small tip is installed. It does not automatically max the air-flow during the cool-down stage unlike my old station.

The tip the iron came with is complete junk and needed to be immediately replaced.

I haven't used it enough to really know, but so far it has met all my expectations. I don't know if it is worth an extra $30 over a bare-bones 2-in-1 but its small size and pretty looks are enough for me