WP34S USB and IR board now available!

[Harald]

Thanks for everyones participation in the poll!

To keep things a little more tidy and organized, I decided to start a new thread on this.
The good news is, option d) is now available, too!

For those who want a bare PCB or a kit, please contact me via PM or email. I have a total of 24 kits and 6 PCBs available. The kits will cost €10 shipped and include crystal, caps and LED. Please send your shipping address and I will reply with payment details.

Those who want an assembled and tested board, please contact member "Sadsilence". He is based in Germany and will have 30 boards available soon. (I'll ship the bare PCBs to him tomorrow).

Alternatively Jim Horn in the US will have boards available soon, too. He is sourcing his own PCBs so will need a little longer until those are available.

I am sure "Sadsilence" and "Jim Horn" will give contact details and pricing info here as well.

[Sadsilence]

As Harald mentioned I am going to create some more 30 assembled and tested WP34S USB and IR boards mainly but not exclusively for European residents. It is a last time buy, intended to assist Harald a little bit getting rid of his last PCBs ;-). I ordered components today. Hopefully they will arrive within a week or two.

Feel free to contact me by PM or email when you are interested in one or more item(s). I will stick more or less to Harald's prices in linked post and again you are spoilt for choice:

d1) WP34S USB Board with USB Power: 12.50 Euros incl. shipping

d2) WP34S USB Board with USB Power and IR Printing (IR diode): 13.00 Euros incl. shipping (When you like to arrange IR diode on a different place please tell. You get it unmounted in that case.)

d3) WP34S USB Board with USB Power and Crystal/Caps: 13.00 Euros incl. shipping

d4) WP34S USB Board with USB Power/IR Printing (IR diode) and Crystal/Caps: 13.50 Euros incl. shipping

Thanks and best regards,

Werner

P.S. Payment by SEPA bank transfer or paypal. For the latter I would ask for additional 0.50 Euros.

P.P.S. I am not informed about poll results. So please do not regard your request in poll thread as an order but contact Harald, Jim Horn or myself directly.

[Harald]

I have just soldered one of the kits myself and now have a couple of thoughts that I would like to share:

a) A colleague asked what I was doing, so I explaind. His commet was: "Are you really sure you want to sell these as kits?" So here is a word of warning: The board contains small components. Especially the FTDI chip and the micro USB connector are tricky to solder for people without experience. So please only order when you know what you are doing.

b) If you are still not scared away make sure you solder the USB connector close to the edge of the PCB. Otherwise you might have problems plugging in the cable once the PCB is installed.

c) Install the IR Diode once you have drilled a hole in the calculator for it. That way you will get the legs the right length.

Cheers,
Harald

[Jim Horn]

Thank you again for the building advice, Harald - I'll really appreciate it when I'm building them!

[c785]

Harald was really quick, the kit got here faster than myself (I was away from home last week). Even though I used to do a lot of soldering (including, and especially) fine-pitch SMD stuff a few years ago, it struck me just how tiny that board is. Pictures I saw of it previously do it's small size no justice. Then again, I was very happy to find the FTDI in SSOP package, as opposed to SOP, because I find the smaller package easier to solder, given that the board has proper solder mask areas between the pads.

I have to mention that Harald managed to create the kit so that anyone can easily assemble it without any instructions: all parts are taped to a sheet of paper, which carries their labels and values, so all you need to do is pick them up and solder them in their respective places on the PCB. The components which require orientation are either marked (the IC has a dot which needs to be aligned with that on the PCB) or have a fool-proof go-in-one-direction-only package (diode and transistor). I found the toughest part to solder was the micro-USB connector, because I started with the outermost ground pads, and getting the thing straight and the pins lined up isn't easy because you can't see a bl**dy thing.

So this is the beauty I'm going to install in the calculator, along with the crystal, next time I open it:
   
(Oh, I have some more flux to remove.)

I'm not sure yet whether I'm going to install the IR LED because I can't see myself having an IR printer (or even the need for one) anytime soon. Then again, the HP48 can act as a receiver, can't it?

Thanks again to Harald for sending this well-designed kit so quickly!

[nsg]

Installing LED is such a small percentage of work that you might just go ahead and do it. What's the downside?

[c785]

The downside is that the calculator is quite easy to open as it is, and will be even with USB installed. The IR LED, however, should be fixed to the bottom of the calculator while electrically connected to the top part, making it a lot harder to open and close the case without damaging the IR LED's connection or alignment.

[Sadsilence]

Short update for prebuild boards: PCBs from Harald are here. It is really fun to build them. Harald knows what he is doing and how to do it well.

I am really asthonished, that half of 30 boards have already been preordered. Thanks for everyone so far. That is encouraging. And I can still fulfill some more orders.

10 boards are nearly finished (I got 47 pF capitors in 0201 size instead of 0603). Missing capacitors are due to arrive here today. Passing check provided, first 10 boards (of course with LED and/or crystal/capacitors corresponding to order) will be shipped within a few days. I am going to inform recipients individually before.

Up to then only missing part for next 20 boards is FTDI chip. Announced shipping date from supplier is 27th April. With being away for weekend I shall hopefully start with remaining boards next week.

Thanks for your patience and best regards,

Werner

   

[Harald]

(04-24-2017 09:05 PM)c785 Wrote:  Harald was really quick, the kit got here faster than myself (I was away from home last week). Even though I used to do a lot of soldering (including, and especially) fine-pitch SMD stuff a few years ago, it struck me just how tiny that board is. Pictures I saw of it previously do it's small size no justice. Then again, I was very happy to find the FTDI in SSOP package, as opposed to SOP, because I find the smaller package easier to solder, given that the board has proper solder mask areas between the pads.

I have to mention that Harald managed to create the kit so that anyone can easily assemble it without any instructions: all parts are taped to a sheet of paper, which carries their labels and values, so all you need to do is pick them up and solder them in their respective places on the PCB. The components which require orientation are either marked (the IC has a dot which needs to be aligned with that on the PCB) or have a fool-proof go-in-one-direction-only package (diode and transistor). I found the toughest part to solder was the micro-USB connector, because I started with the outermost ground pads, and getting the thing straight and the pins lined up isn't easy because you can't see a bl**dy thing.

So this is the beauty I'm going to install in the calculator, along with the crystal, next time I open it:

(Oh, I have some more flux to remove.)

I'm not sure yet whether I'm going to install the IR LED because I can't see myself having an IR printer (or even the need for one) anytime soon. Then again, the HP48 can act as a receiver, can't it?

Thanks again to Harald for sending this well-designed kit so quickly!

Thanks for the review! Very nice soldering, well done!

[c785]

I installed the USB board plus the IR diode and crystal today, and I post this because I have to admit I hate working with enamelled wire. So if anyone else hates it too, here's my solution.

So I usually work with (coloured) flat ribbon cables because they are so easy to cut to size (both in number of wires and in length) and the strands easy to separate where needed. They are much too thick, however, to fit underneath the LCD. Therefore, I opened up an old, broken DVD writer of mine, and found a 13-way PCB-to-PCB flexible cable in it. I cut it out, shortened it, and cut it down to just 6 lines, and that's how I get those six signals past the LCD.

There were a few minor changes I made, such as going to the top left pad of the 8-way connector landing area for ground (instead of C21). I also removed both 0-Ohm bridges and shorted them with the TxD and RxD wires themselves. Also, not in the pictures, I fixed the brown wire to R18 (for IR) to the PCB with some glue so that it gets out of the way of those standoffs on the bottom of the case when I assemble it.

Anyway, see for yourself:
   
   
   

I hope this can be of help to someone.

[Sadsilence]

Hello all,

today I finished last preordered boards and built some more for stock. From now on it is not a matter of weeks any more but of a few days. Thanks for patience to anyone. Honestly I underestimated demand and effort. Some 13 boards are still available.

From correspondence with a board member and when looking at c785's solution (really nice and well done imho) I feel wiring is a little bit tricky. To make things a little bit easier I created a new test wiring set with matching lengths for every board (mainly enamelled wires ;-)) and shipped boards with that sets.

   

Best regards,

Werner

[emece67]

Received mine 2 days ago.

An excellent work, thanks a lot Werner.

Regards.

[Bernd Grubert]

Hello Werner,
I received my board today.
Excellent work!

Best regards and thanks for your effort
Bernd

[RPLman]

Hi Guys,

I been looking around for a while and need some help in where can I buy theses addon USB boards kits from so I can sup-up my HP30b. Are they still available in late 2018?
Thanks, RPLman

(04-10-2017 01:54 PM)Sadsilence Wrote:  As Harald mentioned I am going to create some more 30 assembled and tested WP34S USB and IR boards mainly but not exclusively for European residents. It is a last time buy, intended to assist Harald a little bit getting rid of his last PCBs ;-). I ordered components today. Hopefully they will arrive within a week or two.

Feel free to contact me by PM or email when you are interested in one or more item(s). I will stick more or less to Harald's prices in linked post and again you are spoilt for choice:

d1) WP34S USB Board with USB Power: 12.50 Euros incl. shipping

d2) WP34S USB Board with USB Power and IR Printing (IR diode): 13.00 Euros incl. shipping (When you like to arrange IR diode on a different place please tell. You get it unmounted in that case.)

d3) WP34S USB Board with USB Power and Crystal/Caps: 13.00 Euros incl. shipping

d4) WP34S USB Board with USB Power/IR Printing (IR diode) and Crystal/Caps: 13.50 Euros incl. shipping

Thanks and best regards,

Werner

P.S. Payment by SEPA bank transfer or paypal. For the latter I would ask for additional 0.50 Euros.

P.P.S. I am not informed about poll results. So please do not regard your request in poll thread as an order but contact Harald, Jim Horn or myself directly.

[RPLman]

Hi Guys,

Any chance of buying these USB boards (d4) for WP-34s in late 2018.
Thanks.

(04-10-2017 01:54 PM)Sadsilence Wrote:  As Harald mentioned I am going to create some more 30 assembled and tested WP34S USB and IR boards mainly but not exclusively for European residents. It is a last time buy, intended to assist Harald a little bit getting rid of his last PCBs ;-). I ordered components today. Hopefully they will arrive within a week or two.

Feel free to contact me by PM or email when you are interested in one or more item(s). I will stick more or less to Harald's prices in linked post and again you are spoilt for choice:

d1) WP34S USB Board with USB Power: 12.50 Euros incl. shipping

d2) WP34S USB Board with USB Power and IR Printing (IR diode): 13.00 Euros incl. shipping (When you like to arrange IR diode on a different place please tell. You get it unmounted in that case.)

d3) WP34S USB Board with USB Power and Crystal/Caps: 13.00 Euros incl. shipping

d4) WP34S USB Board with USB Power/IR Printing (IR diode) and Crystal/Caps: 13.50 Euros incl. shipping

Thanks and best regards,

Werner

P.S. Payment by SEPA bank transfer or paypal. For the latter I would ask for additional 0.50 Euros.

P.P.S. I am not informed about poll results. So please do not regard your request in poll thread as an order but contact Harald, Jim Horn or myself directly.

[Sadsilence]

No PCBs left from my side, but AFAIK forum member Jim Horn took over the job :-).

(09-29-2018 03:01 PM)RPLman Wrote:  Hi Guys,

Any chance of buying these USB boards (d4) for WP-34s in late 2018.
Thanks.