New E-Mag/X-Mag board!!!!!!

[p8ntbal4me]

Oh damn,... :-(

I leave for a month and you guys fill the order in.

Im so sorry guys,...... what a waste of time that was.

Its Saturday and I called to confirm the files again for the boards with the board house (I want to be CERTAIN they place the right parts in the right places)
So that will mean we can start moving Monday morning at 10am EST.

I will post a follow up of pictures when all parts have shipped from me to them. From there we can track the assembly process in the forums rather than ask me for updates.

Again,.. very sorry for my absence. Life came apart for a few weeks,... But I am back here now.

To avoid this in the future: How many of you guys have my phone number???? We may need to spread that around to keep even further communication.

[p8ntbal4me]

and on a side note:

I have NOT updated the first thread with paypal information, payments, shipping,.. etc.

I dont know why paypal never sent me a notice that over $600 came into the account,....

I will call to figure that issue out.

[Chris]

How's it looking with the board house?

[p8ntbal4me]

It took some time for the board house to accept the new (old really) gerber files.

That all was completed on Wednesday of this week.

Issue with original layout and one power resistor spec.... Ended up changing one footprint. I had them make the change.

Parts are shipping Tuesday morning,.... Hope to hear from them as soon as they arrive.

Those of you coming to my house this week can look over the finished product before assembly..... Just remind me!!!!!

[rukh013]

It took some time for the board house to accept the new (old really) gerber files.

That all was completed on Wednesday of this week.

Issue with original layout and one power resistor spec.... Ended up changing one footprint. I had them make the change.

Parts are shipping Tuesday morning,.... Hope to hear from them as soon as they arrive.

Those of you coming to my house this week can look over the finished product before assembly..... Just remind me!!!!!

THIS SOUNDS AWESOME!!! take lots of pics, i'm so excited to get this board in my gun... now all i need is a LiPo batterypack

[p8ntbal4me]

I dropped the ball Guys..... Sorry for my absence.

The parts are gone! Off to the board house :-)

Sent out Tuesday morning,... Picked up my place Tuesday 5:23pm

One more step down the road to closing the book on this over due project :-)

[rukh013]

update???

[p8ntbal4me]

UPDATE;

This is not a good update,....

I made a mistake and somehow did not send in one of the 3 boxes a RSA form that the board house requires in each package sent in.

The result was having all the parts sent back to me in the mail.

It was my fault guys,.... im really sorry!

I took the day off work to get the boxes re-inventoried and the forms all re-signed in each box.



With the holiday I am not sure when the boxes will get there,... but with the insurance and over night shipping,.. it should be some time next week (thinking wednesday)

Again,... im very sorry guys,.... trying to make this right.

[havinnoj]

UPDATE;

This is not a good update,....

I made a mistake and somehow did not send in one of the 3 boxes a RSA form that the board house requires in each package sent in.

The result was having all the parts sent back to me in the mail.

It was my fault guys,.... im really sorry!

I took the day off work to get the boxes re-inventoried and the forms all re-signed in each box.



With the holiday I am not sure when the boxes will get there,... but with the insurance and over night shipping,.. it should be some time next week (thinking wednesday)

Again,... im very sorry guys,.... trying to make this right.

That's a bummer but things happen sometimes. That being said, once they get the boxes what's the expected turn around back to you?

[splat15k]

No worries mate; stuff happens! Thank you very much for keeping us in the loop!

[bbotts77]

At this point, I wouldn't bother with overnight shipping. We've waited this long, we can wait a few extra days for cheap shipping.

[p8ntbal4me]

UPDATE

I've been dreading to post this update for a few days,.... Waiting on confirmation from the manufacturer with an answer....

It's bad news,... No reason to sugar coat it.

The boards that were printed last year,... Are all junk.
They all have to be re-made.
There is a part which is not critital to the board operation per say, but effects ROF and power loss over a 2 hour period.

What that means (for me): I am having all the 100 boards remade
What that means (for you): you have yet another delay
What that means (for everyone): you will get what you paid for 100%

In the next 20 days this won't be an issue as they are turning the Gerber files now to have the boards re-made.

Immediately after that, assembly begins.

I wasn't sure if posting this would be to anyone's benefit. As it really isn't.

But I assumed you would want to know what was going on.

The details on who screwed up the boards is still being looked into,... Which is a money thing on my end. But I have already paid for the boards to be re-made in full so there is no delay on the assembly any more.

I apologize for the bad news. I wish there was something positive to say about it.

P8nt

[splat15k]

Thanks for the update, Jai; always appreciated regardless if good or bad.

Not that it matters, but I'm curious what the issue was. Was it an issue with trace width, copper weight, etc?

[p8ntbal4me]

Around 1/19/2012 the software engineer suggested an added comment to the power switch. This part is a "53.2k" resistor. In a 1206 package.... Tiny.....

What was happening before (and now with the boards made wrong) was at a full 100% charge everything works just fine.

But you pulse the regulator and power switches, or the HES, or eyes, etc,.... And the ground back feeds to the shutdown pin on the regulator.

It's a safety feature so you guys don't fry your boards.

The problem is the safety feature is a himderance on the CPS load at 10% pulse voltage load.

So at a high ROF,... Your board will believe there is a short and by default,... Shut down,... Protecting the circuit.

So we adds this resistor based on a suggestion and the designer saw it as a "must have" to ensure circuit protection under pulse loads.

There was two options:
One was to Hand solder a non- SMT part (which you would have seen the second you saw it) and use the old boards
Two was to have them re- made.

I'm not made of money,..... But my gut tells me to have them remade.... So that's what I did

[p8ntbal4me]

So if you were to look at the top of the board,... You would have this "radio shack" hand soldered resistor running from the top to the bottom of the board.

It wouldn't be protected. And it would look hidiois.

I haven't found it yet,... But I believe I promised a "SMD/SMT component made board" somewhere in the thread.

Given all that..... I know making new ones will be the right choice.