I'm organising an initial manufacturing run of a batch of 25 PCB assemblies now. Going through some normal back-and-forth with the assembly house over some of the details.
Nice. Just let me know when you are ready.
I'm organising an initial manufacturing run of a batch of 25 PCB assemblies now. Going through some normal back-and-forth with the assembly house over some of the details.
Hi lasmux,
any info about when the probes will be available ?
I'm organising an initial manufacturing run of a batch of 25 PCB assemblies now. Going through some normal back-and-forth with the assembly house over some of the details.
Hi lasmux,
any info about when the probes will be available ?
Soon. Did I say that last time though
In other news, I have the first batch of 25 PCBs here (at long last) and the first couple have tested fine!!
I've also spent what felt like an eternity soldering together a mountain of probe tips. Each signal tip is in three parts. There's a pin to go into the probe, a series resistor, and then a sharp tip, all cut down and then soldered together. This is then carefully glued for rigidity, and finally tidied up with some semi-rigid heatshrink. 10 minutes assembly per tip. 50 tips. I've managed to burn through every decent podcast I know of. Fortunately the ground tip sockets are a bit simpler to assemble.
I'm super proud to say that at long last, these are available at the site:
http://www.lasmux.com/product/single-ended-active-probes/The datasheet has also been extensively updated, so worth checking that out!
It's surprising how much time and effort it is to get something like this up and running. Production issues, delays, customs and shipping, fighting insurance companies... the list just goes on and on. My hourly wage for this first batch, even if I exclude the 1.5 year long design work, is very, very low. Hopefully the next batch will be smoother.
Nice effort & probe, well done
If/When we need an Active Probe we'll order one
Best,
I think one of the biggest things I've learnt from this project is that manufacturing (more than one-offs) things which aren't just straight PCBs is really hard, despite having some R&D experience in many of these aspects. It's also been surprising how long seemingly trivial tasks take. I had a bunch of estimates on how long various tasks would take for each probe. Pin assembly, testing, customs paperwork, etc. For almost everything I've underestimated the time requirements, despite having some experience in all of these things in the past.
I have been thinking on ways to improve my workflow for subsequent batches, including test jigs, and assembly jigs for the pins. It's definitely tricky as these kinds of tooling jobs take time to set up, and the time-saving payoff will take a while to reach.
Lasmux has provided me with one of his new probes to review. I gave it a quick check and everything appears to work out of the box. The bug rug was not supplied with the probe. I added it for a bit of insurance.
As always, if there is something specific you would like to see, feel free to ask.