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Author Topic: Moving the USB port?  (Read 722 times)

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Offline SirRawThunderMan

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Moving the USB port?
« on: August 04, 2020, 05:00:45 AM »
I've got a bit of a Kram-fu problem on a chassis I'm working on right now. Effectively, the only place I can put a proffie 1.5 in the chassis leaves no access to either USB or microSD. Which is okay, I can program it before installing it, but it'd be a shame not to be able to change soundfonts or upgrade the OS in the future.

The only workaround I can think of is desoldering the micro USB, soldering some extension wires on the pads, and soldering them to a micro usb breakout board further down in the chassis, where space is (a little) more abundant. I have access to a hot air rework station and a (little) bit of experience using it. I've resoldered a couple of broken micro USBs before, so it's not out of my wheelhouse.

What I'm asking is, before I give it a go, is there a workaround that I don't know of? I'm not that familiar with Proffie yet, this will be my first build with it onboard. I know there's no R.I.C.E. equivalent. I know bluetooth is viable, but there's just no space in hilt for a bluetooth module, so that's out. Is there anything that could be bodged via the Rx/Tx pads?
Better late than never.

Offline profezzorn

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Re: Moving the USB port?
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2020, 03:08:18 PM »
You might be able to use a small micro USB connector to essentially build an extension coord. It's a little bigger, but easier to make.
Unfortunately neither Rx/Tx, nor bluetooth will give you the ability program the board and/or access the SD card, only USB can do that.

Offline SirRawThunderMan

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Re: Moving the USB port?
« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2020, 03:06:56 AM »
Dang.  :sad: Thanks for confirming that, I was pretty sure I'd read the manuals and your website right, but I hoped I'd missed something. Oh well.

Yeah, a DIY extension does sound a little less convoluted. I'll keep desoldering the USB in mind as a last resort, and go see what Mouser/Farnell/Digikey have in stock for male micro USBs. I needed to grab some high power SMD resistors, anyway.

Cheers!

« Last Edit: August 05, 2020, 05:27:19 AM by SirRawThunderMan »
Better late than never.

Offline SirRawThunderMan

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Re: Moving the USB port?
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2020, 12:40:35 PM »
Good news: I changed some components and managed to gain enough space to move everything about so that usb/sd access is doable. Woohoo!

Bad News: I got just one more question...  :wink:

Okay, so the manual was a little hazy here: RE: regular accent LEDs. Is there a max voltage/amperage that the pads can put out for driving accent LEDs? The manual recommends resistors values for 3.3V, 15mAh, but that's about it. I ask because, while kram-fu prohibits using spare neopixel strips as pixel accents, I have some retina-melting bright 0603 SMDs LEDs that I could easily throw on the chassis here and there. Seven wouldn't be bad, but an array of two or three LEDs in parallel on each pad would be better.

Also hazy is mixing accent pixels and regular pixels. If I set up a saber for Tri-cree, with an accent pixel for the crystal chamber, do I lose one out of the seven accent LEDs, or does that count as a neopixel blade setup, and I lose four?

Thanks!

Better late than never.

Offline profezzorn

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Re: Moving the USB port?
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2020, 02:14:06 PM »
Good news: I changed some components and managed to gain enough space to move everything about so that usb/sd access is doable. Woohoo!

Bad News: I got just one more question...  :wink:

Okay, so the manual was a little hazy here: RE: regular accent LEDs. Is there a max voltage/amperage that the pads can put out for driving accent LEDs? The manual recommends resistors values for 3.3V, 15mAh, but that's about it. I ask because, while kram-fu prohibits using spare neopixel strips as pixel accents, I have some retina-melting bright 0603 SMDs LEDs that I could easily throw on the chassis here and there. Seven wouldn't be bad, but an array of two or three LEDs in parallel on each pad would be better.

Also hazy is mixing accent pixels and regular pixels. If I set up a saber for Tri-cree, with an accent pixel for the crystal chamber, do I lose one out of the seven accent LEDs, or does that count as a neopixel blade setup, and I lose four?

Thanks!

LED 1-6 can put out several amps earch (up to 10 if your cooling is good enough)
The other pads can put out a maximum of 25mA, and the total output cannot exceed 150mA if I remember correctly.
There is no problem with mixing accent pixels and nepixels on LED1-6.
While it's possible to hook up regular LEDs to some of the Data pins, you loose the ability to send out Neopixel signals if you do that, so you can't mix them.

 

retrousse