Thank you for your support! I truly hope you enjoy your new Hackers N’ Hops SAO beer timer!
IF YOU HAVE AN ASSEMBLED BADGE CLICK HERE TO LEARN ABOUT IT’S FEATURES
Inventory
Your kit should have come with the following pieces and components…
- 1 x Beer Mug PCB
- 5 x SMD LED’s (LTST-C150AKT)
- 5 x SMD 68 ohm resistors (CRGCQ1206F68R)
- 2 x SMD 10K ohm resistors (CRGCQ1206J10K)
- 1 x pre-soldered ATTINY84 microcontroller (ATTINY84-20SSU)
- 1 x SMD 100K ohm resistor (CMP1206-FX-1003ELF)
- 1 x Tactile Switch (RS285G05A2URT)
- 1 x 6 pin SAO header (61200621621)
Tools
To build this SAO you’ll need the following tools…
- Soldering iron
- Solder
It’s also recommended you have…
- Tweezers
- Magnifier
- Flux/Flux Cleaner (90% Isopropyl will work)
- Helping hands or PCB holder (I use the this one here)
Assembly
Back of the Board
To start, let me point out there’s no “wrong” order for assembling your SAO, but I recommend starting with the back of the board.
Find the 5x 68 ohm resistors in your pack, They are marked with “68R0”. These components fill spaces R1, R2, R3, R4, and R5.
When soldering SMD components, I recommend putting a small amount of flux on the contact pad then solder on ONE of the component pads to start with. Next, using tweezers, negotiate your component on to the small mound of solder then apply heat. lightly press down on the component with the tweezers to make sure it’s flush with the board and align it so you can see a small amount of the solder pad on the unsoldered side. Finally, apply a small amount of solder to the unsoldered side.
Next, locate your 10K ohm resistors which are marked with “103” (read 10 with 3 trailing zeros, or 10,000). Using the same technique you used with the 68 ohm resistors, solder these to R8 and R9.
Finally, solder up the final resistor which should read “1003” (100 with 3 trailing zeros, or 100,000) to the space labeled R7.
You’ll notice there are spots for two additional components, the “Mode” switch and the “???”. The “Mode” switch can temporarily bridged (connect the furthest left solder pad, to the furthest right solder pad) using a small piece of solder, or a paper clip or anything conductive to unlock additional operating modes! You might also want to permanently add a button for switching modes, the pads are designed to fit the RS285G05A2URT switch available here.
The “???” component space will remain a mystery for now, but just know it is designed to have some type of resistor. Stay tuned to this blog or my Twitter @CylentK and @HackersNHops to updates.
Front of the board
The front of the board consists of 6 components; 5 LED’s and 1 switch. Lets get started!
Like before, place a small amount of solder on one side of the LED pads. LEDs are polarity sensitive, meaning they have to soldered in the right direction in order to work. The LTST-C150AKT LEDS, have a black printed “]” on their Cathode terminal (also known as the Ground or Negative terminal). The board is designed so that the left most LED pad is the ground bus. Negotiate your LED so that the correct terminal is over the pre-soldered pad and apply heat.
LED’s are temperature sensitive, so try to be quick about setting your position. If you spend more than a couple seconds with heat applied and the LED still isn’t where you want it, take a break and let the component cool down and come back to it later and try again.
After soldering the 5x LED’s it’s time to move on to the button. Apply a small amount of solder to one of the horizontal pads. Carefully align the button in the orientation that matches the pcb silk screen. The button can be placed in either direction horizontally. The two contact points at the top and bottom of the component are designed to add some stability to the button.
The button is heat sensitive as many of the internal components are made from plastic, so avoid heating it for more than a second or two at a time.
Apply solder to the remaining 3 pads and the button should be complete!
The final component will be the 6 pin header! Align the header from the back of the SAO with the keying slot facing the top of the SAO. Flip over the board and apply solder to the 6 pins protruding the front to form a small solder cone between the pin and the round pads.
DONE!
Now plug in your beer timer to your favorite badge or SAO totem! If everything went according to plan, the top LED should begin slowly blinking. Crack open your favorite brew, press the “REFILL” button and all 5 LED’s should light up. (if you have an LED that fails to light up, you may need to rework the solder connection on either that numbered LED or it’s corresponding resistor on the back.
If pushing the “REFILL” button does nothing, and the first LED is still still just slowly blinking, you may have to rework the connections on the button.
ENJOY AND THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR SUPPORT! Follow @HackersNHops and @CylentK on twitter for updates!