USB PIC

P Prog Com
mpact Hard
dware
e
ementtation
n
Imple
Summ
mary

Based on the originaal thruhole design (rev. 0.3.2

2) a compaact version
n of the
program
mmerhardw
warehasbeeendevelop
ped,includiinganewaapproachto
olinktheZIFsocket
whichaaccommodaatesthediffferentPICvversionswithouttheneeedtochangeconnectors.

Projecct Scope

TThecompleeteprogram
mmershard
dwarewillffitinacomp
pactsizeen
nclosure,wh
hichcan
be easily transporrted (in a small
s
bag or
o even poccket), or jusst stay nexxt to the deesktop /
occupying much
m
deskktop space. The desiggn should also be
laptop computer, without o
willnotdisturbanicelyyarrangedd
desktopsettup.
aesthetticallyattracctive,soitw
In order to
o break witth the trad
ditionally ssquare boxx design of
o standard project
enclosu
ures,anewdesignhasbeenselectted,ascanbeseenonFigure1.

Figure 1Enclosureusedto
oaccommodaatethehardw
waremain
b
board
(includin
ng the USB su
ubboard) and
d the ZIF sockket board
(P
PACTECModeel87836510508,PPLXKitt, Greyw/Blaack Sides,
externaldimen
nsions121.9xx78.7x33mm
m).

Circuiit Schema
atics

TThe circuit schematicss have been redrawn in order to

o design a new
n
printed
d circuit
board(PCB),adequateforthespacecon
nstraintsoffthechosencabinet.TTheUSBco
onnector
o simplifythe physicallayout,
(typeB)hasbeen placedinaaseparate subboard,inorderto
since it needs to fit
f preciselyy in a hole cut in the enclosure, just protru
uding 1 mm
m to the
mainboardsschematics..
outsidee.Figure2showsthem

Figure 2Mainboardcircuitschem
matics

Besides reaarranging th
he components layoutt, this desiggn is exactly the samee as rev.
0.3.2offtheoriginaalhardwaree.
What is completely new is the design
d
of th
he ZIF sockket board. The
T original design
consideeredusingm
multiplecon
nnectors,eeachlinked differently totheZIFssocket,top
program
thediffferentPICfaamilies.Thiisnewdesiggnhasjust oneconnector,andanarrayofsswitches
to perfo
orm the same functio
on. With thiis approach
h, the final design is more
m
compaact, and
there aare no loosse cables or
o exposed connectorss. Figure 3 shows thee ZIF sockeet board
schemaatics.

Figure 3ZIFsocketb
boardschemattics.Anarrayof27keys(arrrangedin3ggroups)replacestheconnecctors.

Note the th
hree added
d capacitorss, between VDD and GND,
G
each made of taantalum,
marked
d 10uF / 6.3V.
6
Thesee are SMD componen
nts, and arre intended
d to supprress any
electrical noise that may affeect the +5V
V line, whicch may inteerfere with
h the programming
ors.
sequence,givingraandomerro
Inordertoknowthep
positionofeeachkeywhenprogrammingapaarticularPIC
Cfamily,
nFigure4hasbeencre
eated,andsshouldbekkeptclosetothehardw
warefor
thetableshownin
reference.

Figure 4 PIC familyy selection matrix. Each grroup of keys is marked ass S1 through S3, while eaach key is
numbereedfrom1to 9.Beloweach
hPICfamilyn
name,theoriiginalconnecttorname(P2throughP9) hasbeen
keptforb
backreferencce.

Sobasicallyy,ifaPIC16
6F628A(PIC
C18P)istob
beprogram
mmed,S1K
Keys1and2
2willbe
ON,S2Keys8an
nd9willbeON,andS3Key2willbeON.AllltherestwillbeOFF.
Iftheuserchangesof PICfamily frequently,agoodadvviceistoleaveALLkeyysinthe
OFF po
osition after using thee programm
mer, just to
t avoid errrors due to
t incorrect family
selectio
on whenussingit next time,until thehabit ofverifying
o
gthekey co
onfiguration
nbefore
program
mmingismade.
wonderwhyythekeysaarearrangeedinthree groups;theeanswerissimple:
Onemayw
three 9
9key DIP Switches haave been ussed (Grayhill, Series 78,
7 Model 78B09
7
with
h Raised
Slides).Usingaraaisedslideversionisfu
undamentaaltoallowaneasyman
nualchangeeofeach
switch((notoolsneeeded).

Printe
ed Circuiit Boardss (PCB)

TThePCBforeachsectionhasbeeenredesign
nedinorderrtofitthesselecteden
nclosure,
asexplaainedbeforre.Figure5showstheP
PCBoftheU
USBconnecctorsubboaard.

Figure 5USBconnecctorsubboard
d;justtheUSB
BBtypeconn
nector,a4pin
nlinearheadeerandtwoscrewholes.

TThe main board

b
is sliightly moree impressivve, but still an insidee the box type of
board.SSeeFigure6
6.

Figure 6Mainboard;overalllayou
utandcompo
onentsplacem
ment.

Intheappeendixattheeendofthiisarticleyo
oumayfind
dtheactuallsizePCBd
drawings
andsilkkscreen,sod
donotworryifsomerreferencesaarenotclearintheabo
ovefigures.

TThesetwob
boardswillbemountediinsidetheen
nclosure.TheeUSBconne
ectorrequireesspecial
care,sin
nceitmustfitexactlyin aholecutin
ntheenclosu
usefrontpanel.Figure7
7showsthe separate
partsan
ndthefinalre
esultwhenm
mountedtoggether.

Figure 7Componenttpartsandfin
nalplacementoftheUSBsu
ubboard.

TThemainboardgoesjustnexttotheUSBsubboard,assshowninFFigure8.

Figure 8 Main board placed insid

de the enclossure; note thee additional screw
s
holes on the right side of the
board,to
ofitthecaseb
bosses.Theorriginalholesw
wereintended
dforadifferen
ntsetup.

TThe two boards

b
are connected with a 4wire flat cable
c
(Figure 9). The jumper
betweeenVPP_SELFFandVDDisalreadyin
nplace;theerewillben
noneedtoremovethisspartin
thefutu
ure.

Figure 9MainboardandUSBsubboardare
connecteedbya4wireeflatcable.

TTheZIFsoccketboardiswheretheetruevalueeofthisdessignresidess.Thisboard
dwillbe
exposed
d,mounted
doutoftheboxsomuchcaremustbeexercisedwhenb
buildingit.Itwould
havebeeenpossibletoputitiinsidethee
enclosure,ccuttinglargeholesfor theZIFsoccketand
theswitchestobe
eaccessible atthetop oftheunit.Thedecisiion,howeveer,wastom
makean
oardisexpo
osed.Figuree10showsthePCB
innovattivedesign,andthisisthereasonwhythebo
oftheZZIFsocketboard.

Figure 100ZIFsocketboardPCB.
Capacitors C1~C3 are mounted on the
2, as
copper sside; resistorss R1 and R2
well as connector J4
J will also be
mounted
d on the copper side, desspite
beingsho
ownontheco
omponentside.

Since it will be fully vvisible, thiss board will be carefu

ully cut and
d all sides must
m
be
perfectly straight. Dimension
ns are also extremely important, since it will fit on a rrecessed
p side of the enclosuree. This board is 82 x 50
5 mm. As mentioned
d on the
portion of the top
1 only thee ZIF sockeet and the switches go
o on the co
omponent side; all
legend of Figure 10,
partsgoen thecopperside.Thisaallowstheccomponenttside(visibleside)tob
beclean
otherp
fromco
omponentsotherthanthoserequ
uiredfortheeuserinterraction.Thissalsoletsu
ussticka
printedsilkscreen,whichgiveesamuchprofessionalfinishtoth
hedesign.Figure11showsthe
silkscreendesign.

Figure 111ZIFsocketboardsilkscreeen.
Thisdesiggnisprintediinselfadhesivvepaper,whicchislater
coveredw
withtransparrentadhesivefilm.
Blueparttsarecarefullycutandrem
moved,thepro
otective
backlayeerofthepapeerisremovedexposingtheadhesive,
anditisccarefullyglued
dinplaceinthePCB.

TThe silkscreeen is glueed to the PCB

P right b
before mounting the ZIF
Z socket and the
switchees.Thecut areashave beencalcu
ulatedsoth
heyjustgo belowtheccomponentts,sono
bare PC
CB is visiblee. The last step of this process iss to carefully mount and
a solder the top
compon
nents.TheffinalresultsshouldbesimilartoFiggure12.

Figure 122ZIFsockettboardfinisheedandinplacceontopofttheenclosure.Thesilkscree
endesignalso
oincludes
indicationsaboutcom
mponentsthattareoutside theboard,m
mountedonth
heactualplassticoftheboxx,suchas
theLEDsandtheUpdate/Runsswitch.Thisco
ontributesto createaseam
mlesstransitionbetweenttheboard
andtheeenclosuresurfface.

TThereisan
nadditionalstepbeforreachievinggthepleasaantlookof Figure12; thetop
side off the enclo
osure mustt be cut so the copper side of
o the boarrd, with th
he SMD
compon
nentsandcconnector,laysflatontthesurfaceandaccesssisgrantedtothemain
nboard.
Thiscuttisarough
hone,itwillbecompletelyhiddeen,anditissbigenoughtoexposeeallthe
copper side; care should bee exercised,, however, not to cutt the anglees were thee board
ured.Figuree13showsttheinnersideoftheto
oppanel.
screwswillbesecu

Figure 133Innersideoftoppanel.ThelargecuttexposesthecopperareaaandSMDcomponents,asw
wellasthe
connecto
orthatlinksto
othemainboard(shielded)).R1andR2aarealsomountedonthissid
de.

Figure 13 also
a
revealss the additional comp
ponents mo
ounted on the
t box; th
he three
statusLLEDs(coverredbygrey plastictokkeepthem inplace)an
ndtheUpd
date/Runswitch.
Thissw
witchreplace
esoneofth
heoriginaljjumpers;OFFmeansjumperdisconnected,sothe
unitisiinFirmwareeUpdateM
Mode.TheO
ONconditio
onsimulateesjumpercconnected,sothe
unitisinNormalRunMode.TThereisnoneedtoopeentheunittoupdatetthefirmwarre.

Once all th
he connecto
ors are firm
mly locked in place, the unit can be closed and
a it is
C has been loaded witth the prop
per firmware using
ready tto run (provvided the internal PIC
anotherprogramm
mer,asitis extensivelyyexplainedintheorigginaldocum
mentation). Thereis
justasingleconneectorontheefrontpanel,theUSB
B,andtherrestoftheccontrolsareeonthe
toppan
nel.

TTheresultiisacompacct,portableeandattracctivedesign
n,withtheffullfunction
nalityof
theorigginalidea.

MarrceloMaggi(mmaggi@
@hotmail.com)June,2
2011

Appendix

PrintedCircuitBoards(actualsize)andSilkscreens:

USBsubboard
Mainboard
ZIFsocketboard

Ultiboard-USB Breakout - 6/17/2011 - 2:13:56 AM

Ultiboard-USBPICPROG - 6/17/2011 - 2:22:49 AM

Ultiboard-USBPICPROG - 6/17/2011 - 2:23:59 AM

Ultiboard-ZIF Board - 6/17/2011 - 2:15:33 AM

Ultiboard-ZIF Board - 6/17/2011 - 2:21:39 AM