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Description:
The Solder : Time™ watch kit.
The Solder : Time is an original design watch kit that you solder and assemble yourself. Delivered as a through-hole kit, you solder the
components to the PCB, and enclose it all in four layers of laser cut acrylic.
Introduced at Maker Faire Bay Area in Mid 2011, an instant hit. The supplied battery lasts a really long time, and the onboard Dallas RTC keeps
impeccable time. This is the first SpikenzieLabs Kit that is a 'wearable'.
Solder : Time is not only a wristwatch. Set it up as a desk clock, badge clip-it to your clothes, thread a chain, and you've got a pocket watch.
More advanced tinkerers will see the bottom side I2C lines broken out, for hacking, and integrating RTC into other projects. There are also pads
on the backside of the PCB for DC supply, as well as an 'always-on' function.
Resistors:
Start by bending the leads to all three resistors to look like these in the photo.
Solder them in place and trim the leads. They go in either direction.
Clock crystal:
The crystal for the real time clock is the very small silver part with two leads.
Solder this as in the photo.
IC and Capacitors:
Note:
1.
The notches on the two IC chips (RTC and PIC) must match-up with the notches printed on the white silk screen.
1.
2.
These two ICs are soldered directly onto the PCB. For best results, only apply heat from your soldering iron for 1 to 3 seconds per leg.
2.
Solder the two orange-yellow capacitors in place.
Trim all leads.
LED:
Place the 4 digit 7 segment LED onto the PCB. Push flat, making sure all the legs go through the holes.
NOTE: Make sure that the LED is installed up-side right. Check that the decimal points are on the bottom as in this photo.
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Summary of Contents for spikenzielabs Solder:Time 495
- Page 1 Introduced at Maker Faire Bay Area in Mid 2011, an instant hit. The supplied battery lasts a really long time, and the onboard Dallas RTC keeps impeccable time. This is the first SpikenzieLabs Kit that is a 'wearable'. Solder : Time is not only a wristwatch. Set it up as a desk clock, badge clip-it to your clothes, thread a chain, and you've got a pocket watch.
- Page 2 Solder and trim the leads. You may want to peel the thin clear protective layer from the LED. Use your finger nail to lift an edge and then gently peel it off. Button: Push the button into the PCB. It should almost click into place. Solder and trim the leads.
- Page 4 Building the circuit board: This is an easy to solder kit. Peel the protective layer on the plastic parts: In order to protect the plastic parts during manufacturing they come covered by a thin plastic / tape layer. These should be removed before you assemble the watch.
- Page 5 VERY IMPORTANT: Some of the layers have very thin parts that can crack easily. The best way we have found to peel the protective layer off of these parts is to hold the part down evenly on a flat surface with one hand and peel with the other hand. Holding the part in the air while you peel may snap the part you are peeling.
- Page 6 In order to maximize battery life, we also used a couple of tricks. For the I2C bus we used higher value pull-up resistors (10k vs 4.7k) to reduce current and for the one unused pin on the PIC we set it to be a low logic value output (Microchip’s spec sheets, recommend this as a power saving set up).
- Page 7 After about five seconds the time will start to advance and the colon will flash to show that you are in time setting mode. • After about ten seconds of slow time advancement, the time advancement will go into a fast forward mode. •...
- Page 8 The Solder : Time design, a time piece made of layered plastics, it’s schematic and source code / firmware are presented here strictly for educational and informative purposes. SpikenzieLabs retains all rights to the design, look, source code and firmware. Reproduction is allowed only for personal use.
- Page 9 HEX: Watch.HEX.zip...
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