AxMate-SF Assembly Instructions
Use the following photos as a reference as you assemble the AxMate-SF board.
(Click on either photo to see a larger image.)
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| Bare AxMate-SF Board | Completed AxMate-SF |
Parts List (All parts are available at JRHackett.net)
| Label | Description |
| 180 | Resistor, 180 Ω, 1/4 or 1/6 Watt |
| 10k | Resistor, 10k, 1/4 or 1/6 Watt |
| 22k | Resistor, 22k, 1/4 or 1/6 Watt |
| (Icons) | Two Capacitors, .01µF Ceramic |
| (Icon) | LED, 3mm, Resistorized, Red or Green |
| Sw | Small Power Switch |
| None | Header, Male, Snap, 3 pins |
| None | Two Headers, Female, 5 pins each (See text) |
| H1-H4 | Headers, Male, Snap (10 pins total) |
| None | Shorting Jumper, 2-pin |
Assembling the AxMate-SF Board
To assemble the AxMate-SF, it's best to proceed from the smallest to the largest parts. The order in the parts list is arranged this way, so just work your way from the top of the parts list to the bottom.
Note: I forgot to include an outline for the placement of the two female headers on the board (Sorry about that! :-), but if you look back at the photo at the top of this page, you can clearly see where they should be inserted. (They won't fit anywhere else, anyway.) Also, five-pin straight female headers are not available on this site. (I am over-run with headers as it is!) However, you can easily straighten the pins of the five-pin right-angle female headers that I do have available, or you can snip five-pin pieces from a 16-pin straight female header by "sacrificing" one pin between each piece and filing or sanding the cut ends smooth.
When you have soldered all the parts that mount on the top of the board and are soldered on the bottom (i.e., everything except H1-H4), make sure all the excess leads have been clipped from the bottom of the board. At this point you may want to rub the bottom of the board a few times on a piece of emery-type sandpaper to remove any sharp edges. You can use flux remover to clean the bottom of the board, but I have found that ordinary paint thinner and a tooth brush works just as well for this purpose, and it's easier on your hands.
Now you are ready to insert the male headers H1 through H4 on the bottom of the board and solder them on the top. The easiest way to do this is to first snap all the required lengths of headers and insert the longer ends of each header into a breadboard (appropriately spaced), as shown in the photo below. Next, mount the AxMate-SF board on the short ends of the headers and solder all the header pins on the top of the AxMate-SF.
Preparing the Sparkfun FT232RL Breakout Board for Connection to the AxMate-SF
After you have completed the assembly of the AxMate-SF board, you will need to prepare the Sparkfun FT232RL Breakout board for connection to the AxMate-SF. To do so, snap off two five-pin sections of straight male headers and insert the long ends of the headers into the female headers of the AxMate-SF. Next, mount the Sparkfun breakout board on the short ends of the headers so that the pins are inserted as shown in the next photo and solder the headers in place. In the photo, I have already soldered the pins. (I forgot to take the picture before doing so!)
Finally, if you haven't already done so, you will need to reconfigure the FT232RL chip on the Sparkfun breakout board so that the polarity of the serial input and output lines is inverted, which is necessary to interface with all PICAXE processors. In order to do so, you will need the free "FT_PROG" utility software available from FTDI. You can use the FTDI documentation, or read the June 2010 installment of the Nuts & Volts PICAXE Primer for details.
Testing the Completed AxMate-SF Board
To test the completed AxMate-SF, just assemble a "Hello Word" circuit similar to the one shown in the photo below, and write a simple program to blink the LED. If you have any problems getting your AxMate-SF to function properly, email me at Ron@JRHackett.net and I will do what I can to help.
One final Note: If you examine the AxMate-SF board closely, you will see that the third pin on each of the two three-pin male headers is not connected to anything. When I designed the AxMate-SF, I was concerned that repeated insertions and extractions of the board (into and out of a breadboard) might cause the small protrusion in the center of the AxMate-SF board to weaken and possibly crack, so I included the third pin on each side to strengthen the board at that point. I planned to snip off the bottoms of each of the third pins so that the AxMate-SF could be inserted one position closer to the end of the breadboard to save a tiny bit of breadboard space. I also intended to add two small bolts in the holes in the two rear corners of the AxMate-SF to stabilize the board. However, I have found that inserting the two extra pins into the breadboard results in a sufficiently solid and stable connection between the AxMate-SF and the breadboard, so the support bolts are not really necessary. If you prefer to gain access to one more row of holes on the breadboard, you can always snip off the two extra pins and add the bolts for support.