Important ordering information: There is no minimum order, but in order to provide parts for as many people as possible, there is a maximum order amount of $100. Orders that exceed that limit will be automatically refunded. Also, as of March 2011, international shipping is now available. Shipments to the United States, Canada, or Mexico are trackable and insured. Shipments to all other countries are not trackable, and are also not insured.
Rex PC Board Assembly Instructions
Refer to the following photos as you assemble your Rex PC board.
(Click on any photo to view a larger image.)
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| Bare Rex PC Board | Completed Board | 08M Removed |
Parts List for the Rex PC board
(All parts are available at www.JRHackett.net)
| Label | Description |
| None | Header, male, 6-pin, right-angle |
| R1 | Resistor, 10k, 1/6 Watt |
| R2 | Resistor, 22k, 1/6 Watt |
| None | Capacitor, .01uF |
| None | IC socket, 8 machined-pins |
| None | PNA4602M IR Detector |
| None | PICAXE-08M |
Assembling the Rex PC board is very simple. As usual, working from the smallest to the largest parts will facilitate keeping the parts in place while soldering. The above Parts List reflects this approach, and you can simply install the parts in order from the top to the bottom of the Parts List.
The following procedures should be observed as you populate the board:
- Thorougly clean the board before soldering. A "Scoth-Bright" plastic abrasive pad works well for this purpose.
- Solder the 6-pin header in place as shown in the above photos.
- Resistors R1 and R2, and capacitor C1 are all installed underneath the machine-pin socket. The best way to do that is to insert those three parts, but before you solder them in place, test-fit the 8-pin socket to be sure that it can be fully inserted into the board. (Be sure to observe its correct orientation - pin 1 down and to the right.) You may need to bend one or two of the parts slightly in order to get everything to fit correctly. You can also use a sharp hobby knife to shave a little plastic from from the socket where necessary. When the socket is fully seated on the board, leave it inserted and solder R1, R2, C1, and the socket in place.
- The PNA4602 can be inserted into the PC board in two different ways. If you look closely at the front of the bare PC board near the top, you will see two rows of three holes each. The 4602 can be inserted into either one of these rows, depending on which way you want it to face. In each row, one hole is labeled with a small "+" symbol. (In the upper row, it's the hole on the left, and in the lower row, it's the hole on the right.) In both cases, pin 3 of the 4602 (which is its Vcc pin - see the data sheet) should be inserted into the hole with the "+" label. In the above photos, I installed the 4602 in the lower row, and bent it up so that the lens faces forward. If you prefer to have the 4602's lens facing to the rear of the PC board, solder it into the upper row of holes (again, with pin 3 in the "+" hole). In that case, when you bend the 4602 up, its lens will be facing to the rear of the PC board. Of course, you can also install the 4602 without bending its pins at all, which might be more suitable for some applications; it all depends upon how you want to use the board.
Testing the Assembled Rex PC Board
The simplest way to test your Rex PC board is to set up a simple breadboard circuit that connects Rex to your programming adapter and download the following code snippet to Rex's 08M processor. Whenever you press a button on a SIRC TV remote control, you should see the corresponding infrain2 value appear in the terminal window. If not, you will need to check all the soldering connections on your Rex PC board.
#terminal 4800
do
infrain2
sertxd (#infra,CR,LF)
pause 500
loop
If you have any problems getting your Rex PC board to function properly, email me at Ron@JRHackett.net and I will do what I can to help.