Coming Soon(ish)... probably [Update - 15/06]
Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 6:07 pm
Time to sell off all my extra boards and parts for the UMDK, but I can't sell boards by themselves they'd need a box to keep them safe, and it's really awkward to get the UMDK in and out of the Mega Drive without a cartridge shell so it should have one of those too right?
I'll probably have 8 of them to sell, with custom coloured shells.
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UPDATE - 15/06/2018
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After much sanding then painting, then sanding then painting, then sanding and painting again (and again) I now have a surface finish on the shell I'm happy with and I'm ready to make a mould. But before I embark on that faff I thought I'd get on with the another slight improvement, gold plated fingers on the PCB.
Original board, with tin covered pads
Sanded to remove the tin (easier and safer than dissolving it), sandpaper was a bit coarse which caused a minor problem later but I'll live.
Now we're left with bare copper pads
Copper tape applied and conductive nickel 'ink' put between it and each pad, so that they can be plated
Nickel pads (~6 Microns)
And finally, Gold! (~1.5 Microns)
Using such coarse sandpaper (600 grit, and that's EU grit folks measured differently from US) meant there were a few deeper scratches which didn't plate very well (probably because I didn't clean it good enough). I also misplaced my titanium wire and didn't do the gold until the next day, so that didn't take quite as well as it could have (the nickel will have started to oxidise)
If I ever get more boards made, I'll add a trace to connect all of the connectors at the bottom to avoid having to link them up to be plated. Then I could simply grind away the trace.
I'll probably have 8 of them to sell, with custom coloured shells.
//------------------------
UPDATE - 15/06/2018
//------------------------
After much sanding then painting, then sanding then painting, then sanding and painting again (and again) I now have a surface finish on the shell I'm happy with and I'm ready to make a mould. But before I embark on that faff I thought I'd get on with the another slight improvement, gold plated fingers on the PCB.
Original board, with tin covered pads
Sanded to remove the tin (easier and safer than dissolving it), sandpaper was a bit coarse which caused a minor problem later but I'll live.
Now we're left with bare copper pads
Copper tape applied and conductive nickel 'ink' put between it and each pad, so that they can be plated
Nickel pads (~6 Microns)
And finally, Gold! (~1.5 Microns)
Using such coarse sandpaper (600 grit, and that's EU grit folks measured differently from US) meant there were a few deeper scratches which didn't plate very well (probably because I didn't clean it good enough). I also misplaced my titanium wire and didn't do the gold until the next day, so that didn't take quite as well as it could have (the nickel will have started to oxidise)
If I ever get more boards made, I'll add a trace to connect all of the connectors at the bottom to avoid having to link them up to be plated. Then I could simply grind away the trace.