eeguru wrote:

If the idea is to get cards in the hands of other people, why not release board files with conditional attribution so other people can build cards?

The answer to that question was shared long ago in this thread. This is his work, which he has kindly decided to share in the form of pre-manufactured bare cards (for donors/contributors only, initially). However, the board files will not be shared, because he has no intention of giving free money to the eBay vultures. The idea is to keep costs reasonable while maintaining some semblance of control. I think it's understandable and quite reasonable.

If one is that insistent on producing a card themselves, the schematics and BOM for the second-generation prototype have already been shared. All that remains is to do the layout and routing. The schematics are already a good start. If one really wants to insist on the board files, it is an indication that they are likely just after the money, given what any GUS tends to sell for these days.

I'm just questioning the longevity of the thread. I'm not insisting on the board files. I understand the eBay issues but the whole point of the project is to drive GUS costs down somewhat - otherwise just fork out cash for an eBay card.

Driving down the price to an uncertain degree will still work if the cards get put out in 5 years 😉
Yes, this project has been taking longer than I originally intended ... a lot longer. If that's a problem to anyone involved, I'm always up for a dialogue.

@shock__: Remembering you were unhappy about that in your order:
LABS (after they did the same on his Blasterboard) managed to convince JCLPCB to add an option to definitely place the order number in a pre-defined spot now:

If you check the RC2 carefully JLCPCB actually fucked up that instruction they gave themselves ... I ended up with a JLCJLCJLCJLC marker (under the Interwave) I put on the card PLUS their own pool identifier in an always visible place. A decent hotfix is drawing over their pool marker with a red marker pen ("Edding" in German).

Phreeze wrote:

are you looking to live in Charlottenburg? 18-24 is very expensive and reaches Luxembourg-Prices (which are really premium...but for new flats).
Anyway: we waited years after the GUS release for a card, we can wait any more months required to finish the project 😉

Welcome to Kreuzberg36 ... one of the worst places according to German media when it comes to filth and criminality rates, which in reality is totally blown out of proportion. While the other half of Kreuzberg is nicer, you'd find even higher prices there.
Charlottenburg is actually cheaper ... there are actually a number of still decently priced places in Berlin ... but either extremely demanded or so close to the border that I won't be able to get away from work when I have night shifts.

hm i was there a few years ago and can`t remember any criminality besides some people smoking weed.
Which i would not even consider a crime..

german media tells us crime is rising..
but fact is its going down in germany there are less crime then in the 80s..

less rapes, less murdering... and so on.
they just want to get us to give your voices to the ones who want more and more monitor systems to prevent us from being free,
to get more control over all of us..

There's one very specific corner where alcoholics gather (usually watched by 2 cop cars) and one backyard which is usually populated with dealers ... not pretty, but not a hotspot either.

The (in-)famous Görlitzer Park. It's an 'experience' to walk through that. Otoh, the Five Elephants Cafe nearby imho was worth it.

Yeah if some one wants to experience bad weed stuffed with all kinds of stretch medium from hairspray to kitchen Herbs.
i stay away from such experiences.

What you both said ...
it's a decent park to walk through (I actually kinda like the petting zoo and the large, round grass field), but probably has the worst weed of Berlin on offer (from what I heard ... the dealers probably are desperate for sales for a reason - namely bad quality you only want to experience once).

Just a small FYI, I've finally put my hands on my assembled ARGUS prototype #7 (thanks, keropi!) and tried a CT4170 bracket - it fits almost perfectly (taking into account the already known "bug" of the spacing between the jacks that is slighly bigger than needed; but the jacks holes on the bracket fit even without any further drilling), all jacks markings are correct, looks great. I said almost - as there was no hole on the ARGUS PCB for the metal support screw. So, I've drilled it, and here we go:

In my book it's a perfect bracket for the ARGUS, and there are plenty of those CT4170/CT4180 available for cheap.
I know that we've already discussed this, but... maybe... it would be still possible to add this mounting hole to the final production design? It would make the life a lot easier for one who decided to go with the Creative Vibra bracket!

P.S. I haven't tested it yet, and have a slight concern - could I have shortened anything while drilling that should not be shortened? Any inner layers, etc.? Please tell me before I plug it in and get some magic smoke 😁

^^ Turned out rather awesome. It's too late for magic smoke now - might as well test on a sacrificial crappy motherboard, so you don't take everything with it!

As usual, first I do and then I think 😀
So, in theory, is the magic smoke probable or not?

^^ Just like Schrodinger's Cat, you're not gonna know if the cat's- I mean board is dead until you know what... Consider the board as both dead and alive.

j^aws wrote:

^^ Just like Schrodinger's Cat, you're not gonna know if the cat's- I mean board is dead until you know what... Consider the board as both dead and alive.

Invoking wave particle duality. . . I tip my hat to you good sir.

hard1k wrote:

P.S. I haven't tested it yet, and have a slight concern - could I have shortened anything while drilling that should not be shortened? Any inner layers, etc.? Please tell me before I plug it in and get some magic smoke 😁

ARGUS is a two-layer board; there are no inner layers to damage. If the bit didn't "skip" around too much and you made a clean hole, I would expect that it's reasonably unlikely that you caused catastrophic damage, as long as you didn't compromise the bond between the copper and substrate or crack the vias. If I'm not mistaken, that area is a ground fill on both sides, so you're probably safe to test. Still, drilling through an assembled board isn't something that I would generally recommend.

the Goat wrote:

j^aws wrote:

^^ Just like Schrodinger's Cat, you're not gonna know if the cat's- I mean board is dead until you know what... Consider the board as both dead and alive.

Invoking wave particle duality. . . I tip my hat to you good sir.

That's not wave particle duality. That's just the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Unfortunately the wavelength of an ARGUS card is too small to quantum tunnel it's way into my office. I'll wait until Shock has them in mass production. 😀

@shock__ : What are the latest news regarding your situation ?

Today i can only regret not being a backer for this project, would love me an ARGUS. Those ISA expansion headers are very handy.

Hope __shock is doing well.