Stove-top SMD reflow20-Jul-2005

Lately I've been spending a lot of time working on embedded hardware projects. Projects that will (hopefully) eventually become Manyetas products. Some cool stuff, if I say so myself. Anyway, last night I just got my first taste of using solder paste.

Testing with a little RS232 level converter board I already had, I manually sqeezed on the solder paste and placed the components using tweezers. Stencils can come later. Then I put the board in the middle of a cheap, new skillet and turned the gas stove top on. It took a while to warm up, but worked beatifully. Just follow the same basic procedure as for a hot plate. I ended up with the burner on setting 4 of 10 for the highest heat phase. Next time I do it I'll use an infrared thermometer to watch the board temperature during the process.

Watching the solder paste melt and draw up into shiny little blobs on the SMD pads for the first time is almost magical! The whole process is very cool, and surprisingly forgiving.

That hot plate article from Spark Fun also has some info about other home reflow techniques. Read the whole article; it has tons of helpful tips and information, and lots of good pictures. But the grandaddy of all home reflow articles is Have you seen my new soldering iron? by Kenneth Maxon of the Seattle Robotics Society. The cooking profile table in the article is best (clearest) I've seen. Another article that I haven't seen linked in many places is Screen Print and Reflow SMT Boards at Home by Bob Rooks. It's hosted on the PCBexpress.com site, and is kind of a big ad for them. But it is still useful.

Btw, and this should be totally obvious, but don't really taste the paste if you don't want cancer. Solder paste has a good amount of lead in it. Be careful.

Enhanced Xcode commenting script16-Jun-2005

The comment/uncomment script that comes with Xcode is really great. But it doesn't support Python, and I use Xcode to edit Python scripts quite frequently. So here's an updated version of the script. Just replace the old one in /Library/Application Support/Apple/Developer Tools/Scripts/10-User Scripts/30-Comments.

Remember to back up...7-Apr-2005

Just a friendly reminder. Backing up is good. The hard drive in my PowerBook died a few weeks ago, and is totally unrecoverable, at least with software. Even with almost everything backed up, it is still a very painful thing to experience.

Volkswagen GTI VR6

I just got a new car! Reflex silver with gray leather. I'm very pleased...

Resumé/CV

Please note that I am not actively looking for work at this time. I'm as happy as I can be here in the United States. However, I will seriously consider any offers within the European Union or Switzerland. Especially Germany, although just about anywhere would be fine.

SigmaTel USB IrDA Driver for STIr42xx Source

Here is the source for the Mac OS X driver for the SigmaTel STIr42xx USB IrDA bridge. Mac OS X 10.2 or greater is required. It is based on the AppleUSBIrDA project that is part of Darwin. Hence, it is released as required under the provisions of the APSL. You can also get it directly from SigmaTel, if you wish, by sending an email to sales@sigmatel.com. The binary is available from the SigmaTel support site.

Download version 1.0 source

Be aware that you'll also need to download the binary distribution (from the SigmaTel support page) to get the firmware patch files, which are not distributed with the source for legal reasons.

Please note: I do not provide support for this or any other SigmaTel device. Please don't write me with support questions; I won't reply. You need to contact the manufacturer of your device if you are having problems.

Sending arbitrary Apple events using AppleScript

Several times I have needed to use AppleScript to send arbitrary Apple events. Every time it comes up I end up spending hours searching the net looking for the syntax, which is hidden piecemeal throughout Apple documentation and other AppleScript websites. So I finally put together a small document that contains a complete description of this syntax. Hopefully some other people will be spared the painful search for this information.