11h.net

Finally! 11h has created a professional looking PCB for or current project ‘Party Lights.’ The PCB was fabbed by Gold Phoenix PCB Co.,Ltd through BatchPCB.

The last PCB that we created was a fan controller for Brian’s 240SX.
For the fan controller, we used Techniks press-n-peel PCB laser printer transfer sheets. Unfortunately, this method requires LOTS of time and LOTS of patients’. It’s great for students who are low on cash, but have the time and an iron. It’s not really ideal for folks who are looking for something a little longer lasting and nicer looking. Plus, hand drilling the through-hole components or via is a real bother.

For our current project, Party Lights, we wanted to ensure that a circuit that we have considered is easy to build and will be small enough to allow two more identical circuits in its final production. Basically, these boards are just demo boards for our component selection.

For the production of this board, we used the gEDA suite of software. The tools we used the most were: gschem, gsch2pcb, and pcb. We used the Gerber viewer, gerbv, to ensure that the PCB looked correct and that the drill holes lined up with the through-hole items before sending it off to be fabbed.

Here’s the schematic:

Here’s the PCB layout:

Here’s the board:

Here’s the board with components, including the missing 1206 parts substituted by axial components:

Problems:

When I created the schematic in gschem, I rotated the op-amps I didn’t take due care to notice where the VEE and VCC lines where. I ended up reversing them. I let the magic smoke out the second I plugged it in. After looking at the board for a while, I realized that I had power and ground backwards. No worries, because this was a lm2909, the op-amps were aligned the same no matter which way the component was placed. For the next, working, board I turned the lm2909 180 degrees so that VEE and VCC were correct.

The next problem that I had was communicating to the DS2890. After looking at the board, yet again, it looks like the component was supposed to go on the _other_ side. Not the side that I soldered it on. Luck was on my side again as the 1-wire communication pin was in the center but ground and RH were swapped. To solve this problem I placed the DS2890 180 degrees from the way the silk screen specifies.

Does it work? YEP!

The Nokia 6133b (T-Mobile branded) phone is probably Nokia’s best series 40 “flip style” phone to date (Disclaimer: I hate flip phones and well likely never own one myself). It essentially has every feature of the Nokia 6230 except most features have been improved in some manner (which makes sense since this is a much newer phone).

But first the story of why we got it … In the middle of the night, while my girlfriend’s Nokia 6101 was charging on the counter with her Japanese charms dangling off the edge of the counter, her cat decided the phone was a play toy. She managed to knock the phone off the counter right into their water dish. By the time we noticed, the phone was completely dead and soaking wet. So, we took the SIM card and battery out of it. Since Corrie was “conveniently” looking at the 6133 literally one day before, we went to the T-Mobile store and bought it.

Anyway, this phone has one feature that makes a flip-phone more tolerable to use:  One handed opening.  Simply press a button on the right side of the phone, and it pops open!

However, it has other “features” that counter-act one of the reasons most people claim they want a flip phone: 

1. “No way to press keys while in your pocket.”
   Well, this phone has a dedicated camera button and volume buttons on the side.  Holding the volume button will activate voice dial.  Now, for people who don’t use voice dial, it wouldn’t normally be a problem except this phone doesn’t need any voice training to use — it automatically recognizes all the names in your Contacts.  Just press and hold the button, say the name, it speaks it back to you to confirm, then dials.  To prevent this, keypad lock must still be used.
2. “The flip-style protects my screen and buttons.”
   Uh, it still has buttons on the outside; buttons mainly get worn by usage and are generally well protected in a cloth pocket.  Also, this phone still has a (nice) screen on the outside.  Additionally, my screen on my non-flip phone has never been scratched in my pocket — only when I dropped it on cement.  Plus I can easily replace the screen (well, the plastic the covers the screen which was the only scratched part) by buying a new face plate.

The only other pet-peeve of mine about this phone (which is not Nokia’s fault) is that T-Mobile branded versions have disabled setting mp3 and aac files as ringtones.  This is a feature that has been available on their lower end Nokia phones for a long time (like the 6101) that they decided to disable for this phone.  That made my girlfriend mad since all the ringtones I created for her will no longer work, and ringtones included with downloadable themes will not activate.  The phone reports the error “Activation Key Required”.  I take this to mean, “You h7ck0rz!  You didn’t buy this from T-Zones!  Bad!”.

This is an example of poorly implemented DRM — I can understand not letting you transfer (COPY) ringtones you purchased to other phones (w/o removing the source)… but an mp3 file clearly marked as “Copyright: None” in the phone’s own file info display?  An mp3 file that I created on my own and own the copyright to?  I don’t think so.

Luckily:

1. iUnlock.com, who I highly recommend to anybody who wants their phone flashed or unlocked, supports debranding and upgrading the firmware ont his phone to remove the T-Mobile customizations and re-enable these features.
2. .WAV files can be set as ringtones still…. so until we get prepared to be w/o her phone for a few days, she can at least have uncompressed files as her ringtones.

The cost of buying the phone from T-Mobile (with a contract renewal) plus the price of iUnlock.com’s services are still less than buying the “non-branded” version of the phone directly, so at least its acceptable.

So, in summary, I’d recommend this phone (unbranded) to anybody who wants a Series-40 flip phone with adequate media playing capabilities.  Its nice and thin, smaller than the RAZR (excluding thickness), much more intuitive to use than the RAZR, and actually makes you look sexy (if you’re female) (the RAZR just makes you look like a marketing department’s wet dream).

While on a recent shopping trip at Fry’s in Wilsonville - not Seattle - I decided to purchase a Creative Zen Vision:m.

Unlike the Seattle Fry’s, the Wilsonville store had _every_ media player device in working order.  It was great to actually use a product side by side - or at least near by to compare.  I was able to compare the Zen Vision:m, Zune, and iPod Video.

The screen clarity, resolution, and brightness of the Zen (or ZVM as it is also known) was far better than the iPod.  By the looks of the security devices that Fry’s uses, both the ZVM and iPod have been out on display for a while.  However, the ZVM showed the least wear and scratches on the screen/body.  The ZVM seems to have a more impact resistance because the body is a softer plastic.

The ZVM’s response time was a little slower than the iPod – you can feel the internal 2.5 in HD spinning up when switching between ‘Pictures’ and ‘Music.’  However, the controls are much better than the iPod’s circular touch pad.  Creative limits its touch pad to a simple up/down.  This is far easier to use in mobile situations.  With my iPod, I have to make a playlist before I leave a stationary position, because I can’t seem to use the iPod’s touch pad when I’m moving.

It’s interesting to note that the ZVM and the iPod use the same fine pitch 30 pin connector.  Ok, well not completely.  The signals and voltages are very different and there are two slots that are narrower on the ZVM connector versus the iPod connector.

It’s pretty easy to file down the slots to make them fit however.  The other option is to order the correct connector.

JAE makes the connector and Mouser seems to sell the PCB male and female versions.

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