Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Your adapter board now needs some legs. This is pretty similar to soldering the legs for the LCD in Chapter 4.
There is only one small tip I have for you. To make sure your pins will fit well into a breadboard when you're done,
it's best to do the soldering while the pins are in a breadboard. Place your rows of pins into a spare breadboard, then
place the adapter board on to the pins. Once again it's wise to solder opposite corners first and then work inward. You
can see in Figure
8-6
where I have placed the pins in the breadboard but have not yet placed the adapter board on top.
Figure 8-6.
Legs ready to be soldered in
Try not to heat up the adapter board too much if you can avoid it. You could damage the board itself or you may
damage the RTC as well. Once you're done, remove the adapter and RTC from the breadboard. It's always a good idea
to remove any excess length from the legs from the top of the adapter board. Use a small set of side cutters for this.
Now the hard part is out of the way and you can make the battery PCB.
Making the Battery PCB
I told you that SMT was not as hard as you thought. Because the battery is so big, I have opted to put it on a separate
PCB. You may want to look at smaller holders if you wanted to make this a permanent addition. I don't want to waste
an entire PCB on this, nor do I have the need to make a custom PCB.
1.
With this in mind, find a small PCB and place your battery holder on it.
2.
Once you're happy with the layout, grab a small cutter knife and score the tracks around
the sides of the battery holder. Don't do this on the copper side.
3.
Remove the battery holder and score the tracks a little more. You don't need to cut all the
way though with the cutter: good luck!
4.
There a few methods to cutting PCBs. You may want to use a Dremel if you have access to
one, but watch out for the dust from cutting the PCB; it's not healthy and in fact is highly
toxic. If you don't have access to a Dremel you may want to try a small hacksaw. Failing
that, a set of scissors works well, especially if they are the type made to cut up chicken
bones or crabs.
