Hi again.

I'm finally back, having found and killed the problem that stopped me posting for the last few weeks. It was indeed a cache bug, due to Telewest having nearly as much ability in setting up their 'transparent' web proxy as a blind 15th century norwegian peasant with no hands, one eye, and a wooden appendix.

Anyway.

I have spent a couple of days doing the PCB for the tuner module, after a long and bloody struggle to decide on a suitable enclosure for the thing. I finally decided on this one, which is almost exactly the same width and length as the current tuner module, but about 60% deeper. The one pictured isn't the one I'll use, as it's a more expensive one made of polycarbonate. Since there is not likely to be a requirement to have a bulletproof tuner, I'll use an ABS one, which is about half the price.

This is a screen grab from the pcb package printer dialogue of the silkscreen and pads of the board set, which gives some idea of the complexity. As can be seen, it's quite simple, although due to the component size versus the board area the packing density is a little high. If you're interested, this is a screen grab from the artwork editor, showing the board layout in glorious technicolour.

There are two boards, which connect together in a vertical stack about 3/4 of an inch apart. The bottom board has the tuner itself on, with support circuitry, while the top board is the processor one, which contains everything else. Each board is about 2.25 x 2.8 inches in size, although the bottom board bulges a little to accomodate the tuner module.

It shouldn't take a competent solderist more than about 20-30 minutes to build the boards, assuming all the component leads are bent correctly beforehand. The bottom board is fixed into the box by four 20mm M3 mounting pillars screwed through the cornet holed, then the top board plugs in and is secured by 4 M3 screws into the tops of the pillars.

To save cost, the boxes won't be punched like the original ones, with neat cutouts for the connectors and so on. The antenna input and empeg lead will exit through grommets, which makes the drilling easier, and gives a free extension cable at the same time.

I have just sent the job files off the the PCB manufacturer, to have five boards made on a one-week turnaround. If all goes well, and I haven't flamingoed up, I should have a build and possibly even working unit in time to take to Holland next month. This depends, of course, on actually getting the sample tuner module, which is still apparently a week away, as it has been for a month.

Now, for some news that might interest various people: I have added value to the tuner!

There were some IO lines left on the PIC, and I hate wasting things... So the tuner can have (possibly optionally, have to think about it), a pair of 1.5A 12V mosfet-driven outputs and 4 12v compatible inputs. Also, it is possible to stack another board on top of the existing set, which can have another PIC on along with various I/O facilities. There is just room in the box, as far as I can work out, to allow the top board, which I haven't designed yet. Future project.

Now. On to another matter. Why the FECK do banks insist on using crap security websites that only work with either IE (the most insecure web browser in existence, a pox be upon all who wrote it), or old versions of Netscape, which are just unreliable in the extreme. Trying to manage my bank accounts with a browser that, when it crashes, screws the current session so thoroughly that the web server then locks my account so I have to phone the bank helpline (HA!) and have them unlock it is just a pain.

Oh well. Life's like that, then you wake up one morning dead. Bummer.

pca