Author Topic: OTD 360c build log  (Read 1490 times)

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Offline Ball-o-tron

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OTD 360c build log
« on: Tue, 19 March 2024, 07:09:26 »


This board had been chilling on the shelf for a while now. I'd been going back and forth on whether I should build it since it's a bit of a shame ruining a kit.
I eventually decided that kit life is not for me, and rather than trying to trade I wanted to get the full build experience.





Sealed for 11 years



All the necessary components that didn't already come with the kit. The switches are 1989 west german vints from a Nixdorf 0942 keyboard.
They've been lightly lubed with 204 and spring-swapped to Gon 51.5 springs with TX films.



PCB has never been built, I had to flash the controller... somehow



I asked pr0ximity for information on how to flash the PCB since I saw some posts of his on Geekhack talking about it.
He provided me with some files for 456gt, which should be the same as those used on the 360c,
and said I would need to use an ISP AVR programmer in order to flash the chip.



I eventually ordered this thing, which is compatible with the atmega16 controller. You can see the controller sitting on top of the device here.
The alternative to this would be to solder the controller to the PCB, and then use some wires to flash it through ISP pads on the PCB.
It seemed a lot easier to flash it before soldering in case anything went wrong (not that I know how to actually test it before soldering)



The process was fairly easy after that. I had to download avrdude, then I could just run one of the .bat files in the folder,
which contained the necessary avrdude command. Hopefully the sck error isn't a huge deal :^)



Behold my top tier soldering setup



v2 taught me well




Doneski with the controller. Looks good enough to me



Lots of small SMDs I had no idea what to do with. Again I had to ask for some help with figuring out where to put them.



Working placement theory (thanks Martin). If anyone is in a similar situation, here is the layout:

- fatty yellow one goes on 10uf. this one is directional, so make sure the little square thing faces "north".
- tiny single unnumbered one goes on 0.1uf
- single 103 goes on 10k
- pair of 331 go on 470R
- pair of unnumbered ones go on 18pf



Some DIY memes to keep them in place while soldering.
They weigh nothing, so even moving the soldering iron while the solder is melted will move them around.



Ok could have gone better. Left it like this because re-doing them without hot air would be a huge pain.





The rest of these went well! I didn't want to overheat them so I went a bit too low on the temperature,
which lead to some solder mounds. Should work just fine though.



The first time I attached the cable it didn't work. I assumed that either the cable pins were wrong, or I ****ed up the components somehow.
I bought a multimeter and checked the wires on my cable - PS/2 cables apparently don't have a color standard for their internal wires,
so this was a necessary step. It turned out to have been correct the first time, but for some reason didn't work... not sure why.




I asked Martin how I could troubleshoot this and he said I could test if the controller was getting power by using the multimeter on two of its pins.
I attached the cable again not caring too much how it looked, but this time...




OTD Barcode Reader ready to go! I tweezer tested the pcb and it did indeed work like a keyboard.
Not going to question why it suddenly worked, and not going to touch the cable at this point :^) I will get a beige one eventually, for now this will do.



Time to solder the diodes.




Clipped and ready for switches! I plugged the PCB back in and tweezer tested some switches again to make sure it worked.


Looking good



Notice anything? :^)



Caps lock neutralized



Time for the part that made me not want to build it for way too long








Mandatory nudes







GMK Classic Retro Arabic. I wanted this set for it so bad and I can't say I'm disappointed.
This was also about the time I realized I forgot shims - that spacebar lived briefly as a demon.
Luckily it wasn't a big problem attaching them post-build!




Thanks for reading/watching! Hope it was fun, and hope any aspiring kit destroyers learned something. :)

Offline Rhienfo

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 19 March 2024, 07:52:25 »
Wow what a build, thanks for doing this build log it was a very nice read.

Offline LightningXI

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 19 March 2024, 08:30:40 »
Great kit build up. Especially enjoyed the portions elaborating on the electronics and programming since these are quite crucial for folks who would perhaps have to do the same in the future and often remains obfuscated.  Thanks for sharing.

Offline Auxo

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 19 March 2024, 18:42:48 »
Fantastic post. glad you were able to get this build log together
UNREALFORCE TKL | KMAC Happy | LSJ Ares | LZ CLS h | NIX Sofia | Noxary X60 | OTD 356 Mini | PFU Limited HHKB Pro 2 (Black) | PFU Limited HHKB Pro 2 Type-S | PFU Limited HHKB JP Type-S | SINGA x TGR Unikorn | TGR 60% | Weaston & nachie GSKT-00 |
QFR | MJ2 TKL | "Bulgogiboard" (Keycon 104) | MIRA SE | TGR Alice | Southpaw Fullsize (pending shipping) | Daily driver: TGR Alice
Collection: Salamander PC, Keycult No1(OG) Salamander TKL, M60A, THE60, Jane V2, LZ MP, LZ GH V2, KC 1/60, OTD 456GT. Kepler, Think 6.5 Brass, Think 6.5 PC, T60, The Raine, F77, E7-V1 SE
Topre Realforce 87U 55g | Corsair K70 w/ MX Browns | Unicomp Ultra Classic
Poker 2 | LZ CE | Leopold FC700R | KMAC 1.2 | EXE | GON NS87 | GON Nerd TKL | Duck Poker | Duck Orion | Realforce 87u 55g | OTD 456GT | LZ B7 | OTD 360C | Ducky G2 Pro | Apple Extended | Apple M0116 | Apple M0116 | Cherry G80-1220HAD | Duck Octagon | HHKB Pro 2 | Duck Unicorn | LZ B8 | LZ RE | ENVKX | OTD 456GT | LZ FE | HHKB Type S | TX1800| Duck Orion V2 | LZ FE | KPad | KMAC Happy | ENVKX | LZ RV | KMAC 2 | Whale | Dolphin | EM7 | TGR Jane | VE.A | DK Saver | Matrix 10xv1.0 | Whale | HHKB BT | Dolphin v2 | EM7 v2 | SSK | SSK (Blue Label) | LZ SQ | Duck Octagon v2 | TX84 | GON Mobik | TX-CP | LZ Ergo2 | KMAC Happy HHKB | TGR 910 | TGR Tris | Matrix 8xv1.2 | KMAC Mini | Mira | Fjell | 356mini | Dolphin GH | EM7 GH | TARO EXENT | Masterkey Pro L Crysta l OTD Koala | Duck Viper | Keycult no.1 | 356mini | 356pad | Matrix 8xv2.0 | 420cl | Matrix 8xv1.0 | Whale Special | Poly Dolphin | Keycult No.2 | FMJ80 | Singa R2 Quickfire Pro | TADA 68 | Novatouch | Whitefox | Octagon v1 | Blackbird | HHKB Pro 2 | KBD75 | VE.A | X60 | Canoe | HHKB Pro 1 | FJELL | Revo One | ALPS64 | Lightsaver v3 | IBM 5140 WKL | Realforce 87u | MIRA SE | Duck Poker | Canoe | Moon | Weaven | M65-A | EXENT | Wooden Planck | Tokyo60| Viper v1 | E6-v2 | IBM SSK | CA66 | TX-CP | SINGA | TGR Alice | FJELL R2 | Klippe | JER-A06 | GSKT-00 | M60-A | Realforce 84u | AL1 | Keycult No. 1 | SaiB-CP | G81-3077SAU | DC60 | Realforce 84ub | TMO50 | G80-1800 | Leaf 80 | LZ GH-v2 | T60 | LZ MP | KMAC Happy | TGR-910RE (Al) | TGR-910RE (PC) | SKB60 | UNIKORN | TGR Jane v2 | Xeno

Offline Sup

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #4 on: Sat, 23 March 2024, 15:45:27 »
Nice build, but those SMD could have been soldered way better. Try using tweezers makes it a breeze still takes good amount of time though.
current
Filco Zero -  NOS Yellow Alps | Canoe R1 Gateron Red | AEK II JP Cream dampend |Filco Majestouch 2 Tex case Gateron Yellow | HHKB Pro 1 2003 Rev AO Serial 000171 | HHKB Pro 1 2003 Rev A1s|DZ60 OG Panda's with Fei spring and stem. | Sentraq S65_Plus OG Invyr Panda's | A17 Gateron Black TX 65G 3204 | Lubrigrante Wildcard Cherry MX silent blacks 3204 58.5G Springs | Rukia Everglide Tourmaline Blue 58.5G Springs | MGA Standard Greetech brown |
Coming soon
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Offline Fraaaan

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #5 on: Sun, 24 March 2024, 15:48:22 »
Awesome build, thanks for sharing!

Offline Hinkerbottom

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #6 on: Sun, 24 March 2024, 17:53:28 »
excellent.

Offline warhopper

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 24 March 2024, 18:08:02 »
Love the build log, thank you for sharing!

Out of curiosity, why did the weight turn you off from building for so long. If anything would have turned me off on building one, it was those SMD components.

Offline involuntarysoul

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #8 on: Sun, 24 March 2024, 20:27:53 »
this is so good, we have it easy now with all the prebuild pcb available

Offline caap

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #9 on: Sun, 24 March 2024, 20:41:21 »
 :thumb:

Offline kustom3

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #10 on: Tue, 26 March 2024, 17:03:00 »
Lovely read, thanks for walking us through your process!

Online _rubik

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #11 on: Tue, 26 March 2024, 18:15:28 »
These boards have so much more character than the partially-soldered, hotswap modern PCBs. I have a feeling we'll see far fewer build logs of substance going forward now that everything is so streamlined plug-n-play.
ai03 Meridian ¤ Mech 27 ¤ E8.5 ¤ Brutal60 ¤ SSK White Label ¤ HHKB Pro JP ¤ vAEK68 Alps Blues ¤ RF87u

Online _rubik

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #12 on: Tue, 26 March 2024, 18:16:59 »
Nice build, but those SMD could have been soldered way better. Try using tweezers makes it a breeze still takes good amount of time though.

For my edification, what do you mean by "using tweezers". I still do what OP did -- pull the legs through, bend them over so they don't fall over, flip the board, and tack them in place.
ai03 Meridian ¤ Mech 27 ¤ E8.5 ¤ Brutal60 ¤ SSK White Label ¤ HHKB Pro JP ¤ vAEK68 Alps Blues ¤ RF87u

Offline azhdar

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Re: OTD 360c build log
« Reply #13 on: Wed, 27 March 2024, 20:48:02 »
Spent a good time reading this thread
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