Digispark first impressions

[Chris-Mouse]

My Digispark boards that I have been waiting for arrived while I was at work thursday, just in tome for me to have an impromptu long weekend to play with them.Given that I was 4000+ orders down the list when you started shipping, I have to say you did an amazing job at filling what has to have been way more orders than you expected.

I downloaded the modified IDE, and installed the drivers, then wanted to compile and upload one of the examples. The computer side of thins went well until I tried to plug in the Digispark. there are some small burrs in the circuit board right at the end of the USB connector. The burrs are present on all five of my boards, and on two of them, the burrs were large enough that the board wouldn't fit into the USB connector on my computer. I fixed it in a few seconds with a file, but you may want to look at the manufacturing process to see if the burrs can be eliminated, or else moved to a location that won't interfere with the USB connector.

The first computer I set up the software on is running Windows 7. That install went perfectly. I then tried to install the software on a computer running Windows XP. Running the driver installer appears to work perfectly, but when I plugged in the Digispark, the driver installer wizard popped up looking for drivers for the new device, even though windows did correctly identify the board as a Digispark board. Using the wizard to browse to the directory where the driver installer was located installed the drivers again. After that, everything worked properly.

Next up on my ToDo list is assembling the various shields, and seeing what I can do with those.

[Bluebie]

I think Erik is making the USB connector a bit longer in the next version, so burrs will be less of a problem then even if they persist, I imagine.

[Chris-Mouse]

The burrs were right at the tip of the USB connector, projecting out sideways from the corner at the tip. This made the tip just a bit too wide to enter the USB socket. The length of the connector isn't an issue to me.
I think the issue is with how the boards are made in panels for production, with one panel holding many Digistump boards linked together. After the etching and silkscreening etc is complete, most of the outline of the board is cut with a router to shape the board, with a couple of areas left intact to hold everything together.  All the components are soldered to the boards while they are still attached to the panel. The last step is to cut the boards  free from the panel with a shear.  From what I can see, the burrs lo
ok like they are found at the point where the seperation shear meets the end of the router cut. I suspect that simply extending the router cut a couple of millimeters further past the shear lie would fix this issue.

[Bluebie]

Oh yeah I had those burrs as well. I guess they're a bit annoying.

[DeuxVis]

I had those too, which made it impossible to plug the digispark in most usb sockets.

I just filed them down a little and now my spark can get plugged smoothly.

[Mark]

I didn't have burs on any of my Model A.

I automatically filed the top, bottom, and edge to ensure they didn't scrape the sockets.

It makes them easier to insert and years of experience has taught me that eventually these things cause trouble.
So a minutes worth, saves in the long run.

That said its worth noting for the next release to round the corner very slightly, which will ensure that when the boards are cut it doesn't leave the burr on the sides.

Pretty good for a first manufacturing venture though.....

mark