ELM329 PCBS have arrived

Not really of interest to most people, but I'm excited about it so I figured I'd post about it. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had been goofing off in Eagle and sketched up a PCB for the ELM329 chip and the end result looking somewhat like this:

It would be a direct replacement PCB for the Generic ELM327 Clone boxes you find on ebay as shown in another previous post.

I had sent out for a batch of 10 PCBs and chose a Red Soldermask instead of the Blue depicted. Then, as I was waiting for these and being the eternal tinkerer, I kept playing with the schematic & layout and made another revision. It was a small change, but I wanted to get that board made too, so I send out to have 3 made through DorkBotPCB, which usually gives you a snazzy Dark-Purple with gold pads PCB. After I got that order in, I found that the Tantalum caps I was using (and were a few bucks EACH) could easily be replaced with an aluminum can cap that only costs 53 cents.. so Revision 1.3 followed soon after - and once again I ordered 3 boards of that revision. Of course incredible timing follows that I would receive all boards all at the same time!

All boards lined up - That's some groovy purple!

As you can see I have the 10 red revision 1.0 boards in the back,
then 3 revision 1.2 boards (yes I had an intermediate revision 1.1 I never had made), and in front the 3 latest revision 1.3 boards

I also ordered a Kapton SMD Stencil from OharaRP so I can try to bake these boards in a toaster oven instead of trying to hand solder all this tiny stuff.

The Silkscreen layer on all them is not the best since I did not really worry about Vias etc breaking up text (which it does XD ), since I would be doing the assembly most likely, but perhaps if I get to a revision 1.4 I'll tweak that a little bit too.

Original ELM327 Clone with the new PCB next to it

What's interesting is that this is the second clone I have of the generic ELM327s and the board is actually a bit different component wise than the first ( that one still has the SWCan mod in it).
Also if you have a keen eye you will spot something off.. The connecter for the USB on my board is actually smaller! Guess I'll have to redo the USB-Cables as well.. Apparently I used a standard 1.5mm pitch 4 pin connector, while the original board had a .1"/2.54mm pitch connector. Always something that goes wrong ;) At least it fits in the enclosure just right!

Fits just right!

Of course I have been looking at the new STN1170 chip which is looking pretty nice as well ( and cheaper than the ELM329) so perhaps a new batch will be a brand new design based on that chip instead. Meanwhile I have the actual board parts such as resistors, capacitors etc etc arriving tomorrow, so then I just need to get my hands on a toaster oven, and some time , which is usually the problem....