Any assembly tips?
 

hey fellas,

i'm planning on staring the megasquirt assembly this saturday. i ordered everything per Brain's guide. i've read through damn near everything. i printed out the megamanual. but since i have zero experience assembling electronics, i figured i'd beg for tips.

suggestions on material? (type of solder, wire gauge for jumpers, etc.)
things to avoid?
things you would have done differently, if you had to do it again?

thanks. also, please pray that it doesn't look like a big poopy pile of solder when i am done.

pre-wire the harness for VTPS and launch control.

Get some other simple electrical circuits and practice soldering before you build the MS. Also, read up on it. If you don't know what you're doing, it will take a while to catch on. But if your read up and learn the theory and get the general idea of what to do, how to do it, etc, then when you get started and something goes wrong, you'll know what to do to correct it vs. struggling to figure it out, fucking sensitive pieces up, and things of that nature.

Got a link for that? ....i don't see it in the faq

ill update the wire diagrams. are you doing a standalone or boomslang?

Standalone

Advice from a noob who assembled a MS:

Pay super fucking close attention to the instructions and every detail. You do NOT want to have to de-solder anything. However, just in case you happen to solder something on backwards or solder something on that you didn't want/need => Make sure you have some desoldering braid.

I cant remember what thickness of solder I used but its very thin. You dont need much at all. Less is more on most of the components you'll be soldering...you wont believe how tiny some of the things are that you'll have to solder.

Brain's component map is great. He removed everything you dont need to install for the most part. You may end up a little confused when following the megamanual when you get to a point that says you must "make a decision". For most of these, compare the possible decisions with brain's component map and you'll see which direction you need to go. You'll know what I mean when you get there.

Keep your tip clean (thats what she said) and use the least amount of flux humanly possible. Most of the components do not need flux to attach them. If you can avoid using flux on the DB37 and DB9 connectors (which you can) do so. Excess flux will piss you off when you get some moisture in there and it starts shoring shit out and your squirt starts acting weird. It is near impossible to clean flux from under those connectors fyi.

I could go on for days with tips. You'll find that this project is actually a lot of fun but I find that the minute I start getting frustrated with something, i start screwing things up. So with that in mind, do only each night what you feel like doing then pick it up the next day where you left off. Mark the last step you completed so you dont get confused if you take a week long break.

Good luck!

+1 on following Brain's map. i ran into some questions on what ways the build was to go and the guys here pointed this simple trick out. plan ahead when it comes to your mods. i had a hell of a time trying to de-solder a capacitor (3 leads and tiny).

when in doubt, post up here or email DIY. both have been a great help.

we can chat when you pick up the adapter sunday.