The HamHUD II circuit board is a fairly simple construction project that can be assembled in about 1 hour. You will need a low wattage soldering iron, some thin solder, and diagonal cutters. You will need to have purchased all of the parts necessary for building your HamHUD, and should have them close at hand. All components are inserted into the side of the PCB with the white silk screened lettering, except for the 16 pin header for the LCD. You will need to bend the component leads to fit through the appropriate holes in the PCB, and then turn the board over and solder the leads to the pads on the back. Trim any excess leads off with the diagonal cutters after soldering each component.

Before you start building your HamHUD II, you will need to decide how you are going to mount your board in the case. There are many options available, as many as you can dream up. The physical placement of the LEDs, switches, buttons, and knobs will be determined by the end user. The demo board has been built with headers for each of the off board connections. This allows easy removal of the PCB from the enclosure should you need to work on the unit. Headers can be left off the PCB, and wires soldered directly from the external components to the PCB. How you build your HamHUD case is a decision that is totally up to you.

Below you will find a suggested order of assembly.

Bare Board
Install Resistors
Install Capacitors
Install Sockets
Install Headers
Install Active Components
Install LCD Header
Install Jumpers
Insert ICs

Dale's comments:

You may wish an electrical check before installing the active components, and again after the active components are installed.  You should have some means of limiting current just in case there is a short of the 12v traces and/or the 5v traces.  I use a current-limiting adjustable power supply.

A volt-ohm-milliamp meter is most essential at this stage.  If no excessive current draw, then procedure with active components.  With the regulator in place the current draw should be on the order of about 5ma.

Install the ICs and run another current check.  It should be about 25 to 30ma without a backlight.  With the backlight it should be anywhere from 25ma with the backlight setting (BRIGHT) at zero to about 125ma with BRIGHT set to Max (255).  Again this is going to be determined by the value of R8.  At 75 ohms and a Crystalfontz display,  it'll be about 125 to 130ma with full-on backlight.

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