Mintyboost v3 bare PCB available?

[ifrpilot999]

Good morning -- I took recent stock and seem to have everything needed to build a couple Mintyboost units. I have sample chips coming from Linear. I don't see the bare Mintyboost v3 PCB available for sale on the website. Any chance it can be made available?

BTW -- Love the MB, I made one for my niece and am now dealing with requests for more.

You guys rock. Thanks.

Dave.

[adafruit_support_bill]

We don't have the boards available separately at this time. However, the full Eagle files for DIY are available here: https://github.com/adafruit/Mintyboost

[ifrpilot999]

Thanks. A great excuse to make my own boards!

Dave.

[ifrpilot999]

One more thing -- in the extreme interest of not violating Adafruit intel property or creative common stuff...if I use your Eagle files to make my own MintyBoost boards, is there anything I should do to them? Like change the silkscreen to "OleBoost" or something? (Last name is of Norwegian origin). I intend to do this to learn Eagle and PCB fabrication, but I don't want to step on anyone's toes.

Thanks.

Dave.

[adafruit]

We suggest changing the name so you know its the ones you made, OleBoost sounds good

[burpees_NH]

I used to buy the MB bare PCBs before they were discontinued..kinda miss the bare PCB selection from a few years ago.

Ifrpilot999 - just upload the MintyBoost BRD file to Lain's Dorkbot PDX.. OSH Park. It'll cost you $5 for 3 boards. Alternatively someone here uploaded a SMT version of the minty circuit, even smaller and cheaper.

[ifrpilot999]

I did send the Eagle files to OSHPark! I took the opportunity to do the Eagle tutorial, customzed the boards and OleBoost was born. I soldered on the parts and everything worked first time! Total cost for 3 boards was $4.55. Great learning opportunity.

[burpees_NH]

http://oshpark.com/ (formerly known as "Dorkbot PDX") is where we went.

Basically the ONLY thing you need to do is create an account, and upload the PCB board files. OSH Park is not only the cheapest option for small-board prototypes, but the boards are also fantastic quality, and have the fastest turnaround usually.

I used to pay $5 each here for the official MintyBoost v3.. I bought 6 or 7 in total. Since they're no longer stocked in the Adafruit store, I don't feel bad ordering them from OSH Park, and it comes out to $1.50 per PCB (qty 3).

A few weeks ago I submitted few other open hardware projects I want to build, and have already built them. I also included this SMD inspired charger circuit, which will be my next build (need some parts).

The whole OSH park thing is very easy and low-cost, which encourages you to modify someone else's board to improve it (once I build this SMD charger I'm going to make a new version with a on/off switch onboard, as the v3 circuit does drain power some even when it's not being used).

[ifrpilot999]

Scottinnh pretty much nailed it. Here are a couple pics of my version of MB v3. Very easy as now you can upload the Eagle .brd file and OSHPark takes it from there. I ordered enough parts to make 5 "OleBoost" units from Digikey for less than $30, shipping included. I got 2 free samples of the LT1302CN8-5 boost converter from Linear. I also ordered more from them and while their shipping is not cheap, it was not too bad when ordering more than a couple IC's.

[ifrpilot999]

Slightly off subject, but here is a LiPoly MintyBoost I put together using the Adafruit LiPoly charger, 2700 mAh LiPoly battery and 2 wire voltmeter. I added the switch to be able to turn off the voltmeter. It works well and the voltmeter serves to give a relative indication of how much is left in the LiPoly battery. At 3.2 V it is dead and the battery protection circuit disconnects it. At 4.1 volts, the battery is fully charged and the LiPoly charger stops charging it.

http://flic.kr/p/cD3pa9

Dave.