It took quite a while until I had the first prototypes of dtv2ser+usb here on my desk… Now they are here: I got nine boards from PCB-Pool and they really look great:

Fortunately, I already ordered all essential parts for one board and started with soldering right now…

A quick look at the PCB showed me that one part does not match: the USB connector. I did a mistake and placed a type A USB connector on the board, but a type B connector was the one I intended to use… 🙁

Hmm, for now I stick to a type B one I have here and solder it with some wires, but for the other prototypes I’ll use a type A USB connector. First, I thought to use a type A plug, but a type A connector is more common… Then the board really will look like a USB stick 😉

All other parts have the correct placement and size and after finishing the soldering the first tests began. I hooked up the ISP and voilà the ATmega8 came to life and successfully received the bootloader firmware. Then the board was directly connected to my Mac and voilà again: It was registered as a new virtual serial port. Now the real dtv2ser firmware was transferred via the virtual serial port and the bootloader. Finally, I did run the dtv2sertrans testsuite with my DTV connected and everything passed without any errors. Phew! It seems that the PCB really works!!! 😀

On the left of the board is the DB-9 joystick connector for the DTV connection and on the right is the USB connection. On the front right you can see two LEDs (green, yellow) that show the serial traffic running through USB. On the back left you can see the three dtv2ser LEDs (green, yellow, red) for Ready, Transmit and Error.

The large pin header is for connecting the ISP to initially flash the ATmega8 and can be later on used to place the bootloader jumper and an optional reset button. The other pin header is used to determine the power supply of the board: either from ISP (for flashing) or via USB (normal operation).

I am currently waiting for my next part order from Reichelt. It contains the missing parts for this board and also five complete part sets for new boards.

Since I do not need nine boards, I am willing to give away the other boards to you for the price of the parts. I will prepare complete soldered boards and also empty ones if you want to order the parts yourself. Just drop me a mail or a PM on Forum 64 or PETSCII if you are interested…