SDI-12 USB adapter Apr 2022 revision is out

So the new revision is finally out! The processor is so small it took me extra time to make sure it’s in the right spot. The pitch between the small processor’s pads is 0.45mm or 0.018 inches so I can’t miss by half of that, usually 1/4 of the pitch, thus 0.0044 inches of tolerance, so less than 5 mils. The following shows how small the processor is. Overall it is 4mm (0.16 inches) wide (see E).

Another change is the protection diode. To deal with constant shortage of various parts, I’ve added a surface-mount diode of the same type near the top right terminal block, the little black box. This way if I run out of the big orange diode I can use the surface mount ones. The two diodes are literally the same, just packaged differently, same for the processors. I have about a dozen or less of the current revision (Oct 2021) and will start making the new revisions since I literally will run out of both Oct 2021 revision boards and processors this week. I will have plenty of the new revision boards, enough for this year and maybe even part of next year!

Here is a close-up: