The semiconductor shortage has curtailed the choices available to designers and caused some inventive solutions to be found, but the one used by [djzc] is probably the most inventive we’ve yet seen. The footprint trap, when a board is designed for one footprint but shortages mean the part is only available in another, has caught out many an engineer this year. In this case an FTDI chip had been designed with a PCB footprint for a QFN package when the only chip to be found was a QFP from a breakout board.

For those unfamiliar with semiconductor packaging, a QFN and QFP share a very similar epoxy package, but the QFN has its pins on the underside flush with the epoxy and the QFP has them splayed out sideways. A QFP is relatively straightforward to hand-solder so it’s likely we’ll have seen more of them than QFNs on these pages.

There is no chance for a QFP to be soldered directly to a QFN footprint, so what’s to be done? The solution is an extremely inventive one, a two-PCB sandwich bridging the two. A lower PCB is made of thick material and mirrors the QFN footprint above the level of the surrounding components, while the upper one has the QFN on its lower side and a QFP on its upper. When they are joined together they form an inverted top-hat structure with a QFN footprint below and a QFP footprint on top. Difficult to solder in place, but the result is a QFP footprint to which the chip can be attached. We like it, it’s much more elegant than elite dead-bug soldering!

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Chip on board on board on board pic.twitter.com/kZRFne3xjz

— dzjc (@dzjc2) September 24, 2021

jkiv designed a variety of Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4) carrier boards designed with specific applications in mind.

The designs are shared on GitHub along with a “template” boards from which application-specific boards can be quickly derived:

jkiv/cm4-carriers

The judges’ ballots are in and we’re proud to present the ten winners of the fourth round of the 2021 Hackaday Prize. We love robots, and it’s obvious that you do too!  The number and range of projects submitted this year were overwhelming.

No robotics round is complete without a robot arm, and while a few of them were in the finals, we especially liked CM6, which really pulled out all the stops. This is research-grade robotics on a not-quite-student budget, featuring custom compliant mechanisms so that it can play well with its fleshy companions.

With six degrees of freedom, and six motors, the drivetrain budget can quickly get out of hand on builds like these, so we’re especially happy to see custom, open, brushless-motor driver boards used to reduce the cost of admission. Even if you’re not going to make a 100% faithful CM6 clone, you’ll learn a lot just from going through the build. Oh, and did we mention it has a software stack?

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The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) is looking for 4 new people to join the board of directors. The nominee form is for self-nominations only. Please fill out the nominee form (deactivated 11:59PM ET on Oct. 12) to become a nominee or forward the link to someone you want to nominate.

The purpose of the form is to tell voting members why the nominee wants to serve on the OSHWA board. OSHWA will publish the nominees and their answers on Oct 14th. Board members hold a 2-year position. Board responsibilities include fundraising, promoting OSHWA, advising on goals and direction, and carry out compliance with the organizations purposes and bylaws. Board members must follow the Code of Conduct. Please see the OSHWA board member agreement to get a sense of the responsibilities. Board members are expected to spend 5-10 hours of time per month on OSHWA. Nominees can submit questions to [email protected]. Nominations will be open until Oct. 12th.

Member voting will take place October 19th to 26th according to the election policy.

Want to vote in the election?  Become an OSHWA member!

Connect a Raspberry Pi to a 300 MHz gate opener with this design from FlyingSaucrDude Productions:

Open Your Gate From Anywhere!

This little gadget allows you to connect a 300 MHz, 10 dip-switch remote gate opener to a Raspberry Pi so that you can open a gate with just a few lines of code.

It connects directly to an off-the-shelf gate opener remote (sold separately, unless you choose the “Controller + Gate Opener” option) and uses a 5V relay for triggering the gate opener remote and a voltage conversion circuit for powering the gate opener remote (replacing the remote’s battery). It requires only 5V power, ground, and a single GPIO pin from your Raspberry Pi.

“The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) is looking for a Community Coordinator to connect OSHWA with the Open Hardware Community. This position works directly with the community and our Executive Director to expand and communicate OSHWA’s initiatives, partners, and visibility. The position is a part time contractor at approximately 5-10 hours per week. The pay is $20/hour. OSHWA pays travel expenses related to the Open Hardware Summit, our annual community event.”

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