Members of the BITX20 IO Group have set up real time chat pages in Discord and Slack for you to discuss your BITx20, BITx40 and uBITx experiences and ask questions.
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Reference
IRF510 mod for mounting alternate FETs
Raj VU2ZAP made this 4 way female Dupont socket for mounting either the stock IRF510 or Mitsubishi parts such as the RD16HHF1 or RD15HHF1 in the finals circuit of his BITx40. You must first desolder and remove the stock IRF510. An extra hole is drilled in the circuit board to the left of the three existing holes for the stock IRF510 . The new pin hole to the left of the regular 3 holes is wired to the gate pin of the IRF510.
By reversing the RD16HHF1 orientation, and inserting in the left-most 3 pins of the socket, the device now substitutes for the IRF510. But you can re-insert the IRF510 at any time by unplugging the MOSFET.
Raj’s parting comment is that “you will need to think of a heat sink plate that fits this way!”
Reference
A nice looking aluminium enclosure
And another aluminium case suggested by wishbone_aaa:
https://www.circuitspecialists.com/metal-instrument-enclosure-la-6.html
Jim Sheldon, W0EB says:
“I’ve got one on backorder for my third uBITX. The uBITX should ship pretty soon, so I hope the case backorder doesn’t take too long. I’ve used the smaller versions of this case on other projects and it’s really nice to work with, but the aluminum front and back panels are really soft aluminium. Be careful drilling holes and cutting out the LCD window.”
Reference
Arduino Nano Lights
John Backo answers the question: “What are those lights on the nano anyway? And do I need them?”
There are usually 4 LEDs on the nano. They are usually in a row and labeled “RX TX PWR L”.
The RX and TX lights are connected to the lines that connect both the USB interface and the ATMega628P. They connect to TX0 and RX0. They are very useful as their flashing shows that communication is taking place during an upload. Likewise, if RX flashes once and then not again during an upload, there is a communications problem. Usually they are red and green; some may be orange. Messing with them will probably mess up RX0 and TX0. It is best to leave them alone. They are always out (low) with no serial communication to the chip. If they stay on, something is wrong…
PWR refers to a direct connection to the voltage regulated 5v line. It is NOT connected to the input voltage, whatever that may be. It is an indication that the board has power either from Vin or USB. That is all it does. It is usually red though I have seen many orange lights. It is useful, but it could be eliminated, I guess.
L is connected to D13. It is a good light and should not be disconnected. If the ATMega has a bootloader (which it should in a nano) this will flash three times when the reset button is pushed and released. That is not guaranteed because earlier versions of the bootloader did not show themselves through D13. And if the ubiquitous Blink program is loaded, it will falsh D13. That alone makes it a good light to retain. It is your “diagnostic visual indicator”.