Submitted by Tim K (not verified) on Mon, 04/07/2008 - 09:16.
I'm currently building one of these inside a usb connector although I dont have any AVR parts yet and they seem really hard to get hold of in the UK. I took a scalpel to the outer plastic down one of the seams and cut off the strain relief part so the metal shell slid out. It then opens like a shield can with two little clips and I yanked out all the cables. As it happens, the white plastic piece left perfectly accepts the copper wire from 5A (I think) twin and earth mains cable to form the pins.
I've soldered the cap on the ground pin and the 2k between pin 1 and 2, and added two surface mount 68 ohm resistors to the usb pins. They seem to hold perfectly in place. I've then added kynar wire between the cap and vcc. My intention is to solder the avr upside down with its legs facing the pins (90 degrees from how you have it) and tack 4 lengths of kynar on to the pins to connect it up. I can then fill it with hot melt glue and replace the other half of the shield . I may even solder the shield closed.
I'm considering an interesting programming option though - potentially I could connect one programming pin to the shield. This is floating in a usb socket but it seems all actual usb ports connect it to ground. Thus on the programming board, the shield could be wired up to program with. That leaves one pin to deal with that I'm considering could be a small screw eye from a diy store with a bit of heatshrink covering it and glued in place of the usb cable. That would effectively give a keyring holder and the final programming point :-)
USA 
Canada 
I'm currently building one
I'm currently building one of these inside a usb connector although I dont have any AVR parts yet and they seem really hard to get hold of in the UK. I took a scalpel to the outer plastic down one of the seams and cut off the strain relief part so the metal shell slid out. It then opens like a shield can with two little clips and I yanked out all the cables. As it happens, the white plastic piece left perfectly accepts the copper wire from 5A (I think) twin and earth mains cable to form the pins.
I've soldered the cap on the ground pin and the 2k between pin 1 and 2, and added two surface mount 68 ohm resistors to the usb pins. They seem to hold perfectly in place. I've then added kynar wire between the cap and vcc. My intention is to solder the avr upside down with its legs facing the pins (90 degrees from how you have it) and tack 4 lengths of kynar on to the pins to connect it up. I can then fill it with hot melt glue and replace the other half of the shield . I may even solder the shield closed.
I'm considering an interesting programming option though - potentially I could connect one programming pin to the shield. This is floating in a usb socket but it seems all actual usb ports connect it to ground. Thus on the programming board, the shield could be wired up to program with. That leaves one pin to deal with that I'm considering could be a small screw eye from a diy store with a bit of heatshrink covering it and glued in place of the usb cable. That would effectively give a keyring holder and the final programming point :-)