POF 01 Foam base construction

• POF 01 Foam base construction
• Purpose
• Goal
• What You'll Need
• Soldering the Plugs
• Putting It All Together
• What's Next

Purpose

Constructing a base made of foam board / foam core (see Wikipedia), which can be used for projects described on this website.

Goal

To end up with the following construction:

What You'll Need

• 1 x JeeNode (plain or USB) - used to get the plug positions right
• 1 x foam board - A5-sized (148 x 210 mm)
• 2 x Jee Plugs - http://jeelabs.org/jp1
• 4 x 6-pin male header pins - http://jeelabs.org/ph1
• 4 x 6-pin female header sockets - http://jeelabs.org/ph1
• 1 x battery holder - http://jeelabs.org/bh1
• 4 x rubber feet
• some experience with soldering - patience also helps!

All the materials listed above can often easily be obtained locally. Some ideas:

• You can get a larger piece of foam board and cut it down to size or even replace it with a piece of sturdy cardboard, if you prefer the JeePlugs can be replaced by a small piece of perf-board with copper islands.
• The 6-pin male and female headers can be broken off longer strips the battery holder is optional, 3x AA or 3x AAA will probably work best.
• With rechargeable NiMh/NiCd cells, you could also use 4xAA or 4x AAA with appropriate charging precautions you could also use a LiPo battery.
• The rubber feet are optional :)

Soldering the Plugs

Soldering the plugs has to be done fairly accurately, so that everything will line up properly later on.

The first step is to solder on the female headers. I usually use a third hand to hold the board, and then attach each female header using just one connector:

By soldering one pin in the middle, I find it easier to adjust the position so it is really flat and aligned with the board. Then I prepare a JeeNode to hold everything in the right place:

Once in place, all the pins can be soldered on - be careful about putting plugs on in the correct holes, because these headers are almost impossible to remove once multiple pins have been soldered on:

That's 48 pins in total for a pair of plugs! Here's the result:

Putting It All Together

Two ways to do it: double-sided tape or hot-glue. The double-sided tape has to be the thick type, not the one used to stick photos on cardboard, because the back of the plugs is slightly irregular with all the pins and solder connections sticking out. Thick tape will fill up the unevenness.

To attach the plugs on the board in the right place, mark the center of the board by drawing a cross where the two diagonals meet, and leave the plugs on the JeeNode to keep them in their proper relative distance and position. Then add the tape or hot glue and place the whole construction upside-down on the foam, the center of the board. Once the glue cools down remove the JeeNode - leaving just the two plugs behind:

Then attach the four little rubber feet on the bottom to stabilize the board and avoid scratches during use:

If you want to add a battery pack, you can attach it using velcro, double-side tape, or again... hot glue. Placing the battery in the top-left or bottom-right corner leaves most flexibility for expansion plugs.

See the first image on this page for the foam base I ended up with.

What's Next

That's it. You're ready to set up any of the Projects On Foam listed on this website, or better still: create your own project!

You are welcome to add your own "Project On Foam" page to this wiki - just email me at jcw with the username you'd like to use (that's just an anti-spam measure). Keep in mind that setting up a page can be useful even while your project is still work-in-progress - who knows, someone else might come up with some really good suggestions for it...