Introduction: GAINER V1.0.0

About: An associate professor, currently teaching interaction design and prototyping at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS). Previously he worked for a major digital musical instrument company a…

GAINER is a reconfigurable I/O module for education. GAINER environment consists of a hardware I/O module, a firmware for the module, software libraries for Max/MSP and Processing and optional hardware modules (called "bridge"). For details, refer to the following URL: http://gainer.cc/

Step 1: Check Components

The BOM (bill of materials) list is available at http://gainer.sourceforge.net/gainer_v1-0-0_bom.pdf

If you purchased all components, please check to make sure before starting to assemble.

Step 2: Mount Resistors

At first, bend leads of each resistor to fit holes of the PCB (printed circuit board). Then insert leads of a resistor into holes near by resistor icon named R1 or R2, then bend the leads again to stabilize. When you are done inserting all resistors, solder each lead one by one, then cut extra portion of each lead.

Step 3: Mount Ceramic Capacitors

Once you have monted all resistors, let's mount ceramic capacitors. C1, C2, C4 and C5 are all ceramic capacitors. Please note that C2 has a different capacitance (0.01uF, marked as 103) than other capacitors (0.1uF, marked as 104).

Step 4: Mount LEDs

Before mounting LEDs, let's check polarity. Place the longer lead of a LED on the left side, then insert the LED into the PCB facing the same direction. The LEDs must be inserted in the correct direction.

Step 5: Mount an IC Socket

Insert an IC socket into the PCB. Before soldering all the leads, solder two opposite corner leads to
fasten the socket as shown in the second picture. Once you have checked the IC socket is fixed by the two leads, solder other leads. Then mount an electrolytic capacitor (C3).

Step 6: Mount a USB Socket

Mount a USB socket as shown in the picture. For the four small holes, please be careful not to bridge leads. For the two large holes, please put enough solder paste to make sure the socket is fastened on to the PCB.

Step 7: Mount Single Row Header Pins

To mount single row header pins, I strongly recommend you to use a breadboard to fix the pins in proper angle. As is the case with the IC socket, solder two pins first, then solder other pins.