Just I built my K8098, and it works fine. But some problems arose:
1.) The wiring diagram is different from the actual wiring of the board.
2.) A note was contained in the Kit: “Important: mount C8 inverted for best results.”. In deed C8 is wrong in the wiring diagram, but the printing on the board is correct! Following the note, the capacitor will be wrong soldered! (Simple check: measure the voltage between the connections of C8 with + of the voltmeter to + of C8. It must show a positive voltage.)
3.) In the wiring diagram and on all pictures three extra parts are visible: X1, C12, C13. This parts are not contained in the kit without any notice. OK, the processor seems to use a built-in oscillator.
4.) A documentation and the source code of the program inside the processor is missing at all! Without this I have no chance to understand and to modify my self-built project.
Dear SUPPORT, please can you help me? 1.) Where I can find the actual wiring diagram? 4.) Where I can download the source code?
The kit works normally perfect, there a no “known problems”, the board revision can be different from the schematic diagram,
But the partlist is correct, you don’t need the schematic.
We never release any source code from programmed controller.
Sorry, for copyright reasons, we never release source code.
As for the capacitor issue, this has been solved in rev.2 of the PCB, so if you have this version, the cap. can be mounted as indicated.
How can I understand this? Velleman releases a project, delivers the parts and a guide how this are to be soldered together, but if the hobbyist using your kit likes to understand this project, then you say, for copyright reasons he is not allowed to see the full documentation? Doing some simple soldering practice and then having a black box in hands - is this your goal? Please can you explain this?
I have soldered many kits in my life, and all were completely documented. And if a controller was inside, of course the source code was allways available. Perhaps not included, but to download free using a supplied link. So, as I bought the Velleman kit, I trusted into that is the same also at yours.
Never with Velleman.
On one hand I can understand your point of view.
On the other hand: Velleman is a company which develops and sells kits. This is a professional company, not a group of hobbyists. So all the development and marketing should get payed by selling kits. If they do the development and everybody can copy their work freely, Velleman won’t live long.
Don’t forget that there are other brands of kits on the market too. If they (=direct competitors of Velleman) can assemble kits much cheaper (which is possible at very low quality, no I don’t give names), this means that Velleman does the work and invests the money in development but the other brand takes the gain. This is not a healthy and fair business situation.
If you always want the source code, you should try projects from Elektor but even then the source is not free: you need a payed subscription to this magazine to download the article and sources. Again: they do the work and development, someone has to pay them.
So I understand your problem but also Velleman’s point of view…
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