Helperdeck build-assist program

[krilli]

Hi,
Helperdeck is a small open-source application to help in building amps. It shows you a window with the board you're building, and the component bags. You can click on the board and see what component fits where, and you can click in the bags to see where those components go on the board. The schematic is also displayed, and the correlation between schematic and board. Building is much faster as there is so much less hunting for parts or for parts' places on the board.

There's also a window with all the components in each stage of the official 41Hz assembly instructions.

(Plus in the latest betas there's a window that groups all the components by type - so all resistors under one heading, all caps in another, etc. - useful for an overview and to study the kit you're building.)

This is how the latest beta3.8 looks like with the Amp32 help open, running on Ubuntu Linux- click to zoom:


Helperdeck is in beta testing now. Build help for Amp32, Amp4, Amp6-BASIC, Amp9-BASIC, Amp11, Amp15-PS and PS4 is included. The program is free, open source, and an easy download. It should run on any OS. It's easy to add new kits.

Sscreenshot of amp selection on Windows:


To download, first you need to get Shoes, the toolkit I'm programming in. It's a simple, small download and install.
Get Shoes first, Mac / Win / Linux: http://shoes.heroku.com/downloads
Then download Helperdeck beta3.7: http://github.com/AnthonBerg/helperdeck/zipball/beta3.8

Install Shoes. Unzip Helperdeck. Then open the Shoes, select "Open App ..." and open helperdeck.rb

Some windows will open up - the board, the bags, build-stage lists, and some extra windows.

Try clicking on the component rectangles in the board windows - a component will light up in a bag window. It also goes vice versa: Click in a bag, and all board positions that take that part will light up. Also the build stage windows are pretty cool – they show you what components make up the different stages of the build, corresponding to the official assembly instructions.

Here's a link to a tutorial posted later in this thread: http://www.41hz.com/forums/showthrea...8925#post28925

Each build-help pack is created directly from the 41Hz PDF files (the BOM etc.). The data is in a very readable and editable format, and it's going to be easy to add almost any amp or soldering project to Helperdeck.

Finally, here's the Github source repository if you want to see or edit the source code: http://github.com/AnthonBerg/helperdeck

--

Update, June 21 2010:
The latest beta, 3.7, cleans the interface up a lot and adds a very special window. Plus more datapacks, for instance for the PS4.

Update, June 29 2010:
Beta3.8 adds some small fixes, nothing groundbreaking.

[krilli]

I'm making an easy-to-use and create datapack format. I'm building an Amp32 datapack ... The board scan pics turned out splendidly! Fun to look at.

[krilli]

Aahh ... I just wrote and checked in some code for the project - the first code in a long time now. Feels good to be back!

[V-bro]

NICE!

I still have to get that software up and running though, haven't managed to pick the fruits of your good work so far....

[krilli]

NICE!

I still have to get that software up and running though, haven't managed to pick the fruits of your good work so far....

Thanks!

However, ouch, I messed up the public code repository, and the public "release" is actually broken, so don't waste your time right now. I've got to get a good revision back up, which will probably just be the new code.

[krilli]

If you've got 10 minutes, this is the last good revision of the code: http://github.com/AnthonBerg/helperd...80dc68a6575b34

If you could try and see if it runs on your machine, V-Bro, that would be excellent. I think I fixed what was causing it to not even run on some machines.

[V-bro]

Hi, I shall try soon when I have some more time.... Thanks again for your efforts!

[teflondon]

This is fantastic work, mate.

[krilli]

Thanks guys!

I'm releasing a new beta!


Preview - click for bigger

The status right now that the initial Amp32 datapack is ready, and should be very useful to anyone building the Amp32 that doesn't know the bag contents and board positions by heart! (So I don't know how useful this is to V-Bro ... )

Also there have been some changes under the hood. Mostly that the datapack file format is ready, so creating new datapacks for other amps should be pretty easy.

Here is the Helperdeck program, beta 2, direct .zip download: http://github.com/AnthonBerg/helperd...7ff3bd1d70121d

Here is the Shoes programming toolkit you need to run it:
For Windows, download this: http://cloud.github.com/downloads/sh...es-0.r1134.exe
For Intel macs, get this: http://cloud.github.com/downloads/sh...oes/shoes2.dmg

It would be SUPER cool if you could give this a quick test spin. The downloads are not too big, and it should run well on different machines - but testing would be great!

[krilli]

New beta-2.1 ready!

The Amp32 datapack is now complete. This means that all board positions are live, all bags ... and now also the build order presented in the BOM! See screenshot:



I think I'll have to make a video to explain the benefits, but by all means check it out. I'm quite proud of Helperdeck now, even though it's a bit cluttered.