This week’s post is relatively short, as I spent most of the time doing the actual routing, so nothing much to talk about here! However, I will highlight some of the concepts and considerations that are important while routing. First let me say that all the board connections have been Read more
Last week after finishing the schematics I started with assigning and creating the components footprints. This was the first thing I finished this week, though it took some time to finish them. Afterwards, I started with placing the components on the board. Placing Components First things first; our board is Read more
Now for real, the circuit is finished, and I have started with assigning and creating the footprints for the components. There are no one major updates this week, but rather a lot of changes and modifications to the schematics. As usual, here is the visual diff for this week. Additions Read more
I continues working on the schematics this week. By now, almost all the major components in the circuit are connected. Last week I connected the Ethernet jack, SD card, and some of the microcontroller connections. This week I did the connections for the USB port power pins, FPGA I/O ports, Read more
In our PCB, we have an FPGA, and PIC18 microcontroller. It is our intention to share one oscillator between the two ICs, hence reducing the cost, and sparing the PCB precious area. This post will discuss the problems that might occur, and what configuration we are using. Problems can occur Read more
In the first two weeks of the project I was reading and trying to grasp the basics of PCB design and KiCAD. This week I put this knowledge into action and finally started with creating the schematics for the project. The board we are designing contains an FPGA (spartan-6), PIC18 Read more
Resuming from last week, I continued working on the PCB design for our product. Last week I talked about my experience with learning the basics of designing PCB layout. The first half of this week I studied Xilinx’s PCB design guide for the FPGA, while I focused on creating the Read more
Have you ever been thrown into the middle of ocean, and you don’t even know how to swim? Well, I have lived this experience, both literally and figuratively. This week it was the latter! But let me assure you, it felt exactly the same both times. Therefore, I am writing Read more
In my final week, we wrap up with the PCB design of the product prototype and retrace & document the work completed in my nine weeks at Aeste. For one last time, click here to skip to the conclusion. Routing Completion The design of the circuit board is complete. Last Read more
Work on designing the PCB layout continues in earnest. We encounter a few software issues relating to the hardware of the task, which prompt some worried thoughts. As always, here’s a look back at the previous week. Click here to skip to the conclusion. Pin Assignments During design it became Read more