Sunday, September 6, 2015

Board is done and it works!

Ok.  It's done, and it works, but I had to do some jumpering to make it work.  I originally designed the board with 2 I2C buses, but with the Teensy I had to step back a bit, and not use the 2nd I2C bus.  Turns out the I2C bus library that supports 2 I2C buses, is not compatible with the Adafruit libraries for the IMU.

This just means one I2C bus with all of the I2C traffic control from Codesys and my custom driver profile (actually 2).

I had to mount a riser to the IMU so that it cleared the Pi ribbon, and the DAC adapter did indeed turn out to be horrendous.  But it works, which for a prototype board is good.  I didn't even have to cut traces, which to me is a win.

There are are a lot of milestones I met with this board.

  1. Board layout software (Eagle 6.6.0) worked well, and generated good Gerber files.
  2. OSHPark did a phenomenal  job on making the board.  I can't say enough good things about them.
  3. The design worked.  Yes, I forgot some missing jumpers, but the design is now proven to work.
  4. Through hole is still king for me right now for ease.  That single SSOP16 to DIP adapter for the DAC  has proven the most work.  I know I should have checked, but I would ASS U ME, that the nice, wonderful, super cheap adapter you bought, isn't screwed up right? **cough Sparkfun**.   I will avoid SMT until I get my reflow oven built, and get setup for it.
  5. My several parts I made were perfect, and I am very happy with the overall look and layout of the board.
  6. I last designed a board using Ultiboard in 2002.  Ultiboard and Ultirouter cost $10000, and getting a board made cost between $1000 tooling and setup and $50-$100 each per board.  Now I use Eagle at $200, and it cost me $95 for 3 boards.
Brand new PCBs from OSHPark

Assembled Board running.

FAIL SSOP to DIP adapter fix


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