Board 1¶
PCB Construction¶
Designing¶
I started off by going through the Fab Academy page and I found resources for the ESP32-WROOM-32 on the embedded programming resources page. I used these images as a reference to start off my design.
The Schematic Editor¶
I opened KiCad, which you can learn more about here, and then started dragging my components onto my workspace.
| No. | Components | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Conn_PinHeader_FTDI_1x06_P2.54mm_Horizontal_SMD | 1 |
| 3 | ESP32-WROOM-32D | 1 |
| 4 | Regulator_Linear_ZLDO1117-3.3V-1A | 1 |
| 5 | Button_Omron_B3SN_6.0x6.0mm | 1 |
| 6 | 1uF capacitor | 2 |
| 7 | 10uF capacitor | 1 |
| 8 | Standard LED_1206 | 1 |
| 2 | 109 Ω resistor | 1 |
| 9 | 10k Ω resistor | 1 |
I followed the above images as a reference, and then added one LED and resistor (as my output device). After connecting the pins, this is what my schematic editor looked like.
You can access this file here
The PCB Editor¶
After confirming that all the components were properly connected, and that nothing was wrong, I moved onto editing the actual PCB footprints. I opened the PCB editor, and all my footprints were on the screen!
After confirming, I started connecting the components 😭 I spent about 20 minutes connecting everything, and this is how it came out.
You can access this file here
Mods CE¶
After exporting my design as SVG files, I opened Mods CE, and then formatted them. I already documented the basic process here, but here are the settings that I used.
You can access the RML files here and here
Milling¶
I used the monoFab SRM-20 to mill this design. I set the origin, and then I started milling.
The first trace cut was pretty rough in a few areas, and that meant that we didn’t set the copper base plate properly, but the middle area was smooth, so I moved my design there and then printed it successfully (or so I thought 😨).
When taking this picture of my PCB, I noticed that the ESP footprint looked really weird, and then I realized that everything has short-circuited. So I went back to my Mods CE page, and realized that my DPI was a bit too high. So I went online and found that the ideal DPI was 500. I fixed the DPI settings, and this is what the g-code looked like (no short circuits this time 😉)
You can access my new and improved file here¶
Soldering¶
I made a list of all the components that I needed, and then started to solder.
Testing¶
After soldering, I needed to make sure that all of the components were connected properly, and that the board works properly, so I tested it using a multimeter.
During this time, I realized that there was a short circuit somewhere on my board, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. After double checking everything, I decided to redo my board (with an input device this time). So I redid everything but with an additional LED, and this is how the board came out.
