Group Assignment:

  • Use the test equipment in your lab to observe the operation of a microcontroller circuit board

Individual Assignment:

  • Use an EDA tool to design a development board that uses parts from the inventory to interact and communicate with an embedded microcontroller
  • Extra credit: try another design workflow
  • Extra credit: simulate your design
  • Extra credit: design a case around your design

Group assignment

To perform this task, you must use the laboratory test equipment to observe the operation of a microcontroller circuit board.

To carry out this group task, I went to the laboratory of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the National University of the Center of Peru, the test equipment which is an oscilloscope was used to do some tests on the assembled circuit of the Xiao ESP 32 C3 microcontroller with the purpose of seeing in the instrument the signals it emits and its parameters such as frequency, period, amplitude and the type of signal that the design emits, this with the purpose of better understanding aspects of electronics.

Meeting with the working group

To carry out this task of electronic design with the Xiao RP 2040 microcontrollers and the XIAO ESP 32C3, the members of Fab Lab Peru previously met as a group with our instructor Ulises Gordillo, who gave us the information and guidelines necessary to make the electronic design with the Xiao microcontroller.

Using a test instrument

HANTEK Oscilloscope

The Hantek oscilloscope has 8 channels for performing various tests. It features over 80 types of diagnostic functions, and a video help function: it provides video help for diagnostics, which can be viewed online. Diagnostic results can be generated as a report, printed, or taken as screenshots with the touch of a button.

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Function Selection

  • On the home screen there are three diagnostic functions, oscilloscope and signal generator.

Operation

The first step is to turn on the oscilloscope and, by default, observe the functions of 08 channels. To perform the tests, we will deactivate 07 channels, leaving only channel 01 for testing on the XIAO ESP 32C3 microcontroller.

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Signal measurement

    On the screen connected to the Hantek oscilloscope, you can see the measurement of the output signal on the LED diode connected to pin D10 and GND of the XIAO ESP32C3 microcontroller.

Individual assignment

KiCad EDA Software

To carry out the individual assignment consisting of the electronic design using the Xiao ESP32 C3 microcontroller, in this case the KICad EDA software was used, for which it was downloaded by performing the following steps.

Installing KiCad EDA Software

Then proceed to install the KiCad EDA Software.

Creating project files

In this step we proceed to create the project file

New KiCad project

We created a new project

symbol library

We added a symbol library.

library of symbols downloaded

We added a library of symbols downloaded from Fab Xiao's repository

Xiao ESP32 C3 component

We locate the Xiao ESP32 C3 component in the symbol library

Schematic diagram of the Xiao ESP32 C3

  • Once the Xiao ESP32 C3 component is located, we transfer it to the schematic sheet.

Footprint Library

Next, the Fingerprint Library is added by going to the preferences window

Display of the symbol and footprint of the XIAO ESP32 C3 module

    This window displays the symbol and fingerprint of the XIAO ESP32 C3 module.

Pins and labels of the XIAO ESP32 C3 module

The schematic diagram shows the pins and labels of the XIAO ESP32 C3 module.

Preview of the schematic diagram of the XIAO ESP32 C3 module

Following the steps shows the progress of the schematic diagram of the XIAO ESP32 C3 module

In KiCad, enter the PCB Editor.

In KiCad, enter the PCB Editor displayed in the project window

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PCB Editor

In the PCB Editor, you update the data by using the Tools button and selecting Update PCB from Schematic.

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Design on the plate

PCB updated, you can see the layout on the board.

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Circuit design on the board

Now, we can see the circuit layout on the board. Some details during the process, such as the fact that the vias should not have sharp or 90° angles, are noted. It is recommended that the angles be open, or alternatively, triangulation can be performed at those angles to ensure proper current flow.

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3D viewer

The image is now displayed in the 3D viewer with all its components.

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Plate with 3D viewer

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