8. Electronics Production
For this week the assignment was to make and test a microcontroller board.
I chose to create the STM32 because it was faster than the arduino that I purchased.
I included a 24 page Word doc that I talk out aot of the details and processes on
creating the STM32 microcontroller boards in Kicad version 6
Here is a help file that I wrote that also details my journey and methods
that I used to create an STM32 microcontroller pcb. Some parts are very
detailed and the combined total of approx. 23 pages would have been too long
for this page. So I figured the doc file would be the easiest solution
Gallery
Below are my shots of the week
Here are pics of the schematic, 3d render of the pcb, and screenshot of the pcb editor
I wasn't able to use this microcontroller board when I worked on it. I got stuck on the final
stage of development. I was stalled out by not being more versed in Kicad. Although I have learned
more each week, at the time the board was needed I didn't have the skill to overcome the obstaceles
such as footprints & components not showing up. Then there were differnt versions of the files for
different versions of Kicad. In addition to this I could not figure out how to place a ground layer
to finish a seperate microcontroller board design. By the time I had alot figured out, there was so
much time passed, and it was time to move on to other weeks. As a result I was left using an Arduino
Uno R3 board that I purchased from a kit on Amazon. I have been switching between this Arduino Uno R3
and an Rp2040 Xaio. If I get enough time I will attempt to finish devboard that I was designing for
the Xaio. I ran into this issue 3 times working on microcontroller boards, some of it was overthinking
and some was just not knowing enough, soon enough.