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This is a page to keep track of our PCB revisions, document design changes, and receive feedback.

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  •  Remove extra regulator circuit (Kevin's), source smaller crystals, make all resistors and LEDs 0603
  •  Fix trace lengths for crystals
  •  Reverse voltage protection? Decided not to implement on controller as the 12V connector will be on carrier board
  •  Fix all footprints to match the Hardware Style Guide Rules & Guidelines - Still in progress
  •  Replace board info silkscreen as directed in the Hardware Style Guide Rules & Guidelines - Incomplete, will do for next rev
  •  Connector changes:
    •  Combine SWD and UART headers (we may be able to hack the programmers to also be UART to USB adapters) or replace them with prototyping headers - Used 6 pin SMT 0.1" header
    •  Replace 12V connector with test points - Decided not to use test points as the regulator has already been tested (decoupling caps can be used as test points)
    •  Replace mezzanine connector with 0.8mm pitch equivalent to increase lifespan and verify mating height - 0.5mm pitch connectors need to be tested first, then consider this if necessary
    •  Change all connector part numbers to vertical connectors
    •  put male side of mezzanine on controller board
    •  Add guide holes for mezzanine footprint
    •  Signal connectors switched to Duraclik
    •  Silkscreen pinout for connectors
  •  Reduce induced ripple on 12V rail - Test with different input caps
  •  Improve ripple behavior on 3.3V rail - Will test with different output caps
  •  Calibrate regulator to 3.3V (currently at 3.36V) - Shouldn't be a big issue
  •  Get stencils
  •  Lower blue LED brightness (spec an LED ), raise green LED brightness

...

  • QFN is almost impossible to rework
  • Need test points for everything, not just 1 for 3.3v - needed to scrape solder mask off to power the board
  • Do silkscreen properly for diode, not have a tidy label in between pads
  • Label as many things as we can with silkscreen
  • We don't need to make everything as small as possible, it just needs to be reasonably sized.
  • Consider larger resistances for LEDs, don't need them to be bright
  • All components should have a 3D model for clearance
  • Replace debug header with 0.05" Cortex-M standard
  • CAN connectors should have the same pinout
  • CAN has no direction so the silkscreen makes no sense
  • MCU probably doesn't need every single alternate function, just things we'll actually use - the nets are probably a good level of verbosity.
  • Lacks input protection → TVS, polyfuse etc.
  • Probe the clock lines to check for performance
  • Separate analog and digital grounds → performance has not yet been tested and will be hard to quantify without testing firmware
  • Optimize regulator for better ripple performance
    • 3V3 line has voltage ripple of about 60mV with 3mA draw from 12V upstream port (current was not measured at 3V3)
    • 12mV of ripple is injected into the 12V lab supply line when 3V3 regulator is on
    • More low ESR ceramic input caps of different values may reduce injected ripple into 12V line
    • See evaluation module for ideas - seems to have 20mV ripple with reference design
  • Current power approach
    • Reduce noise so analog components can be run off of the controller board regulator - inspiration
    • Use LDO fed from 3.3V rail for components requiring even less noise (unknown if necessary - none of our circuits should be that sensitive)

Revision 3  

Retrospective

  • Used reflow oven + stencils - turned out very well once we created a stencil jig with spare boards and tape!
    • Stencil jig is essential - need to deposit the correct amount of solder paste, especially with 
  • Ripple is better, not as great as we hoped - ripple greatly reduces at loads > 100mA
    • 89mV peak-to-peak variation at light loads vs. 29mV at 100mA in ADC testing - ELEC-
  • LED brightness is good
  • Might want to switch debug UART to USART3/4 - USART1/2 seem to have more features

Revision 4  

Design Changes

  •  Remove some of the output filtering on the 3v3 regulator
  •  Add 3V LDO for analog components - shared ground should be fine
  •  Move test points a little farther away from the mezzanine?

Revision 5  

Design Decisions

  • Replaced EOL regulator with RECOM Power E-series DC-DC
  • Replaced horizontal DuraCliks with vertical variants to allow for more flexibility in carrier boards
  • Removed 32kHz crystal under the assumption that we would never use the RTC or CRS

Retrospective

  • Regulator + diode works well, VCC is around 3.18V
  • The resistor array was a little difficult to solder by hand, but overall the board didn't take too long even without hot air
  • Need to check ripple on 12V, VCC, and VDDA.

Revision 6  

Design Change

  • HSE is connected to the wrong pins (turns out it's been that way since before Rev 4) 
  • PCB layout was modified to fit the CAN connectors next to each other

Retrospective

  • HSE is now functional on OSC_IN and OSC_OUT
  • Using hot air to reflow the CAN connector side made it a lot easier, although it's easy to overheat the duraclik connectors so it may be easier to do those by hand later
  • Reflow can be used to solder the RECOM DC-DC module on, doing it by hand led to poor connections on one of the boards (now fixed) 
  • 12V, VDD, VDDA should be characterized
  • MCU's built-in ADC needs to be characterized
  • Resistor array for the debug LEDs should be on the top side (if possible) to avoid soldering
  • Power supply has a very larger footprint
  • Decoupling capacitors for the crystal are not selected based on the recommended equation