Hi Guys. I'm new here so go easy eh!Inspired by THAT high altitude glider guy years ago Ive finally gone and designed a pcb.I didn't bother posting before I got the pcb's as I'm sure there are heaps of people with many many great ideas that never become reality for one reason or another & I didn't want to add to the list!The boards came back last week & with all the excitement I thought I would post on here & get ye guys to critique it!The board is 10cm by 4cm. I guess I could have made it smaller but I wanted to space things out in case I need to rewire/cut etc. I think(?) it should be small enough for a gliderIts a 4 layer board with some nice gold flash.Some of the components are from sparkfun; gyros & accelerometers. The rest are microchip & maxim stuff.It has a PIC18F8720. Should have gone bigger but I have ten samples already & I've used it before & have a nice compiler for it & the microchip ICD.2 Axis GyroCompass3 Axis AccelerometerGPSSerial portLevel shifter 3v/5vShort range wireless, 10metersSome ADC & DAC's5 Servo O/PsI put an expandable SPI port so I can put some cheapo boards on with some extras. I got some SD card carriers in the mail so Ill put one on I recon.I got the surface mount air-gun in the post yesterday so I'll start assembly tomorrow evening.What do ye think?I've tried to attach a picture but since this is my 1st post I don't know if it will come out ok.I've gotten a two friends on board; one has the long range comms sorted & is a massive inspiration, the other is a good programmer. Should be fun!Cheers,Vince.
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Hey Chris. The serial port was just chucked on the so I can interface to hyperlynx easily. No other reason really.
Two gyros onboard & i'll probably end up mounting one more vertically on the expansion port on the read of the pcb. I was hoping initially for testing to use the compass for simple heading info while the x/y gyros took care of the rest.
The short range wireless is for use during the preflight & ground testing where I can put the long range comms into shutdown to conserve battery. Least that's the initial idea anyway.
If you look at the large blank area on the pcb there will be a connector for the GHS soldered on there. I had two older GPS modules that I thought would be fine & since I payed for them years ago its somewhere to start.
Hi Nick,
I'm in Canberra.
I recon I'll probably end up making a bit of a stack of boards with an SPI interface running from board to board. It would be nice to have an SD card and a few other bits on there too.
Looking good, Vince! Can you explain some of your decisions, such as the use of the older style serial port, only two gyros, what you're doing with the short range wireless, and how the GPS connects?
Replies
Two gyros onboard & i'll probably end up mounting one more vertically on the expansion port on the read of the pcb. I was hoping initially for testing to use the compass for simple heading info while the x/y gyros took care of the rest.
The short range wireless is for use during the preflight & ground testing where I can put the long range comms into shutdown to conserve battery. Least that's the initial idea anyway.
If you look at the large blank area on the pcb there will be a connector for the GHS soldered on there. I had two older GPS modules that I thought would be fine & since I payed for them years ago its somewhere to start.
Hi Nick,
I'm in Canberra.
I recon I'll probably end up making a bit of a stack of boards with an SPI interface running from board to board. It would be nice to have an SD card and a few other bits on there too.
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