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Week 4: Electronics Design

Here is an outline I drew of how KiCAD PCB design works:

I chose KiCAD since it's open source and I've seen EE hobbyists on hall use it before.

OH Hopping

I visited every OH at MIT this time, getting tidbits of knowledge at every one. Including that you can directly just use an FTDI cable if the previous week's board was unsuccessful. One important thing to keep in mind is to play to the different lab section's strengths. The architechture section lacks a bit in the electronics understanding, but people in other sections may be able to help.

Decided to create an ESP32 in hopes to learn more about it for my final project, since I would like wifi and/or bluetooth capabilities.
ALSO! You CAN drag and keep the connections in KiCad while making schematics by using "g" for grab.

Relevant Files:
trace.png | holes.png | outline.png |

You have to be careful as some of the ESP32 pins should not be used.

I drew out traces in hopes to keep the possibility of soldering wires to them open.

12 hour lab day12 hour lab day12 hour lab day12 hour lab day12 hour lab day

Why 3 hours a day spread across the week cannot be procrastinated and crammed. I basically hung out overnight with Elijah, powered by nothing but Monster Energy and an addiction to making. I am still wired as of noon the day after.
Suprisingly, I honestly did enjoy the insane focus and overnighter. It felt so invigorating. However I had so many problems, mainly with the old MDX-20 Milling Machine

Likely the board was unlevel, as the traces did not cut all the way through

The MDX-20 acted up and CUT? ON? TOP? OF? ITSELF? It's like it forgot it was in the middle of a cut and restarted in a different orienation???

I had so many faulty boards, with a variety of different failure points!

Hail the SRM-20

It worked perfectly on its first try
*facepalms*

I borrowed a mini hotplate from a hallmate of mine, Praj, for the ESP32. Praj is my go-to for any EE or buildy related questions. This time, he showed me a really cool method of using solder paste that he used for his last ProjX project making a synthesizer.

I got right to stuffing, as all the failed boards gave adequate time to find all the components

All the waiting time also let me researc how to use this hotplate. It was really cool and speedy.

Daylight

It is quite disorienting to see people start coming in early morning.
With time and the Monster Energy running low, I quickly set up the programming. Previously, during the downtime with the failed board traces, I got my first board to be a programmer. It was easy since the lab computer had everything set up already. Surpsingly, it just worked.

It sucessfully got edbg to give the SAMD11 a bootloader

Luckier than I deserve

Surpsingly, it just worked. I used my programmer to link the new ESP32 board to USB, and uploaded Neil's echo code to it.

Seemed to work as the new board's power LED lit up