REV 1 PCB ORDER: As planned from the previous week’s status update, I completed the Rev 1 PCB layout this week and placed an order to have it fabricated. This consumed the majority of my time.
After some negotiation with PCB fabs, I elected to switch from PCBWAY to JLCPCB because of the high cost ($200) and lead time (>25 days) offered by PCBWAY in comparison to JLCPCB (< $50 and ~ 1 week). The significant trade-off was that JLCPCB only stocks a subset of the components we need, so I will have to do additional hand assembly at TechSpark later in the semester. Even including this hurdle, JLCPCB still compares favorably to PCBWAY.
With help from Sam, I also placed a Digikey order for all of the on-chip and off-chip components that will be needed to fabricate Rev 1. Our target remains to receive the board during the week of 3/22/2021.
The final board layout is shown below. Overall dimensions are 2.6″ by 3.8″.
DESIGN REVIEW PRESENTATION: I delivered the design review presentation on the behalf of our group. I created an updated hardware block diagram (shown below) to represent our revised hardware flow, and worked with Sam and Xingran to fairly present the items which they are working on. I received overall positive feedback. The one item of concern was the risk associated with our PCB and integration. However, I believe that we have responsibly mitigated this risk through our accelerated Rev 1 schedule and the time it leaves for integration in late March – early May.
During the coming week, I will take the lead on preparing our design report as my teammates focus on other technical areas of the project, while also beginning the mechanical design, as planned in our master schedule.