Eagle files for a MeanPenguin MySensors PCB

[Rek]

Ill take a few of those if you are ordering extra :) Looks good.

[meanpenugin]

@Rek Send me your address on chat and if the board tests ok, I'll send a couple your way..

[bjornhallberg]

@meanpenugin Have you received the boards yet, did they work as expected?

Any thoughts on a new version? Would you consider replacing the AMS1117 with some other solution? I mean seeing as we don't really have a good boost available. Or is it perhaps better to keep it as is and plug in a boost circuit when we have it?

I agree that you could save a great deal of space by hanging the nrf24 over some other components. But I will leave those details to the experts.

Eeprom?

Really like the protoarea. It seems SMD friendly.

[meanpenugin]

@bjornhallberg just got the boards yesterday... A few cuts using the stanley knife and .. snap - I have two boards.. Hope to fire it up this weekend... Open to any and all suggestions..

I guess the goal of this board is really for non-battery usage. There are lots of boards focusing on the battery version.. But we can see if this board can be utilized to support the battery as well....

I have a question out to @Bandra to see how his board with the radio installed over the Arduio is functioning. If there are no negative effects, I may change mine to that layout...

So this board can be Fed Unregulated V+, or 5V regulated, or 3v3 regulated.

If supplying unregulated, install a regulator (5v or 3v3)
If supplying 5v regulated or installed a 5v regulatore, install a 3v3 regulator for the radio
If supplying 3v3 regulated use the board without any regulators

The AMS1117 is to use when the supply voltage is 5V or a 5v Regulator is installed - the AMS1117 is used to generate the 3v3 needed for the Radio. Can check if the LE33A in the store is pin compatible and use it instead on the board. Is this what you are suggesting?

The EEPROM is interesting - At this point, haven't thought of it. Is the big need so it can be used in OTA programming?

The Protoarea are not SMD pads, they are holes. But, it's possible to change them (Option 2 board if there is a lot of interest)

[bjornhallberg]

@meanpenugin Yeah, your board is pretty versatile. No one is stopping people like myself from plugging in a regulator, like the one that will be officially available soon. I meant a regulator that is not in the store, like the tps61097a or whatever (which is still possible to solder without reflow or anything like that.) Preferably one that is cheaper and requires no more components (2xcapacitors, 1xinductor) We had a bunch of them listed in a thread, months ago. I failed miserably at prototyping those myself but I might have more luck when someone more clever has set a pcb to follow.

No expert on the eeprom, sorry, don't know what we've decided on basically.

I'm not really proficient reading Eagle sketches, it looked like the protoarea had sort of elongated solder pads around the holes. I thought it was some sort of all-in-one solution to be able to fit both smd and throughhole. Regardless, a protoarea is a great idea for making the board a bit more flexible and future-proof. Doesn't have to be smd. I have a bunch of adapters.

[lunarok]

For easier reading and understanding, can you list all the parts needed with your PCB ? like headers, capacitors, resistances ...
Thanks :)

[kalle]

@meanpenugin
Wow, great work and exact for what I'm looking for.
Does the board working well?
It would be great if you can share the files or is it possible to order/buy some of the pcb-boards?

Kalle

[meanpenugin]

@kalle

V1 of the board had problems. V2 boards just shipped out of HK and should be here within a week or two...
I'll start updating info with the changes in the mean time as it has changed a little bit.

Happy to provide you with the files needed to get them ordered.
Just want to wait to test the boards before I post them...
If you rather not wait, I can give you the Eagle files so you can verify and send the order in to get them produced.
I can send a couple of boards for you to test before getting a lot of them produced as well..

Edward

[NotYetRated]

Interested to see how things go with this, have been looking for something similar. Currently, I am not very interested in battery powering, as most other boards seem to have a focus on. Mostly just interested in temp/humidity/presense/ir for now. Let me know if I can do anything to help!

Also, what is the size of this guy?

[kalle]

@meanpenugin

Thanks Edward, I can wait and maybe I will ask you later for some boards.

Really great work!

Kalle

[Nicola Reina]

absolutely great! waiting for your files to be piblished to, finally, start building!

[meanpenugin]

The board tested good.

I have some small changes I would make for the next version but this board is good enough to start building...

The files are attached in the first post.
You you make enhancements, please share your enhancements so everyone else can benefit.

Thanks
Edward

[kalle]

Hi Edward, big thanks for your work - great job.

[bjornhallberg]

So, I ordered a test batch from DirtyPCBs (Protopack ±10). We'll see how it goes. I felt that their dirty fab needed more of a challenge so I added some completely useless silkscreen graphic to the back and rounded the corners of the pcb. Very interested to see how they react (I guess they love it when people submit silkscreen that covers pads etc) and how the board turns out. I did see in a couple of reviews that their alignment of silkscreen and mask in particular can be a bit off. No big deal I suppose.

Thanks again for your design work.

[NotYetRated]

Just ordered some boards. Look forward to tinkering! Thanks!

[bjornhallberg]

I just wanted to post some pictures of the boards I got two weeks ago. 12 boards all in all from DirtyPCBs. Sure took its time. Processing time was under a week I think, but shipping was characteristically slow. The silk screen turned out a bit wonky since I exported too many layers (duh!) and it is a bit fuzzy in other places but other than that the boards seem fine. Since it was my first ever order of PCBs I took the liberty to add a big silk screen on the back and round the corners, just to test them out. Clearly not an issue for this fab at least.

The boards are 1.2mm btw. Their standard thickness. But a bit thinner than the "usual" PCB. I like it though. Unless there is a reason to go with thicker boards?

[RJ_Make]

I like it!

[griffinsaic]

How would I go about acquiring some of these?

[gizmox]

Hello and congrats for your great work.

I was looking at your eagle files and i was wondering...
Is there a reason you chose not to use arduino's RAW input which already has a built in voltage regulator and went with 7805 voltage regulator + capacitors?

The reason i'm asking this is is because i always use a 4-1 senor (temp, hum, motion and LED dimmer) which requires 12v input so 12v dcc is a must have with this kind of setup.

[shabba]

How do I order these? I went to http://imall.iteadstudio.com/open-pcb/pcb-prototyping/im120418002.html but not sure what I need to fill in. Any aliexpress/ebay links to the headers/other components?