Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

mcb1 — Sun, 15 Jul 2018 04:32:43 GMT

Looks like very acceptable quality given the timeframes and cost.

I tend to manually route everything on my pcbs.

Having said that I haven't done any for ages .. and they weren't that complex.

Hopefully your soldering goes well.

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

ntewinkel — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 22:44:41 GMT

It's so awesome watching the master at work!

It's really cool seeing your PCBs come together like that and evolving into actual physical boards. I'm looking forward to seeing the smd soldering results! I tried smd soldering once with a 50 cent kit from eBay and found it actually came together quite well (surprisingly, happily), although with VERY ugly solder joints hah! But it gives me courage to try this for an upcoming project (if I ever get the time to get back to that).

ps, I maybe read too fast - but what is the rounded black board for?

Cheers,

-Nico

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

shabaz — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 02:48:24 GMT

I'll probably write a separate blog post on the PCB assembly of the most important components, but here is the pasted CC2640R2F pad area..

Not perfect, but it should work hopefully.

[View:/resized-image/__size/1080x719/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-54f52c98-b52b-4332-8835-5dd72f99e7ba/contentimage_5F00_187670.jpg:1080:719]

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

shabaz — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 15:49:53 GMT

Guess I'm going to be soldering tonight! [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-54f52c98-b52b-4332-8835-5dd72f99e7ba/1882.contentimage_5F00_2516.png:16:16]

The PCBs arrived..

The quality is very acceptable for prototypes:

[View:/resized-image/__size/860x572/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-54f52c98-b52b-4332-8835-5dd72f99e7ba/0486.contentimage_5F00_187666.jpg:860:572]

The main thing I wanted to examine was how good the solder mask accuracy was, because that affects ease of soldering in the very fine pitch areas, i.e. the CC2640R2F pads area in this case. Here the mask can be seen to be only slightly offset from ideal. This is one of the things that differentiates a high-end production PCB to a low-cost prototype PCB, but it is definitely acceptable for this package size, considering how much cheaper the PCB was.

The component references are of acceptable quality too; not the best by far, but extremely acceptable for prototypes.

[View:/resized-image/__size/854x568/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-54f52c98-b52b-4332-8835-5dd72f99e7ba/7343.contentimage_5F00_187667.jpg:854:568]

Underside view:

[View:/resized-image/__size/851x566/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-54f52c98-b52b-4332-8835-5dd72f99e7ba/6747.contentimage_5F00_187668.jpg:851:566]

I felt extremely bad ordering a mix of components with less than an hour to go prior to the football game yesterday evening : ( but Farnell as usual delivered promptly today.

[View:/resized-image/__size/848x636/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-54f52c98-b52b-4332-8835-5dd72f99e7ba/2538.contentimage_5F00_187669.jpg:848:636]

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

shabaz — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 13:53:02 GMT

The shipped PCBs.. unfortunately the shipping dispatch information was incorrect so board manufacture was a bit longer than the 3 days and 22 hours I originally mentioned, but not by much. It is certainly still extremely fast, hopefully the boards arrive tomorrow, which would make it 10 days overall including delivery - very impressive from them.

[View:/resized-image/__size/1027x1020/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-54f52c98-b52b-4332-8835-5dd72f99e7ba/1488.contentimage_5F00_187665.jpg:1027:1020]

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

shabaz — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 04:13:03 GMT

I used Elecrow this time, and as a datapoint, I submitted the CAD files at their Monday early afternoon (i.e. 1pm for them) and they reported via e-mail that they dispatched the PCBs after just 3 days and 22 hours.. very impressive!

This was an order for three different PCB designs, quantity of 10 of each (one 4-layer design and two 2-layer designs in different colors so they would have had to use different processes).

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

aspork42 — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 18:50:59 GMT

Great update! What are you using to visualize the boards?

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

fmilburn — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 16:10:07 GMT

Very nice write up with some great tips. I find I need to wait a day or two and review a design before submitting it to fab also. On a few occasions I have a friend with experience who will look at my designs and comment. For someone new to PCB design that is a great help.

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

genebren — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 15:33:21 GMT

Shabaz,

The boards look great. You have a really skilled technique for PCB layout. Very nice!

Gene

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

thamizharasan — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 07:35:52 GMT

Very Nice Update.

A short video to view the experience, would be very helpful.

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

mcb1 — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 04:29:39 GMT

Holy smoke

It was meant to be a simple BT doorbell [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-54f52c98-b52b-4332-8835-5dd72f99e7ba/contentimage_5F00_938.png:16:16]

Nice update, good luck with the boards.

RE: Smart Doorbell System – Part 7 – Final Circuit Board Designs

jw0752 — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 04:04:04 GMT

Hi Shabaz,

Great fun to watch a master at work.

John