AIS Alarm - PCB Version 0.2 Tested

6 Mar 2018

Project Objective: Develop an open source AIS Alarm that alerts sailors that a new marine vessel with AIS is within range

Two boards have been populated and tested now and everything seems to be working. This update will cover thoughts on the PCB, faceplate design for the enclosure, and an update on the firmware.

I am satisfied with the PCB for the most part now but will decrease the drill hole size for the LED as the fit is a little loose. Three different buzzers were tested and while all were satisfactory the one with the highest pitch seemed the most annoying and so that is the one I will use.

Here is the design for the enclosure face plate:

I had an extra dAISy blank plate for the enclosure and made a prototype with my drill press to make sure the dimensions were correct. The plates will be fabricated by the PCB manufacturer.

The firmware features have now been tested individually but not completely integrated. My chosen process is to add features one at a time and test before moving on.

Next up:

Order faceplates, parts, and PCBs for a run of 10 or so boards
Continue work on firmware

Past Posts from this Project:

AIS Alarm

AIS Alarm - The Process

AIS Alarm - Prototype Hardware

AIS Alarm - Timers and GPIO

AIS Alarm - Prototype Code Outline

AIS Alarm - UART

AIS Alarm - First AIS Messages

AIS Alarm - First FRAM Storage

AIS Alarm - Debouncing Momentary Button Switches

AIS Alarm - FRAM Ring Buffer

AIS Alarm - Schematic

AIS Alarm - PCB Version 0.1

AIS Alarm - PCB Version 0.1 Arrived

AIS Alarm - PCB Version 0.2

AIS Alarm - PCB Version 0.2 Populated

References and Links:

WEGMATT LLC - dAISy AIS Receiver - low cost AIS receiver

Texas Instruments MSP430FR2xx FRAM Microcontrollers - Post No. 4

TI MSP430FR2111

Maximize the Sound from a Buzzer

Top Comments

shabaz over 7 years ago in reply to fmilburn

Hi Frank,

That's great to know, thank you for checking this out!
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fmilburn over 7 years ago in reply to shabaz

Hi shabaz,

I asked my friend who first showed me the PCB face plate trick if he had ever made them without a ground plane - he has experience with a commercial product that used them in largish quantity. He told me that most of his were also with a ground plane but that he had made them without and did not experience a problem with manufacturers. Similar to my experience, his faceplates also had a relatively small area.
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fmilburn over 7 years ago in reply to shabaz

Hi Shabaz,

The ones above have a copper plane below a black mask but I did do a design once that did not have copper on either side - it was with Elecrow if I remember correctly. However it was fairly small in size - 30 x 60 mm and was only 10 boards and they didn't complain.
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shabaz over 7 years ago in reply to fmilburn

Hi Frank,

I had a question, if you want an unshielded design (I want unshielded, for a particular use-case), are the board manufacturers ok with making front panels like that, with no copper pour on either sides?
I'm guessing it uses up a lot of chemicals during the etch process, I was just wondering if they complain about that or not. Are yours with copper plane underneath the black solder mask, or no copper?
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fmilburn over 7 years ago

Thanks! I cannot take credit for originating the PCB idea but have used it a couple of times now. The dimensional tolerances are good and different internal shapes are possible. This photo below is from an Ethernet connected microcontroller I put together a while back.
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