These days I have been trying my luck with surface mount components and wanted to give it a try building some boards. Also by playing around with the ESP8266. A while back I built a interface board to use the module with the Arduino, so now I wanted to make an independent board for the module. It has been done over and over on the web. Yes I know, but I haven't done it.
I just put together a few components to give it a try. It consists of a usb to uart chip (CH340T) and an ESP8266 03 module. I blogged about how I wasn't able to work with the ESP8266-03 model but it has a few more IO exposed and I like the form factor. So I am giving it a go again.
I made two versions of the board, one using the CH340T and one using the PL2303HXD chip. Both chips do pretty much the same, just USB to serial. The price is a little different between them, but not by that much. The pcb was sent out to be made, when it gets back I will do my best mounting the components.
I will post again with the progress and if it worked or not.
This is the schematic.
In theory this will work, but time will tell. This is just a quick post about my new circuit, sorry for the lack of details. Feel free to comment on suggestions or follow for updates.
Here is how the oshpark rendering of the board looks like. (top and bottom)
This rendering may not be of much help, but they look nice.
The crystal footprint is way different than the rest of the board but is the part I have around. Also this specific board may have some clearance issues that I saw after placing the order. Time will tell once again if they affect or not.
This board is about 1 inch x 2 inches, to be made in oshpark is $10 for 3 boards and for testing this out I like that price. I need to know if my circuitry works.
Update:
Just attached the eagle files, for references.
Note:
All this is Public Domain you may use,copy, re-do, share or what ever you want without the need to inform anyone or attribute source. So it is free as in beer and without any warranty.
Update:
I received the boards from oshpark. Still have not done any testing at all. I still do not have all components on hand so populating the board will take some time.
Here is the picture of how the board looks like.
What's next?
1. Continuity check (test all vias)
2. Solder components (improvise for not available components)
3. Testing
4. Happy dance
5. Software development
Update:
Happy dance delayed. Soldered components however this is still a no go. Still on the debugging phase, guess it is a poor design in my part. More work need to be done to continue checking on what the situation is. For now, I am working in the communication from the serial uart to the wifi module.
I still do not consider this a fail. Is a lost battle that soon will be sorted out and remake. Next version will be improved and better. A version that actually works. Hardware iterations are way slower than software iterations. That is just the way it is.
This is my not working version.
What need to be done. Better power supply, this design is not the best. It can be better and cheaper and even easier to solder.
In the beginning I thought the chip was difficult to solder. It was really easy to do. The 0603 capacitors were a little more difficult because the tend to move if not careful (or if hand is shaking).