PCBs

This page is meant to be something of an exhibition of the various PCBs I have developed.

GS Power Distribution Board

The above board was developed with a NASA contractor. It is primarily a power distribution board used in a complex project that has recently been presented to both NASA directors and the US Space Force second in command.

HVAC Controller

These three boards were developed in support of my senior design project in college. They ultimately make up a residential HVAC controller. They include, but are not limited to, RS485 Coms, Ethernet, SD card, switching power supplies, linear power supplies, photovoltaic relays, AC power switching, TFT display support, temperature, humidity, and pressure sensors, USB, I2C, SPI, and user buttons. Oh and I hand soldered multiple copies of each of these.

"BLB"

There isn't a whole lot I can say about this board other than that it was contracted by an outside company with a NSF grant and drives a large grid of LEDs. To the left is the Altium rendering where it becomes clear that most of the right side of the board is actually flexible. Below is a fully rigid copy of the PCB for validation.

"BLB" - Test Board

This board was made so that the LEDs chosen for the project above could be validated on a much less costly scale before ordering the boards above.

Robotics Hat for Ras Pi

This board was developed shortly after I began learning to design as something of an experiment. Some things worked, some things didn't, but it was a worthwhile learning experience. This board featured 4 motor drivers, an IMU, Switching regulators, servo drivers, user buttons, and user LEDs.

Valve Controller

This board is designed to be a small portion of a larger project being developed in my research lab as contracted by NASA for the purpose of being sent to the ISS. Upon examining my RGB V2.1 boards (shown below), the project manager realized that a similar board would solve the problem they were having in needing five high current, low side switches to control valves. The connectors were chosen based on the mating connectors elsewhere in the project. The board utilizes photovoltaic relays for the switches; chosen primarily because of their current capabilities and their usage elsewhere in the project. The board is pictured below in the project chassis, not yet wired into the system.

"DSTR" CC3200 Robotics Hat

This board was developed to support a robotics platform used at Texas A&M. It featured a dual motor driver and two switching regulators.

RGB LED Controller v1.0

This board was made basically for fun and uses three NPN channels to control common anode RGB LEDs with low side switching. This was designed to be controlled via digital logic and used screw terminals for most connection points.

RGB LED Controller V2.0

This board is electrically identical to v1.0 but is made to be more self contained. After showing v1.0 to my research lab coordinator, he asked me to design v2.0 for students to build in our summer workshops. One change was the inclusion of the four pin header. This is where a through hole common anode RGB LED, which we sourced from Adafruit, is soldered. The five pin header is where a micro USB breakout board is attached so that students can power the device from a laptop. The color changes can be controlled using shunts to the 5V bus or by using digital logic from a separate microcontroller.

RGB LED Controller V2.1

This board is electrically identical to v2.0 except for one very important difference: the inclusion of R5. Because of the timing at which parts for this board and the board itself were ordered, it was not until fully populating a V2.0 that I discovered that the red LED was overpowering and required a second series resistor. To prove this, I cut a trace on V2.0, added R5, and discovered it worked fine. With V2.1 created, my lab ordered 100 kits worth of them to be used in summer workshops and even one of our courses starting Fall 2018. The larger picture below shows a V2.1 populated by a late middle school-aged summer workshop student. Here they are powering from USB and using all three shunts to create a white light.

September 2018 update: This board was offered to our 219 (sophomore level course), Digital Electronics, course as optional for soldering practice and a way to test later labs and nearly every single student (170 of them) opted to purchase one. So, this board is now a notable part of that curriculum.

PWM Generator

This is a board I have yet to have manufactured but wanted to include anyway. The board is meant to hold an ATTiny 85 microcontroller and has a mode switch to either drive the above RGB boards in a color swirl, or output a variable PWM. The duty cycle could be varied by a potentiometer. This board was designed for demonstrative purposes.

Transmission Lines, Impedance Matching Networks

This board was made for an RF class with three partners. The board includes a 50 Ohm matching network, A 200 Ohm Load Quarter Wave matching network, a set of parallel 50 Ohm matching lines, and a short stub 200 Ohm load matching network. The characteristic impedance of all networks was 50 Ohms.

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