Lab #5: PCB Design With KiCAD (100 pts)

Designing a RGB Trinket PCB

For this lab, you have the choice of making a PCB design with “through hole” components

You will likely find useful to clone the ELEC327 reposistory from GitHub (if you have not done so yet). In the PCBs/ELEC327-Library subdirectory, there are KiCAD symbol and footprint libraries that you should add to your Symbols and Footprints libraries.

Your task is to design a PCB with KiCAD which includes the following parts from the ELEC327 library:

• A MSPS003F4 ([datasheet][mspm0c1104.pdf])
• Necessary RC filter for NRST pin
• Power decoupling capacitors
• A 2032 battery holder
• One tactile push button
• One common anode RGB LED, and 3 current limiting resistors
• One slide potentiometer
• One header for programming and debugging (2x5)
• One buzzer

Starter projects with all the parts can be found in two starter projects:

• If you want to use mainly 0805 surface mount parts Lab5_SMD.zip
• If you want to use larger 1210 surface mount and through hole parts Lab5_THT.zip
• If you want to use a rotational potentiometer Lab5_SMD_Smaller_Pot.zip

After you place your components and route traces, please put your initials or some other identifying mark on the board on either the top or bottom copper layer (since this is a barebones process, there is no silkscreen).{: style=”text-decoration:underline”}

When you’re finished, run the CAM job to create the necessary files for manufacturing. We will submit a panel of the class’s designs for manufacturing, and in a subsequent lab, you will assemble and test your PCBs. Thus, late submissions of this portion of the assignment will mean that you lose points not only for this lab but also a subsequent one!!!!

PCB Design Patterns and Anti-Patterns

A “Design Pattern” is an approach for a design task that will help you put small steps together into a full hole. When routing the traces on a PCB, straight lines, symmetry, and right angles are one possible pattern to follow. Note that this requires not just rotely following a rule - think about how you will make the routes while placing the components and deciding their rotation/orientation.

An “Anti-Design Pattern” is the opposite: rules of thumb that end up causing more problems than they solve. For the PCB example below, I imagine the student placing the components then thinking, “I will make the routes as straight as possible and introduce only minimal bends when necessary to avoid vias.” The result is a number of places where traces and vias are minimally separated, or parallel traces travel very closely (minimal separation) for a long distance. A piece of conductive junk ended up between two traces on this board, causing hours and hours of confused debugging.

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