@Toma_Kuchta

TODO
I’m finally finished!
It was a journey. First of all KiCAD didn’t want to cooperate. It linked to the PCB in weird ways and the changes didn’t wanted to be brought from the schematic. I have managed to fix that through linking references to schematic. Also there were some incombabilities with my newer KiCAD version, but these were minor.

Then I put a lot of thought into making it 2ch because there are some things that can’t be powered by shared power rails and doesn’t need to be. Vcc got renamed to 3V3a to get it separated. 5V got 5Va and supply along with main caps got relocated into it’s own power subsheet.

After that I was able to nest the base schematic inside a sheet named chA and it worked! Duplicated it into Chb and it looked pretty good, but there were a couple of issues as sub sheets can’t be changed for each mastersheet so I’ve used more hierarchical labes and the power is on the main ch sheet.

And now we are getting to the PCB… I’ve used some tools that would duplicate layouts of the same sheets. So I’ve started searching for it and found out that Kicad has newly added support for it. And after a few tutorials the layout was duplicated.

The whole process was do something - it doesn’t make sense - find a better solution - itorate.

And volala we have a beautiful 2x ~2kW VESC controller!

PS: Sorry for not devlogging I’ve got way too locked in. :) Hopefully this long dev log compensates for it.

Observing the schematic.

This is a super necessery step to undestand all of the schematics that may come to play.
I have found cheap focer the first but after tinkering with it a bit I have found out that the designer have done some things in the schematic that aren’t too ideal. So I’ve scrapped it. (It was originally meant to go into hovercruiser)

After leaving it for like two weeks I’ve stumbled onto a much better looking project by craigg96 which has everything SMD and it’s still cheap and availible on LCSC. YAY And also the schematic is way nicer and it works decently well.

So after getting this solid base I went ahead and forked his repo and started getting familiar with it. One little quirk were the zones as I couldn’t see them - turns out it was hidden in one menu.

Allright so next up is.
TODO
work separate global power labels. VSS 3V3
create a higher level schematic that will nest CH a/b
duplicate the current layout
and reroute things

Oh neat extra forgotten hours. It’s probably from when I was doing something and didn’t devlog it.
sorry for this one. BC IDK what I was doing and don’t recal anything.

So this was pretty slow progress bc I’ve got way too stuck with the STM IC even thought a RAK module makes way more sense for my expertise.
So yeah I’ve pivoted to the rak 4631 module.

And after that I’ve started implementing some pheripherials.

PS I also took inspiration from my previous devboard project.

🐾
It’s looking like it’s finished! And I loooove the finished product!
So this devlog is purely just about shipping.
After completing it I’ve exported it using kicad pcb tools and threw it right onto the JLCPCB site to choose colors!
And after discussing with my brother white seemed the sleakest. Also I know that HASL with lead is the cheapest surface finish, but I didn’t want to give the kiddows lead poisoning.

Anyways super happy with this simple project.

It’s almost finished

After drafting up the back I’ve randomly scatered the components and it wasn’t looking all that exiting so I’ve thought about importing graphics
And it was a good idea, but like now there is so much going on in the back that it’s crazy.
Overall I love it so much!!! And can’t wait for the kidos in the club to have it in theirs hands.

Next up is panelization to get the cost down. And can’t forget about shipping.

So I’ve started making the ruler.
And got carried away a bit.
It’s turning out to be super coooooooooooooooooool.

The front side should be simple electronic components and I haven’t really thought about the bottom all that much but I think it should be more advanced and with quick reference table.

This one diferes from all of the other PCB rulers because this one should be a reference for begining collage students that doesn’t know all that much about electronics and this is like theire buddy that helps them with navigating in components, footprints and schematic symbols.

I’ve taken inspiration from my brothers ruler and the trace ruler.

Another session of blank stares into a datasheet.
First was the VBAT to 3V3 conversion, my first thought was the tps73020 because it’s super common in a lot of mesh builds. But even thought it’s alright it could be a bit smaller. We don’t need a stable 3V3 because the stm chip can do as low of 1.8V and 2.4V while vref and ADCs are active.
So I went with a buck topology that also has 100% duty.
UVLO is realized by a ti power management IC.
Gemini helped me a bunch with choosing the right components.

After that I need some kind of chager IC, it would be nice if the charger could also other chemistries, but I have only found one IC that would work great but that one wasn’t easily accessible on mouser so I’ve went with a LiIon only, which is fine for at least this devboard prototype.

And started work on the peripheral page.

Even thought I didn’t feel as productive I’ve done a lot of polishing of the project and added Fasteners to BOM, made technical drawings and exported everything needed for building to a folder.

The fasteners were pretty relaxing, because it was a pretty simple task and I had searched for in on a supplier site and then pasted over some random din number and other stuff.
After that I had reviewed the BOM and found out that i was missing the silicon cabling so I’ve asked gemini and it had a great idea of choosing a local model shop instead of aliexpress and it was cheaper and better quality! I wouldn’t have looked there otherwise but this time it worked out perfectly.
And while I was at it i have also checked of they have other parts and they had it and you wouldn’t have guessed it - it was actually also cheaper.

And after a lot of small tweaks, I felt like it’s all done!

So instead of shipping rn I had made technical drawings! It will help everyone get the scale of this project and help them with building it.

I’m super exited to actually start making it!!!!!!

Alright so I’ve brought this to the outpost hackathon, but on the way back it didn’t fit into my bag so I had to bring back just my parts without the 3d printed shell - which was fine because I wanted to make tweaks anyways and the gray color was awful but only for testing though.

Basically I’m finishing up! It’s actually turning out great. Oh the price it’s like $1500 but I’ve managed to slash it to something like $500 by using parts I already have at hand.

The CAD model is now completed and looks it should be final.
I had a lot of issues with containers in FreeCAD bc part mirrors are like eating up the base geomerty - I was able to overcome this by making copies of the base geometries, but I lost the colors though.

Next up is the wiring of the electronics. I’ve thought of using cheap FOCer ESCs because they are better and smoother but once price and second integration issues. So at the end I’ve opted in for the origianl ESCs with a standard RC reciever, it isn’t as clean and beutifull as with the VESCs but it should do.

BTW: edited the draft devlog, also how did it do so well bc it has like 45 views and 2 likes. And secondly I’m super sleepy rn.

Tried to flash the AT32 ESC one more time this time with a cmsis dap debugger made out of an RPI pico but sadly without luck.

And while I was at I I had flashed by brothers gocart.

Oh and I was also able to disassemble my friends hoverboard and it was the OG ESC!

AaaAaAaAaaAAaaahhh got way too stuck on the ESC.

So basically I wanted to merge one cheap FOCer to for it to have 2 channels but that turned out to be the wrong rabbit hole bc I got way too deep and with 3 days left I lost a substantial time.
But on the other hand I’ve learnt about git submodules, older version of KiCAD and porting them to newer ones and type FOC!er!
And I also wanted to make quite a bit of changes to justify it bc I can’t submit others project’s to HC! So I wanted to add USBc make the board 4 layer for better heat disapation make it 2ch and ideally run it with just one mcu.
and all of it was thrown out of the window as I wasn’t able to make it work in short time frame. No worries thought.

the top and bottom cover is on!
it took me way too long, but I’ve managed to model it.
The flat part was pretty good but the holes were a nightmare as I needed to start from a corner and not the middle. but I like it.

Noice the axle assembly is finally designed!
I have mirrored the other sides but the mirror for everything mirrored but it didn’t mirror the parts I was mirroring before GGs.

I’ve been working on the axle!
It’s pretty hard but its going on nicely.
Also I’m taking inspiration from the czech guy.
The bases of this mechanism were from the czech guy and trampa trucks.
Alo set colors for different manufacturing tecniques.
Blue and orange - CNC
gray - AL extrusion
Green - bought
RED - mirror

It looks to be solid atleast I hope.

Also I wanted to complete thw whole axle assembly but stardance cut me off. Also I’m running out of time a bit. 3 days to go and I still need to do way more.

Oh I’ve got too locked in!

So after a bit of design on the onewheel and a few onewheel reviews it occurred to me that onewheels are super dangerous and they have a lot of other caviats. Like SW and etc.

Soooooooooooooooo I went with making a skateboard bc it seems way more fun and less of a SW hassle, but more of a HW hassle, in which I’m more comfortable.

So I’ve began with researching how skateboards work and tried finding inspiration. At first I found a video explaining how turning works. And after that tried finding inspiration on the turning mechanism. At first I haven’t found much but after I’ve found a great video by Czech creator making his own mountain board! He said that it weights wayyyyyyyyyyy too much, so I’m going to make it out of aluminium extrusion like I’ve originaly intened for FOSSwheel.

And there was CAD. At first I’ve tried sketching up the deck (Before much research). And nothing worked.
And after that I have found the mountain board along with a cad model and I was hooked, so I’ve sketched it out of aluminium extrusion and then started transfering it into CAD.

:yay I love how this project is going RN.