Devlog 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Pretty long header, huh? Let me catch you up. I am running a dual boot with Arch basically, and my Windows 11 partition gets mad sometimes. A few days back it snapped. Yep, it snapped. It destroyed itself and I don’t have enough time to debug the issue and fix it, so I decided… how hard can setting everything up on Linux be? (Big understatement.) Turns out I recorded from the browser for like 4 hours and then the recording completely crashed on me. Thankful for the Stardance staff though, as they said I can just directly add entries to my journal, so here I am!

I got a limit on how much I can type so I’ll be quick.

Devlog 2

I added a boost converter, fuel gauge IC, and an SD card slot. That’s literally it. The reason? I went through 90 different Reddit forums and a few datasheets later just to find out that my schematic is COMPLETELY unusable. Reason? Because the values I inputted were completely wrong and I forgot to account for the actual traces and distance. Yeah… big mistake.
(I’m just exposing myself at this point)
~5 hours

Devlog 3

Things picked up from here. I proceeded to wire up the Neo M9N and also proceeded to wire up the audio and microphone chips. The GPS module took me the most time. I needed to calculate the actual performance in real-world testing because if I didn’t, I would be fried indefinitely. RF signals are too picky.

~3 hours

Devlog 4

Wired up most of the things I got to the CM4 connectors. Not much I can say here. I spent most of the time trying different layouts on where to put it. I was basically shuffling in between the schematic editor and PCB editor (big mistake later, traces got jumbled).

~1 hour

Devlog 5

I realized I AM COOKED if I don’t finish this ASAP, so I started grinding. I rushed through everything and you’ll see why this was a bad idea in a bit.

Devlog 6

I am done with the whole PCB. Time to run the DRC checker. What can go wrong? (Foreshadowing: everything went wrong.) I got like 500 errors and 300 warnings (actual count). The whole problem? I crammed everything TOO TIGHT. So I spent devlog 6 and 7 cleaning everything up.

~9 hours

Devlog 8

FINALLY, MY PCB IS DONE! For my first PCB, this isn’t too bad, considering I did a more ambitious project. I have no DRC errors anymore, so I ran the project inside a simulation. I checked every signal output and power planes/ground planes. Everything was expected except I ran into problems with the SD card trace. I knew this was coming either way. The traces spanned everywhere and weakened the signal. I fixed it right up though, so in theory this thing will boot and run without issues.

What Did I Learn?

Absolutely nothing. (Jk.) I learned to not RUSH. In this case I absolutely had to because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t make the project deadline. Maybe I should have rushed more gracefully, but now I am 3 textbooks down. I wrote like 90% of my schematics on my textbooks and datasheet references until I screwed that part up by not doing math. I thought it’d give me actual good info, not mathematical nonsense. Oh well. It’s finished and I’m proud that I got a device like this done.

Now the hard part: CHEAP SOURCING. Apparently this won’t be covered if it’s too expensive and the PCB isn’t polished, which I can’t say much about because the PCB looks like sh!t. I was not making a Mona Lisa, bro. Now I can make a total calculation. I’ll use AliExpress because those are the CHEAPEST and fastest part suppliers. JLCPCB gets the rest, and once I get the correct amount I’m sending this in. Meanwhile, tonight I’ll work on the GitHub and demo… which I don’t have, so I guess I’ll make a website for the GPS.