@omamated

Today, I mostly worked on researching how to keep my current work while converting it to the lattepanda mu ultra. There’s not enough documentation, so I need to figure out some stuff.

As of the last journal I decided to restart my PCB due to inefficiency in the placements. Today, I started to plan where to place the components. I will spend a lot of time at this stage as this defines the whole PCB process. I also spent some time researching the battery, I settled down on using a power bank so it’s safe for me to take on flights/ travel with. I discovered there was a Linux library called TCPM that helps with reading batteries and I could apparently configure this to my power bank.

Today, I made a second try on my pcb carrier board. The first one wasn’t that bad, but the placement of most things was very efficient. I decided that it would be easier for me to start this back up from the beginning. I deleted everything (in a seperate file of course) and I started laying out everything all over again. If I can make everything more efficient then routing it will be way easier.

Today, I spent a lot of time routing and looking over routing. Unfortunately, I forgot to record some of it, but thankfully I got some. I need to redo one entire section due to some conflicts.

I routed the Ethernet chip(image1) and the USB2517(Image 2), fully. I am understanding this project a lot more and can enter flowstate when routing this easier. The Ethernet chip will handle the internet itself which is kinda important:). The USB2517 I added completely by myself to the schematics and pcb after reading a lot of documentation. I added it so I can have a lot more USB-A ports and USB-C ports. I’ve been struggling to find time on this project with school and all but I shall prevail.

I worked on basic routing for the ethernet. I am deciding to get back into this, I’ve been busy with school but I will lock in. I’ve done a decent bit so far

I had to reroute most of the ethernet port due to bad placement. I might have to replace most of this board to make everything optimal and make it fit.

Today I learned about differential pairs and got most of the Ethernet pairs routed except one differential pair that has a crossover. Routing is difficult sometimes, but other times its not. I feel I just need to spend more time and I should be done. I don’t have much time as I have to study a lot for the classes I’m in.

I spent today learning about USB3.0 I learned about differential pairs and that they can easily be done within kicad.

I did some research today and I learned that there was a lattepanda mu discord, I can use this to get my PCB sanity checked. I want to finish this laptop soon as school has started and I need a laptop for school and I know I probably won’t have much time coming up. I think next I will work on the USBA 3.1 next and go do that next.

I finalized the USB-C routing and everything is working correctly. I now have a finalized workflow to work with.

I spent a lot of time researching, I know I only clocked 30 minutes, but that doesn’t really include the time I spent researching on my phone while I was away. I learned that I could just use the net classess in the design rule and I could route and it will automatically bring up the best settings for that track, so I set that up and now I should be ready to just finish up the routing. I just need to be careful and make sure I check the docs to see the routing standards.

Today, I didn’t really get much work. I’ve hit a roadblock on routing the PCB I don’t really understand how to make sure everything is up to the standards. I may take a break due to school starting and figuring out how to get back into this. But I will finish this project!

P.S. this project will probably not be finished within stardance but Ill try my best

I worked on routing the USB-c’s, does anyone know if auto routers are allowed?

Today, I had to reroute the USB-C power from yesterday as it prevented me from routing other componenets. I had to delete all of the traces and start over again. I learned that the USB-C power had to be routed on the front, which prevented me from using vias, only making my life harder. I decided to restart rather than only deleting some traces as it would be easier to know whats going on if I just restarted and moved the componets to the most efficient spots.

Today I continued my work on track widths, I looked back on the pcb made by the LattePanda team, which assisted me on how I should do it. I successfully(I think?) routed the tracks for the USB-C power I’m using. Nothing broke thankfully other than the fact that I had to replace some resistors. I learned that if a route is only carrying power like a screw terminal then it should be thicker usually, this doesn’t really apply to me too much because I modified the board to use USB-C for it’s only power source. I chose to use USB-C power over a screw terminal as it would be easier to find battery options that were more efficient and were made by reliable companies, which means it would be less likely to blow up, which is always good :). It surprised me that the USB-C track width could be almost the same as the standard size.

I researched the tracks for the carrier board, man this is so confusing. I don’t understand how I would fit a 2.5mm thick trace, so im probably missing something.

today I planned to route, but I realized this was way different from the macropad and keyboards I designed in the past this meant I had to learn how thick to make the traces and etc. The routing will take me much longer than expected I plan to finish routing this week however.

Today I finished the layer stackup I aam good to start routing now.

Today I worked on the layer stackup. This was a step I would’ve over looked if I didn’t go back to Ben’s Make’s Everything’s Video.