This week I was able to brush the dust off some of my CAD skills. I spent this week designing a circuit board in order to test the device that communicates between the ship and the sub during dives. I spent a lot of time recreating the schematic. I could have just made a basic schematic that just has the symbols, but I spent the extra time putting in the exact parts I’m gonna be using. This means I can just put all the parts into the shopping cart easily and I know the traces will fit perfectly on the circuit board. After that was finished, I designed the circuit board. I spent some time moving the parts around trying to get them neat and orderly only to have to move them around and mess it up a bit in order for the traces to be run properly. Instead of running the power and ground in traces, I made them into copper layers. This meant that power and ground would be available over most of the board and minimize the amount of traces needed. One problem with that is there will be a circle in the center that isn’t properly connected and I need to run a line to it. Of course the CAD program gives an error but won’t tell you what it is or how to fix it. But I did manage to finish the board and it’s been sent off to be manufactured!
My schematic
The board design