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Welcome to the ESPHub-Hardware Wiki!
I intend for this area to be more blog-style, where as I get physical boards made I can document what works with them and what I need to change.
For this project I am attempting to create many different versions and easily make them distinguishable from one another. To do this, I am doing my own take on Semantic Versioning. Each Schematic change will result in a new Minor version and each PCB change will result in a new Patch version. For example, v0.98.0 and v0.98.1 will have the same actual wiring, but the implementation on the PCB will be different. v0.98 and v0.99 will have different schematics from each other with respective changes to the PCB implementation.
Because of this, software based on a certain Minor version should still work on different Patch versions, but software based on certain Minor versions may not be compatible with newer/older ones.
I am still not sure how/when I will implement Major versioning, but my intent is to eventually follow Semantic Versioning correctly.
This was the very first board I have ever designed. I ordered 5 fully assembled units through JLCPCB, and out of the box none of them worked as expected.
- 3 boards had 1 or more unsoldered pins on the BH1750 causing them not to be recognized.
- 1 board received no USB power
- 1 board received no USB data
Because none of the boards worked fully, I decided it was time to make the plunge into reflow soldering. I bought a reflow iron and managed to get all 5 boards fully working.
I looked at some breakout boards of the BH1750 and noticed that they made the pads very long, so in my newer designs I extended the solder pads and mask to hopefully promote better adhesion of the IC.
At the time of writing this, I have already incremented up to v0.4. I've added multiple headers, mounting holes in the board, added solder bridge pads, and rearranged some IC/traces. v0.4 is probably the next revision that I will produce as well, as many of the goals I had since v0.1 have been implemented.
An order for v0.4 was placed on JLCPCB on 09/18/2021!
Order received on 10/8/2021!
This is the second version that I have ordered, and am already preparing for the third. This time 3 devices came with the following problems:
- 2 boards have BH1750s with pins not fully connected
- 1 board had the Flash pin of the ESP-12F module left unsoldered
I was able to reflow a dab of solder on all the disconnected pins and had all the boards working in 10 minutes.
A day after I ordered the v0.4 boards, I realized the ground planes were causing some problems transferring heat from the ESP to the Temperature sensor. In future designs I have simply removed the ground plane, so hopefully it resolves this issue.
My next step is to order unpopulated v0.5 PCBs, then transfer the components from the v0.1 boards to the v0.5 boards.
An order for (an unassembled) v0.5 was placed on JLCPCB on 10/10/2021!
Order received on 11/1/2021!
Around this time I switched my focus towards school as midterms, exams, and eventually finals were approaching. Just recently (as of 12/11/2021) I have finished swapping all of the components from the v0.4 board to the v0.5 board!
Unfortunately, the problem of the ESP heating the board itself still seems to persist, though this time it's more gradually and through the fiberglass itself rather than the copper...