In my Spacecraft Design course at Stanford University, I completed a project aimed at transitioning our team from breadboard prototyping to Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design. This shift was due to several limitations associated with breadboards: connections can easily be pulled loose or vibrate apart, long wires are susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI), they provide inadequate signal integrity for high-speed signals, integrating hundreds of wires is challenging, and they're heavy in large quantities. To address these issues, I designed an accelerometer-driven LED array PCB using KiCad. I began by specifying the components needed: an Adafruit Feather microcontroller, WS2812B RGB LEDs, and an LIS3DH accelerometer. I then created the electrical schematic, which detailed the connections between these components. The I2C pins of the LIS3DH accelerometer were connected to the Adafruit Feather, and the WS2812B LEDs were daisy-chained, with the first LED connected to pin A2 on the Feather. The power connections for the LEDs were also established by linking their VDD pins to USB (5V) and their VSS pins to GND.

 

Next, I focused on the physical layout of the PCB. This involved arranging the components on the board to optimize space, routing the electrical connections through PCB traces, and flipping components to the back side of the board as needed. After placing and routing the components, I performed a "Design Rules Check" to identify and correct any potential issues, such as missing traces or traces that were too close together. I also added silkscreen labels for easy identification of components.

 

The final step was generating the necessary files for PCB fabrication, including Gerber files and drill files, which were compiled into a .zip file for submission to a PCB fabrication house.