Petr Dvorak

+ Cheap
+ The body is solid.
+ There is a level that micro-tilts the stencil in the operational position.

- Missing fine-tuning screws for the PCB.
- Difficult to align the stencil with the PCB.
- The upper moving part twists a little.

I finished, manufactured and tested the Active Scope Probe with a paper BW of 2 GHz.

I don't know what is the real BW.
I don't have tools to measure it.

BTW, as I promised, the design is online on my GitHub. My user name is hwidvorakinfo and the project is called "Active_Scope_Probe".

Link below.

I'm happy that you've been with me when I was working on this RaspberryPi CM4S Carrier board.

It took 7 KiCad Design Streams to finish it. That's quite a lot of work.

About 15 hours.

Many of you spent some time with me. Thank you.

Now, the board will be reviewed after a few nights and ordered.

Exactly!

I hit the [F] key accidentally when I was working on the PCB layout.

Now, you can find it easily. When you know KiCad.

This design came out better than I'd believed.

The component cluster is neat and small. The WE coil dominates while the 25-ball BGA of 2x2 mm lies in the centre.

The traffic light toy is finished

The core of the design, the booster IC, is a BGA of 25 balls and 2x2 mm.

A miniature devil, Texas Instruments LM3645.

I spent more time manufacturing than programming. Well. I cheated using Gemini for coding.

KiCad for Beginners By the end of this course, you will be able to design your own printed circuit boards (PCBs) using KiCad. Together, we’ll go through the complete hardware design process - from creating symbols and…

Nobody wants to wander through hours of messy tutorials. You want a roadmap that actually leads to a production-ready PCB.

I’ve packaged years of KiCad experience into a beginner-friendly course. We get straight to the point.

Yesterday I wrote about a IO-Link device rabbit hole.

There really is. And it starts in the SN65HVD10x datasheet.

The best I've found is in the picture.

There is everything.

What we need is to sit at a computer and ask AI to code it.

Or not?

The distance sensor battle I've promoted recently inspired me.

I found a reference design of a simple IO-Link transmitter.

What is the best on the reference design is that it used a common MSP430 as the MCU. The IO-Link heavy lifting is done by the IO-Link PHY SN65HVD10x.

There is no worse feeling than hitting "Order" on a PCB and realising you forgot a power flag or messed up a footprint.

In the KiCad for Makers course, I don't just show you how to draw lines. I show you how to verify your work.

fedevel.com/courses/kica...

Early morning means a fresh mind. Today, I need only three things.
Focus, my AI companion and a new EASY device.

To keep myself focused, I sometimes use a simple 45-minute timer. I recommend trying it. When the timer goes off, take a short break or continue.

My AI companion today is ChatGPT.

Not every PCB or project must be HUGE.

When you deal with ants, you don't need A-bombs.

Well, that was my point for today.

If you want to help with a project that seems to be embarrassingly small, it's how you see it.

For me, it's the project that is important as much as the actual HUGE ones.

KiCad Design Streams push me forward. Sometimes, I've been commented with a brillaint advice.

In December, I finished this demo PCB. I used ugly track to connect all LEDs in each group.

I received a comment suggesting I use a copper polygon to elegantly connect all LEDs.

Well. I did.

You can't see a painter's spatula with a 150 mm blade.

You can see a solder print squeegee.

I'm working on a big project with prototype manufacturing.

The largest PCB is about 250 × 150 mm.

I tried printing with about an 80 mm spatula, and it worked.

Once.

Until it didn't.

The speed of the firmware flashing was surprising.

The USB beats the UART badly.

3X digital input, 1X analog input, 1X NO + 1X NC contact.

36 VDC to 3.3V synchronous buck.

And many other features. For what? This is a sneak peek at a new device I've recently delivered to my customer.

If you asked me what tool to use for HW design, the answer'd be KiCad. No doubt about it.

When I want to manufacture my Beny-devices Hardware Design Templates, I order only locally at AISLER.

❤️ I love to support EU companies.

See, you cannot sit and start working on a big, complex project from zero. Well, you can but...

It's always easier and much faster to start from verified blocks. You can reuse existing snippets from your former designs or from your colleagues' designs.

That's a legit approach.

RF engineers sometimes need a universal coaxial connector footprint.

The universality is in the possibility of either placing the connector for a prototype measurement or unpopulating it for mass production.

Since then, I always used this double-sided U.FL connector in my designs.

This STM32C011 Hardware Design Template is one of my favourites.

The C011 isn't the biggest one, for sure, but it has:

• Core: Arm® 32-bit Cortex®-M0+ CPU, up to 48 MHz.
• Up to 32 KB of Flash
• 6 KB of SRAM
• 12-bit ADC, up to 15 external channels
• 8 Timers
• RTC with a calendar
• One I2C
...

Sometimes the fastest way to correct a DRC violation is to override it. I'll tell you why and how.

When you route in crowded spaces, for instance, in between connector pad holes, as in the picture, it's challenging to fit in.

The solution can be to override the DRC for a while.

This time, I wasn't an HW designer. I copied the example schematic from the datasheet, and it worked.

I almost feel embarrassed that I copied it 1 to 1.

But I couldn't resist checking the schematic. Plus, the circuit was bright and clean.

So I did it.

I felt like a nuclear plane manager the day of filming this demo.

Cables, DMMs, code, MCU, PCB...

It turned out to be the most satisfying video taking of the last 12 months.

The Texas Instruments INA2227 is genius.

A perfect docs
A worldwide accessible community
The smoothness of the ecosystem mesmerised me

Why the Zero?

I want to dig into Python embedded programming. With a big help of LLM, oc.

Sometimes, I deliver a device powered with a Raspberry Pi And I desperalely need to know how to test it, etc.

You might recall this TMF8806 EASY demo board.

I decided to dust it off and build a device around it.

TMF8806 facts:

• Made by ams OSRAM
• 1 – 500cm distance sensing
• 1 – 1000cm after the new FW download
• OLGA 2.2 x 3.6 x 1.0 mm package
• Supply voltage 2.7 to 3.5V

I felt tired for a few hours last week. That's not a joke.

I dug out my old Beaglebone Black after years.

It was a big disappointment. The same as 6 years ago. I don't know why but the disaster started with the messy documentation.

No. 15 minutes and it travelled into the drawer again.

You might recall this TMF8806 EASY demo board.

I decided to dust it off and build a device around it

If you are not familiar with the ToF sensor TMF8806, here are some facts:

• Made by ams OSRAM
• 1 – 500cm distance sensing
• 1 – 1000cm after the new FW download
• OLGA 2.2 x 3.6 x 1.0 mm package

I finished testing on the new INA2227 Hardware Design Template board. It can't work better.

I'm impressed with

• how the IC is small and that I managed to reflow it flawlessly
• how well is the datasheet written
• how good did ChatGPT do when writing a simple Arduino driver for me

When I studied a technical article by Texas Instruments called How the Dynamic Z-Track™ algorithm predicts unpredictable battery loads, I started seeking the smallest model.

In the ideal world, even the serial FETs would be integrated. I'm absolutely sure there are such ICs on the market.

Start training your engineers.

It's not about the EDA tool.

Recently, I participated in a discussion about Xpedition vs the rest of the world. A few days (weeks, months...) ago, it was about Altium Designer vs the rest of the world.

It's running non-stop.

Choose wisely.

I write about devices I love.
Help companies worldwide with hardware design.

From concept to manufacturing.
If you don't have a hardware design team, I am here for you.

Let's start slowly. I'll guide you through the entire process.
Step by step.

We'll grow together.
I'm one of yours.