Hackaday Supercon 2023 Vectorscope

KiCad Redrawing Project

This is a port of the Vectorscope schematics into KiCad. It is also a partially-complete KiCad project using Voja Antonic's original Circuit Maker PCB design as converted into KiCad PCB format by Thomas Flummer.

Status

• Schematics created, first pass error checking complete. It has not been meticulously compared with the original schematics.

• Symbols have been collected into a single project library: vector.kicad_sym

• New footprints, as needed, will go into a single project library: vector.pretty

• Original footprints extracted from the PCB and stored into a single project library: vector-orig.pretty

• So far, the changes to the original converted PCB are minimal and coule be easily replicated should the Circuit Maker design be updated:

  • footprints changed to point to vector-orig.pretty
  • graphical lines converted to KiCad PCB traces

Issues

PCB Changes, traces

As noted above, the circuit traces on the PCB, as converted, are just graphical lines. These can easily be changed into PCB traces using the built-in Create Tracks from Selection option (Kicad v7).

PCB Changes, footprints (TBD)

Some parts in the PCB don't have the expected footprints, but are instead just a collection of features. For example, the three each 0.1 inch IO pin-header connectors appear instead as 20 separate "footprints", each one a single pad. I have investigated how to fix these, and it is pretty straightfoward:

• IO connectors,
  • Scope Input, 1x4
  • Signal Generator Output, 1x4
  • IO Connector, 1x12
• Speaker
• Two SMT test pads (external power?)
• Slide switch
• Battery holders

Schematics

The following errors have been identified in the original schematics:

• Capacitor C16 seems to be duplicated (not 100% confirmed)
• TPA321 Speaker amplifier connects to +3V3, not +3V3F
• Some not-connected Pico pins are not shown on the original

Part Footprint Mismatches

Several discrete parts in the original PCB file are not consistent between three different sources: the footprint itself, the assocaited 3D file, and the real part as idenified in the BOM. These are as follows:

• LEDs

  • footprint: 0603
  • 3D file: 0603
  • BOM: 0805

• Resistors

  • footprint: Tantalum Kemet C (note 1)
  • 3D file: 0603
  • BOM 0805

• Capacitors, 2.2uF and 100nF

  • footprint: Tantalum Kemet C (note 1)
  • 3D file: 0603
  • BOM 0603

• Capacitors, 22uF

  • footprint: Voja custom part
  • 3D file: EIA 3528/Kemet T (note 2)
  • BOM: 1210

Note 1: The Tantalum Kemet C package is EIA 6023, which about the size of an EIA 2512 resistor.

Note 2: Tantalum Kemet T packate is EIA 3528, which is a bit largeer than an EIA 1210 resistor.