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Updating the Motherboard plan
02/23/2020 at 23:06 • 0 commentsWhile the first revision of the motherboard worked well there were a few things that needed to be fixed after working with the prototype.
Deficiencies noted:- Inconsistent pin layout in RJ45 connectors
- many unused pins that could be used for other things
- board mounting holes are in odd location
- RJ45 connectors should be shielded in case shielded cables want to be used
- No way to tell if sensors plugged in or not
- GPIO extender for LED's was wrong footprint and to close to the jacks
- No good grounding point for a oscilloscope for testing
- No way to power the device without USB power
- Would be nice to power this from 12V and have on board converters
- LED lights should also be controlled from motherboard
- ADC had a bunch of noise on the input
- No can to prevent unwanted EMI
- No analog filtering to prevent aliasing
- Restricted use of pins on the microcontroller
- only external comms was though USB
- Soldering was substandard
Objectives for next revision of the motherboard:
- Change the layout on the RJ45 pins to mach the PoE standard
- Addresses deficiency 1
- Change the RJ45 sockets to be shielded to prevent EMI leakage
- Addresses deficiency 10
- On the sensor side of the circuit tie a pin from the power to a set pin (standard across all connectors) with a resistor to let the system know which device is plugged in.
- It may be a good idea to include a resistor on each device so that the circuit can autodetect what kind of switch or sensor is plugged into a socket
- probably overkill for this project as it would make the programming much more difficult and not all jacks can support all types of signals.
- Need to include a GPIO extender to test all of the IO to see if its plugged in or not.
- Addresses deficiencies 2 and 5
- It may be a good idea to include a resistor on each device so that the circuit can autodetect what kind of switch or sensor is plugged into a socket
- Analog Filter for input to ADC
- requires more thorough investigation on input topologies for high noise applications. Most likely going to use an example circuit from here (https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/application-notes/an43f.pdf) to design a better bridge circuit.
- External power module so that usb or external 12V power can be used
- Addresses deficiency 8
- Use a standard microcontroller not a development board.
- Most likely a SAMD variant as the built in USB support makes the programming easier
- Addresses deficiencies 2,5,9, and 11. Possible 12 as well.
- Complete redesign of PCB
- Addresses all deficiencies