CHUSBIE552 - CH552 Development board

Version 2 PCBs

Unfortunately I have been sitting on this project for a little bit and failed to update things here. I did go ahead and order the new version 2 PCBs back in August and they arrived sometime near the end of August.

I love the way these PCBs look the silk could be a little cleaner but they feel like a finished product. As you can see I went for panels again I wanted to have boards that i could populate just in case everything turns out to be good. 

I ended up sitting on these for quite a while 3 months buy the looks of thing as cash and time constraints also the usual thing of getting distracted by something else.

Eventually I got around to hand assembling one of them with the CH552T chip as i want to make doubly sure that all the IO signals are connected as expected. 

Initial Testing 

I went through hand soldering the components.  AAAARRRGGGHHHHHH, it took at least 2 attempts to get the USB-C socket soldered correctly i made a total mess first attempt.

Its messy but managed to get enough on the board to perform some initial tests.

The 3V3 regulator runs nicely and the VBUS reverse protection works well. I couldn't put in the reverse protection diode that i had ordered as the landing was too small for that one so if everything else is well I will look at specing a new part to fit the landing.

The great news is that the USB is working and the Bootloader shows up in the WCHISP software which gives me a lot of hope for this. I Was also able to upload a bin file so fingers crossed its all good. 

What Next....

Well after this initial run up it's time to have a stencil made and to produce the first production test units. One of each MCU variant. Then it will be production units for the Tindie store.   

This will be a little retrospective so I apologise in advance.

Both the CHUSBIE552(G) and the CHUSBIE552(T) where released back in early June on Tindie and where quite successful. I have sold a few them and they where received well. 

The plan in is now to do some updates to the board for version 2. 

I am adding extra protection for the USB host onboard reverse protection and changing the socket over to USB-C and patching in the CC connections for USB-PD management. 

I'll keep you updated on how things go.  

Built the first two prototypes to test full before purchasing the components for the first production run. I have both the G and T variants.

So great to reach this stage. Its just a nice feeling to have something  physical in your hands. 

Looking forward to building the first few for testing and making sure all the functions work.  Then hopefully release. :)

Hoping to receive the first batch of 40 PCBs in the next few days. This in enough to do a small production run as they a re coming in panels of 2x4.

I have never had panelisation done by JLCPCB before so I am hoping everything turns out ok. I'm looking for this to be the first product I have designed to be launched on my Tindie store.