I've made a PCB that represents the front of the Audi e-tron
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This decorative PCB on a wooden lasercut stand was a gift for my colleagues that left for another location.
I took care to have Easter eggs on the product we're working on - the Audi e-tron - to let them not forget the months we worked and struggled together on that project.
I've also let a blank spot on the number plate to stick a personalized Belgian plate with their name on it.
You'll find the design considerations and limitations I had in the instructions.
The silkscreen has been generated by taking a picture of the front of the Audi e-tron, converting it to gray scale and afterwards to black and white.
After this, I've let it pass by my edge detection algorithm and played with the filter to have the right amount of details of the e-tron.
After running the new picture in the bitmap converter tool from KiCAD, I had my Silkscreen that I could import on the PCB.
Here a PCB with my name on it
Soldering phase with 0603, I has no flux-remover anymore and could not clean the PCB's. Hopefully it doesn't corrode the pads with time.
The schematics is very simple. The only limitation was the CR2032 coin cell battery voltage which is low and can get very low. For this purpose I've used a low powered 555 chip which can work in a range between 2V and 15V with very low current; 250uA.
I use the 555 chip to drive the orange blinky LED's as a source, the chip can handle 10mA and the LED's only need 2.1V with 5mA of current.
The resistor and capacitors make the 555 work as an Astable Multivibrator that matches the frequency and ON-time of the Audi e-tron (1.4s Period and a duty cycle of 50%).
The PCB edge is cut to represent the Audi e-tron.
For the backside of the PCB, I chose to name the components and buttons to reference the Audi e-tron. HV battery (for the coin cell), Digital matrix beam for the front white LED's, Gateway for the main computer on board which is the 555 in this case and finally the ON/OFF switch which represent the Engine start button.
I've positioned the components such that it was easy to push the buttons, to reach the switch and to replace the coin cell battery.
On the front decorative side, you'll find the silkscreen that draws the shapes of the e-tron. I've let a blank spot to paste a Belgian number plate sticker.
The orange LED's on the extreme left and right side are at the position of the blinkers, and the 4 white LED's on the position of the matrix beam headlights.
Sami
Elecrow
Electorials
Alpenglow Industries
Carl Bugeja