My new radio node that I designed last month is back from production at jlcpcb. Designed in Romania and built in China 😁. This is my first attempt using jlcpcb for the entire manufacturing chain, from PCB creation to part selection and assembly.
PCB design and pick and place issues
There is a problem (or I am doing something terribly wrong !) with the coordinate system in KiCad.
Schematic Parity Error
I am already one week into the design of the PCB for my new radio node and today I discovered some schematic errors that I had to fix. Running the DRC (Design Rule Check[er]) KiCad threw some schematic parity errors which “occurs when there’s a mismatch between the schematic diagram and the physical PCB (printed […]
New radio node
Today I finalzied the designed for my new Raspberry Pi Zero-based radio node. Designed around SA818 and CM108B sound codec, will replace my old dead-bug style radio node that I used for so many years.
RF Proto Board v2.0 — arrived from JLCPCB !
RF prototype boards arrived today from JLCPCB. The service was, as always, very fast and flawless. Seems they have a direct arrangements with Customs because I was not required to pay anything. I ordered 100 pcs for a total amount of 157 euros, apx 1.57 euro per piece. This includes manufacturing and shipment via DHL. […]
Multipurpose RF Proto Board v2.0
This is a general purpose PCB that I designed in KiCad as a helper board for my Manhattan-style mounted RF projects. It allows connection via SMA connector (vertical or edge mount) and BNC. The two completely separated prototyping sections can be interconnected by using the SMAs in the middle or, if you want to save […]
KiCAD, Python and PyCharm
I am not a huge fan of KiCad. However, given the limited and abysmal options that we have for free EDA packages, KiCad is quite ok, although terribly flawed in some areas. Maybe the development team should focus on some simple functionalities like support for rounded traces, net group routing, zones, a simple way to […]
AD8307 RF Power Meter III — build
This will be another short post. I also made the GitHub repo public, but please be aware, current design is flawed. If you use it, you acknowledge that you use it on your own risk. Today I managed to build the revision 1.0 of this power sensor, not without some lessons learned. It was my […]
AD8307 RF Power Meter II — boards from JLPCB
I ordered the boards for this project with JLCPCB in China. This is my first attempt of working with a professional PCB manufacturer and I am extremely pleased by the results.
AD8307 RF Power Meter
My first finished KiCad project is a prototype of a RF Power meter with input attenuation built around an Analog Device AD8307. An excellent tutorial about log amps can be read in March 1999 edition of Analog Dialogue. KiCad PCB: And the 3D rendering of the same PCB: The next step will be PCB ordering, […]