It’s been a long journey, a journey of things breaking, teachers getting fired, getting limited to 1 hour a week, but it’s reaching its end!
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This must be a controversial project if faculty is getting fired.
Way to persevere through all of the drama! 
He thought I was getting paid to make it, and wanted a cut or he’d stop me from using the machines.
That’s not what got him fired though
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Who hoo… and I finally found some chips I was still missing and ordered them. Fingers crossed that they actually ship.
I knew it was too good to be true. Full bridge controls in stock, but not MOSFETs. 
Lead time 72 months!
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Update: The MOSFETs I intend to use now show availability in October… so that’s better.
Getting on with KiCad now. The schematic is basically complete, but I’m missing some footprints to make the controller circuit board.
Still… progress.
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use SamacSys library load, most of your chips should be available.
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If all goes well, i should have case 1 finished on Thursday. 
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Awesome! The one that was really hard to find was the NVMTS0D7N06CLTXG - onsemi part.
Thanks, now to update the schematic with the proper part.
NTMTS0D7N06CTXG should do the job, just a footprint update. You can buy the part from Rochester Electronics LLC which most likely a old inventory, but it does not matter that much.
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Other engineering teacher got Covid on the one day I was able to get work off😐
ARGHHGGGGHH
I think I’ve averaged about 3 minutes of machining time over the last month. Not even exaggerating.
Hopefully I can get another day off work
Sorry to hear that, thanks for the update.
Progress continues on the main motor controller board design. 14 analog inputs, 8 optical inputs for timing, and 4 coil drivers. PI 2W board has additional USB and Bluetooth I/O, with HDMI for displays. Power supply circuit takes full battery voltage (up to 50.4v, 12S) to supply the 3.3v to logic and 5v to the PI and IR LEDs.
All traces are complete. Now to review and make sure there are no daft mistakes before sending it of to the PCB maker Tuesday.
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Did you get that printed? Cool name and logo.
What’s your EDA of choice?
I’m playing with KiCAD right now just to get an understanding of things… Component shortage and price inflation is real!
No, that’s just a render - but about the pull the trigger.
KiCad is what I’m using, due to the price.
For the most part it’s pretty good. The biggest issue I find is the lack of footprints of various components such as connectors (such as the D15 “VGA” connectors I’m using), and of course specific chips. Mostly I can find those someplace else, but it’s a bit of a pain to add them to the library. That I’m sure is something that is better with the pricey professional packages. The path routing is also sometimes a bit wonky. But overall it works pretty well and sure beats drafting paper, film photography, and developed transparencies to make traces that I used in college in the 80s.
Component shortage is nuts, still. Some say it may normalize by 2024.
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That and Ultralibrarian mostly. DigiKey’s library is sometimes useful as well.
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Over halfway!! Having some problems with the step over so I need to take a look at the code but it’s cool to see it take shape
@hallkbrdz do you have a logo or anything that you want on it?
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And this is how Shirley Race Engineering started in 2022. I’ll be asking for sponsorship in 10yrs btw.
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