As Liam has said, I have spent a bunch of time working on the PCB. Shortly after starting version 1, I realised that the PIC 32 was not only overkill, but programming it, and the PCB were going to be over my head. So I convinced Liam to let us use a PIC18F series microcontroller instead.
On this board, I've made connections for a large number of peripherals. We have an LCD, the Digi Xstream module, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, GPS, RPM Sensor, Sonar Range Finder, 5 servo ports, and 1 ESC port. There are 4 status LEDs, two for the radio module, and two for the MCU. I figure I can program what I want the two MCU ones to do, but at this stage it will show boot, all okay, and error.
The power supply features two linear regulators from microchip, one for 1.5A @5v, and one for 0.5A @ 3.3v.
The main controller is the PIC18F46J11, and the fail safe is the PIC18F26J11 (Which I am certain the package is modeled wrong, so I plan to check that one out...)
I'm sure someone with more experience would have made a nicer and more compact layout, but I am new to all of this :-). This is the most complex board I have ever routed, and it was great to be able to make it two layer. Previously, I have been able to make two layer boards, but all of the via had to have a wire soldered to both sides, and there was no plated through holes.
Until next time...
Dan
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