enhancing_boards

Enhancing boards

Hello! This is a place I will be pushing KiCad boards and documentation for those. I am doing that to be able to show, discuss and improve those boards, also I want them to be useful for someone.

There are lots of ready boards for DIY enthusiasts, but I can't always find a well-tested layout made in open-source software, so there's always something to improve, too. :-)

Plans

I am interested in electronic music synthesizers and single-board computers that can be used in those; I intend to test different microcontrollers and sound-related hardware. Besides that, I have a ton of breakout boards from China. I want reusable layouts for chips, so that's something I'll gradually clean up and add here, too.

Currently I'm waiting for a very primitive ESP32-Wroom boards to determine if 3.3V power is a minimal requirement. If that's the case, I will add my own ESP32 board here.

Interesting ICs

There are integrated circuits I really want to use later.

• STM32F103C8T6 microcontroller, because Maple and Blue Pill were very nice until the clone boards with clone chips started popping up. New ones are really hard to distinguish visually!
• Azoteq IQS263B capacitive sensor IC, I²C interface. Allows to make capacitive wheels, sliders and buttons.
• Azoteq IQS550-B000 capacitive sensor IC, 15 rows, 10 columns, 3584 x 2304 max resolution, I²C interface. Allows to make large capacitive sensor panels. UPD: I ordered the test kit from DigiKey and it is being delivered by USPS to Qwintry warehouse right now.
• CAP1188 capacitive sensor IC, 8 capacitive sensor inputs, I²C interface.
• TXS0108E / YF08E and maybe other level converters, since I have those. (There is some concern about the fakes, too, because I saw very different labels for the same chip.)
• SI4735, radio receiver IC because it is tiny, works, and might be interesting to play with.

Testing

When I can, I will test the boards using the toner-transfer method, adding a note about the results and fixing the boards. Otherwise, I'll order everything I can't make elsewhere.

If you want to do tests right now, feel free to create an issue! I will provide any additional info you'll want for toner-transfer method or I will help with factory Gerber.

Current boards

Directory	State	Description
PCM5102A	UNTESTED	PCM5102A I²S dac with TPA6132A2 headphone amp
MIDI I/O	STABLE, tested for 5V	MIDI I/O board for 5V devices
MCP4725 breakout	UNTESTED	I²C DAC breakout board, 1 output
MCP4728 breakout	UNTESTED	I²C DAC breakout board, 4 outputs
MUX_4067	UNTESTED	16-pin analog / digital multiplexor breakout board