Vancontroller

VanController

A 12 V campervan controller board: ESP32-S3 with 6 fused relays, 6 fused PWM dimmers, CAN, RS485, GPS, an accelerometer and 2 water-level inputs, plus a 3D-printable enclosure. Designed in KiCad 10.

Features

• Power: 12 V input on M5 studs. 30 A ATO main fuse, bidirectional load-dump TVS, LM74700-Q1 ideal-diode reverse-polarity protection with 2 × CSD18540Q5B, TPS54360 buck to 5 V, AMS1117 to 3.3 V. Input voltage sensing.
• 6 relay outputs: Omron G5LE 10 A, each with its own mini blade fuse, COM/NO/NC terminals (COM = fused +12 V by default), indicator LED and fuse-blown sensing. Any channel converts to a dry contact by removing its fuse and cutting a solder jumper (DESIGN_SPEC.md §4).
• 6 dimmer outputs: 60 V logic-level MOSFETs (low side, PWM), 5 A mini blade fuse each, freewheel diode, fuse-blown sensing.
• Comms: CAN (TJA1051T/3) and RS485 (THVD1450), with jumper-selectable termination and fail-safe bias.
• Sensors: u-blox MAX-M10S GPS (u.FL active antenna), LIS3DH accelerometer, ADS1115 16-bit ADC with 2 water-level inputs (each jumper-selectable for resistive, 4-20 mA or 0-5 V senders).
• MCU: ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16 with native USB-C, BOOT/RESET buttons and a UART debug header. Wi-Fi/BLE antenna at the board edge, with no copper under it.
• Terminals: all 12 outputs along one edge on Phoenix MSTBA 5.08 mm pluggable headers.

Documents

Repository layout

Ordering and building

1. Order: upload the files from manufacturing/VanController_rev0.3_PCBWay/ (read 00_READ_ME_ORDER_NOTES.txt), or rebuild the package with python tools/make_order_package.py. Settings used: 4 layers, 1.6 mm, 1 oz copper (2 oz is not manufacturable with this design's 0.15 mm fine-pitch spacing), ENIG, SMD-only assembly.
2. Through-hole parts are fitted by hand: relays K1-K6, terminal headers, fuse holders F1-F13 and pin headers (47 per board). The relay, F1 and output terminal joints sit on large copper areas, so use a 60-80 W iron.
3. Not fitted by the assembler: blade fuses (size each to its load), jumper shunts (choose per DESIGN_SPEC.md §4) and the M5 stud bolts for J1/J2.
4. Enclosure: print enclosure/VanController_base.stl and VanController_lid.stl in PETG or ASA (not PLA). Hardware: 8 × M3 heat-set inserts, 4 × M3×8 (lid), 4 × M3×6 (PCB), 2 × M16 cable glands, 1 × SMA bulkhead to u.FL pigtail.
5. First power-up: use a current-limited bench supply, check +5 V and +3V3, then fit fuses one output at a time. See DESIGN_SPEC.md §7 for the thermal and load checks.

How the design was generated

The schematic and board were generated by scripts, then routed and hand-fixed. From now on, edit the design in KiCad. The board contains hand fixes (around U9) that no script reproduces, so do not regenerate it.

Tool notes:

• KiCad Python is C:\Program Files\KiCad\10.0\bin\python.exe.
• Freerouting is not in the repo: download freerouting-1.9.0.jar from the Freerouting releases into tools/freerouting/. Use 1.9.0 with -mt 1: version 2.x ignores the pass limit from the command line, and multithreaded optimisation creates clearance errors.
• Before exporting the DSN, set the inner layers to power-plane type (gen_pcb.py does this), or Freerouting routes signals on them and splits the planes.

Lessons learned (rev 0.3)

• Fan out SMD pads on plane nets (stub + via) before autorouting: unrouted connections fell from 499 to 5.
• Check that autorouted tracks don't cut high-current copper areas: an early route split one input MOSFET's sources off the input.
• 2 oz outer copper needs ≥ 6.5-8 mil spacing. Fine-pitch ICs at 0.15 mm force 1 oz.
• PCBWay wants ≥ 0.19 mm between pads for solder-mask dams. Below that, the mask is opened across the IC.
• KiCad Python: PCB_VIA.GetWidth() without a layer argument raises an invisible assert dialog that hangs the script. Use GetWidth(pcbnew.F_Cu).

Revision history

Licence

Copyright (c) 2026 Camperlux. Free for non-commercial use. The hardware design, manufacturing files and documentation are under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, and the scripts are under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. Commercial use, including selling boards, kits or products based on this design, needs a licence from Camperlux. See NOTICE.md for details and third-party parts.