UC2-electronics cube

openUC2 Electronics Module

TODO to make Rev. B ready:

• Design
  • When Design is finished:
    • double check component jlcsmt numbers, footprints, values
    • Change Rev mark on EEschema and PCBnew pages to "Rev. B" and add date
    • Generate ibom, pdfs, gerbers, jlcsmt placement+bom
    • Maybe add github actions or just a script for exports file generation, visual diff
• README:
  • Replace photos
  • Add where fab ordered and which fab parameters
  • Add links to pdf schematic (internal here in project repo)
  • Add OSHW cert link somewhere in README: https://certification.oshwa.org/de000110.html

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This is the second revision of the first attempt to have a unified modular electronics for the UC2 System. It was designed for UC2's "incubator microscope", a bright-field (transmission) microscope, which is the simplest type of microscope.

It consists of two boards:

• A motherboard fitting inside of one cube, unifying:
  • An ESP32 "MH-ET-Live" microcontroller module with WiFi and Bluetooth
  • Two A4988 (or pin-compatible) stepper driver modules, with the motherboard also providing freewheeling diodes to protect the drivers from being backpowered (and destroyed this way)
  • Two JST XH 5-pin jacks compatible with 28BYJ-48 – 5V geared stepper motors (which usually come with a driver that doesn't do microstepping)
  • A USB type C jack to input 5V 3A to inject extra current, or to power everything independently from the USB jack on the ESP32 module (which probably goes to a computer for programming and control)
  • A JST PH 3-pin jack compatible with Adafruit STEMMA cables, to connect the illumination daughterboard
  • Pads breaking out all pins from the ESP32 module, and power nets (5V, 3V, GND)
• An illumination daughterboard to sit on top of one cube and featuring:
  • A 3W (high-power!) white LED
  • A LED driver that accepts PWM dimming input
  • A JST PH 3-pin jack to connect it to 5V power and PWM input from the motherboard with a STEMMA cable
  • Pads breaking out the pins of the STEMMA connector

Design principles:

• PCBs fit into the cubes so that Electronics can be stacked
• Modules are replaceable if they may burn out
• Common connections between PCBs have solderless interfaces (jacks and cables with plugs) while further expansion and prototyping is made easier (through breakout pads to solder wires to)

Ideas for Future Revisions

• do 3 stepper drivers for 3-dimensional (delta) stage

Software

This PCB was created with KiCad 6. The board outline and safe zones (to let modules stick out the top of a cube) have been drawn in Inkscape (1.0.2) and then converted into a Kicad footprint with the svg2shenzhen plugin (0.2.18.7) for Inkscape.

We ordered it through TODO.

Firmware

We will provide a unified Serial/WiFi-based REST API interface. A first version can be found in the https://github.com/openUC2/UC2-REST Repository.

Get Involved

This project is open so that anyone can get involved. You don't even have to learn CAD designing or programming. Find ways you can contribute in CONTRIBUTING

License and Collaboration

This project is open-source and is released under the CERN open hardware license. Our aim is to make the kits commercially available. We encourage everyone who is using our Toolbox to share their results and ideas, so that the Toolbox keeps improving. It should serve as a easy-to-use and easy-to-access general purpose building block solution for the area of STEAM education. All the design files are generally for free, but we would like to hear from you how is it going.

You're free to fork the project and enhance it. If you have any suggestions to improve it or add any additional functions make a pull-request or file an issue.

Please find the type of licenses here

REMARK: All files have been designed using Autodesk Inventor 2019 (EDUCATION)

Collaborating

If you find this project useful, please like this repository, follow us on Twitter and cite the webpage! :-)