I’m using kicad 6 and the easyeda sometimes.
I’m want to manufacture and assemble an pcb with an teensy 4.1, an papilio pro and arduino due.
I dont really want that the manufacturer pick an arduino or an teensy or an papilio pro and solder it to the pcb, but I prefer that the manufacturer manufacture the teensy, the papilio and the arduino in the same pcb.
Does kicad, easyeda, or the manufacturer itself provide an easy way to do this? What is the way to do this?
Those are fairly popular boards and some of those board layouts may be available as a KiCad project, and could be copied directly into a personal project. For others maybe only the schematic is available. But when you go through the trouble of putting that stuff on your own PCB, you probably also want to change some other things. Maybe add an SMPS instead of an linear voltage regulator, omit parts from the original design you don’t need, remove the connectors and interface directly to the rest of the project or other.
But what do you really need for your project? Most often it’s just the microcontroller with some minimal support circuitry such as a programming connector, crystal, capacitors and voltage regulator.
I need the 3 microcontrollers spoken. The I need to connect the teensy and the Arduino to the papilio. The papilio pro will receive the power of the PCB. I just want to build an custom development with the 3. So that the development board is more resistant, quality and reliable. In the first board PCB I plan connect Arduino and teensy manually using wire jumpers. I need that the first board be a copy of the 3 boards. Later after the tests I can modify the PCB and remove the unnecessary things.
On the contrary, soldering the 3 boards onto a motherboard using say castellated holes is probably sturdier, at the expense of a little extra thickness.
Even if you managed to combine the 3 layouts on one master board, don’t imagine that you can just send it to an assembly house and they will make it for you. You are asking them to source 3 sets of BOMs for the 3 boards. They may make one or two of the boards cheaply because of the economy of scale, but for your custom board and a small run, it will cost you $$$, or €€€, or ¥¥¥¥¥.
Using modular boards for development is a great boon. There is no reason why they can’t also be used in production. That’s why people have made footprints for these dev boards.
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Nice tip. If in a next board I want to remove unnecessary things, like remove one interface from papilio pro board what is the best way to do it? Can you recommend a thickness for the motherboard or way to calc the ideal thickness?
Have you put some effort into looking around what is available?
It’s for example quite easy to find things like:
https://forum.pjrc.com/threads/70319-DIY-Teensy-4-1-kicad-files
Why? Why not just don’t use it?
Define ideal.
My custom development board is for audio purposes. Removing unnecessary things can be good to reduce electrical noise and interferences in the system. And maybe I can replace with other interface. I don’t know yet. Possibly in the next PCB I will add the connections too.
A thickness to obtain the same resistance, reliability and quality as if the teensy, the papilio and the Arduino were manufactured(not pick an Arduino and assemble) on the same PCB.
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