How do you package up your projects?

clinker8

Well-known member
Looking for some general guidance on packaging up Teensy's in a useful way. By that I mean, not a mess of wires in a wireless breadboard. We all know that won't do for a real project that needs to last in the real world.

I just got my electronic lead screw working on my lathe, using a Teensy 4.1 and an ILI9341, both from PJRC. I built a small interface board with 2n2222's and a 74xxx245 level translator/buffer. These three boards interact with a rotary encoder attached to my lathe spindle, and a 4 Nm NEMA stepper motor with closed loop driver, which is attached to the lathe lead screw. I have tested it out, and it cuts the threads that I have asked without issue. Pretty pleased with how it came out, especially since this was my very first Teensy project. Special thanks to @luni for his help and excellent EncoderTool. Yesterday I single point threaded a 40 TPI thread and a 16 TPI thread just by pressing on the soft panel display. I can also do metric threads, as well as many feed rates. At some point I will attach my DRO read heads to incorporate this information into my application. The interface hardware and software is already in place, I just need to tap into the read head cables. Yet another application of the amazing EncoderTool!

I'd like to have a USB wall wart power the Teensy box, via some sort of panel adapter. That way, should I need to update the program, I can simply plug in a micro B connector and it all works. However, I am open for any suggestions that are better. I am a bit leery about the longevity of micro B connectors, it seems, at least for me that the male cables wear out and become unreliable. Just recently had my Teensy be un-programmable, but it really was only flaky cable connections. Hope in the future Teensy's will come with better programming connectors. How do you do the power connections and the data?

Looking for advise on connectors that go from box to box, where Box #1 contains the Teensy, the interface board, and the display, and Box #2 contains the stepper motor driver and the stepper motor power supply. Can anyone recommend inexpensive circular connectors from 4-9 pins?

I'm vacillating between making a PCB board that contains the Teensy 4.1 board, the interface board and the display, and wiring things together the old hard way. Both have issues for me. If I knew how to make PCB's I'd go that way, but honestly don't even know how to get started. Previous looks into KiCAD have left me with not being able to get the models or footprints of the parts I needed. It's clearly my issue, as other people have been successful, but at least for me, using KiCAD has proven difficult. The paradigm seems difficult for me to grasp. On the other hand, wiring in a small box is no fun either. Based on past experience, one can have a lot of headaches with discrete terminals and wiring. There are a lot of connections that can go wrong.

If you have some guidance to share, I'd appreciate it. Thanks all.
 
There are many up here who do some of this for real, but I simply do this for the fun of it. So, take all of this with a grain of salt!

I personally use DipTrace(https://diptrace.com/) for laying out bords. I tried Eagle but at least back then it did not feel intuitive. And it always appears to be a constant battle to get all of the patterns and components and for the parts you wish to use on a board. For some I setup my own (like for Teensy boards), but for others, that are not in the Diptrace libraries, I often found that places like Adafruit and sparkfun, have setup Eagle Libraries (they may also now have Kicad). And Diptrace has the ability to import Eagle libraries.

It is not that expensive to get a few prototype boards fabricated. I have used oshpark for this as well as PCBWay. You can get them pretty quick with PCBWay.

USB Connectors for power and maybe connect to PC. I have used something like: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15463
Which is a panel mount connector (larger B) to micro-b

As for the other nitty gritty details. Hopefully the EE experts will answer.

Good luck
 
There are many up here who do some of this for real, but I simply do this for the fun of it. So, take all of this with a grain of salt!

I personally use DipTrace(https://diptrace.com/) for laying out bords. I tried Eagle but at least back then it did not feel intuitive. And it always appears to be a constant battle to get all of the patterns and components and for the parts you wish to use on a board. For some I setup my own (like for Teensy boards), but for others, that are not in the Diptrace libraries, I often found that places like Adafruit and sparkfun, have setup Eagle Libraries (they may also now have Kicad). And Diptrace has the ability to import Eagle libraries.

It is not that expensive to get a few prototype boards fabricated. I have used oshpark for this as well as PCBWay. You can get them pretty quick with PCBWay.

USB Connectors for power and maybe connect to PC. I have used something like: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15463
Which is a panel mount connector (larger B) to micro-b

As for the other nitty gritty details. Hopefully the EE experts will answer.

Good luck

Thanks for responding. Understood that it isn't that expensive to actually get the boards, at least if you are not in a rush! I will take a look at DipTrace. Seems it claims it will run on WINE, but is not native to Linux. That makes me groan, since it is my experience that programs that run on WINE tend to crash a lot. I may try it anyways, but it does seem to be crippled, at least for the free version.

This little board really is a carrier board with a couple of active simple components, it wouldn't take that long to set up once the footprints were created. Have to agree that many of these pcb programs are un-intuitive. I thought learning 3D CAD was tough, but it took me 3 weeks to learn well enough to proceed with abandon. But programs like Eagle and KiCAD just don't work like I do, at least not yet. KiCAD V6 seems to have less devices in their libraries than V5 did. I could not get a 2N2222A from KiCAD, which surprised me, since I bought 200 of these transistors this year. There are obvious work a rounds for the transistor, but for the level translating bus buffer, I couldn't find anything similar. What is difficult is the sparsity of documentation. There are claims of 3rd party libraries, but when I go to the 3rd party website the docs say it is for the previous major release. It's hard to tell if the libraries are even worth downloading. Guess it is the getting started frustration of a new thing...

I found a USB micro B F Panel to micro B M at https://www.datapro.net/products/usb-mini-b-panel-mount-extension-cable-m-f.html Would be better to find a USB-C F panel to micro B male cable, but haven't found one yet. The USB-C connector is nicer and is reversible. The USB-C socket would face the world. I could use a USB-C power supply, like an RPI4 wall wart that delivers 3.5A, or just connect a USB A to USB-C adapter cable to do the programming.

Actually as a real EE, I used Mentor Graphics for PCB work. That was on big unix workstations with outrageous graphics for the time. However, that was eons ago, (last century!) and our company had parts librarians to keep things going. People made footprints for us, that sort of thing. No longer have access to things like that.
 
I will take a look at DipTrace. Seems it claims it will run on WINE, but is not native to Linux. That makes me groan, since it is my experience that programs that run on WINE tend to crash a lot. I may try it anyways, but it does seem to be crippled, at least for the free version.

Highly recommend KiCad. Free, open source, runs on Linux, and surprisingly great.
 
USB-C for panel mounting.

Looking for some general guidance on packaging up Teensy's in a useful way. By that I mean, not a mess of wires in a wireless breadboard. We all know that won't do for a real project that needs to last in the real world.

I just got my electronic lead screw working on my lathe, using a Teensy 4.1 and an ILI9341, both from PJRC. I built a small interface board with 2n2222's and a 74xxx245 level translator/buffer. These three boards interact with a rotary encoder attached to my lathe spindle, and a 4 Nm NEMA stepper motor with closed loop driver, which is attached to the lathe lead screw. I have tested it out, and it cuts the threads that I have asked without issue. Pretty pleased with how it came out, especially since this was my very first Teensy project. Special thanks to @luni for his help and excellent EncoderTool. Yesterday I single point threaded a 40 TPI thread and a 16 TPI thread just by pressing on the soft panel display. I can also do metric threads, as well as many feed rates. At some point I will attach my DRO read heads to incorporate this information into my application. The interface hardware and software is already in place, I just need to tap into the read head cables. Yet another application of the amazing EncoderTool!

I'd like to have a USB wall wart power the Teensy box, via some sort of panel adapter. That way, should I need to update the program, I can simply plug in a micro B connector and it all works. However, I am open for any suggestions that are better. I am a bit leery about the longevity of micro B connectors, it seems, at least for me that the male cables wear out and become unreliable. Just recently had my Teensy be un-programmable, but it really was only flaky cable connections. Hope in the future Teensy's will come with better programming connectors. How do you do the power connections and the data?

Looking for advise on connectors that go from box to box, where Box #1 contains the Teensy, the interface board, and the display, and Box #2 contains the stepper motor driver and the stepper motor power supply. Can anyone recommend inexpensive circular connectors from 4-9 pins?

I'm vacillating between making a PCB board that contains the Teensy 4.1 board, the interface board and the display, and wiring things together the old hard way. Both have issues for me. If I knew how to make PCB's I'd go that way, but honestly don't even know how to get started. Previous looks into KiCAD have left me with not being able to get the models or footprints of the parts I needed. It's clearly my issue, as other people have been successful, but at least for me, using KiCAD has proven difficult. The paradigm seems difficult for me to grasp. On the other hand, wiring in a small box is no fun either. Based on past experience, one can have a lot of headaches with discrete terminals and wiring. There are a lot of connections that can go wrong.

If you have some guidance to share, I'd appreciate it. Thanks all.




I use a USB-C female-female 22mm diameter round connector from Elewind Electric, in China (Aliexpress)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...00024092374817!sea&curPageLogUid=YWL8Fi3WIb0N

Then You just need a USB-C to MicroUSB cable to the Teensy.

I have over the years used several of their solutions, except form the 3.5mm jack connector, they all works very well, even several yers later.


/Gigabyte
 
I have made a tiny bit of headway, or is that a Teensy bit?:p I was able to import the Teensy symbols and footprints from github into KiCAD as well as the buffers and transistors. Finished up the schematic yesterday. By any chance has someone made a KiCad symbol and footprint for the ILI9341 display? Would be nice not to have to model that in FreeCAD and somehow get it into KiCAD. At the moment, I am using a header socket with the pins labelled. Of course this does not reflect the true footprint of the display.
 
Sometimes I guess it depends on how fancy you want it...

For me with some of these components, I will simply use a 1x14 .1" spacing generic...

So for example my current experiment board that I had PCBWay partially assemble, when I have diptrace create a 3d render of it looks like:
Screenshot.png

Now if I really want full layout information and the like for some components, especially ones on the board, some I do on my own, other I look at a few places that
you can find stuff to download.

For example:
https://grabcad.com/library/tag/ili9341#!
https://www.3dcontentcentral.com/Search.aspx?arg=ILI9341&SortBy=match&PageSize=10
 
I print my own PCB boards (either garage using bruit force layout or professional boards). I use EasyEDA for the professional type as I've found the library support is excellent. Shipping is usually more that the PCB board but generally very low cost. I use PCB artist for the manual method, where I lay out traces by hand. It can be a pain and jumpers will always be needed, but I can generally design/print/drill/solder a board in a few hours. I use heat transfer to get the traces, and muriatic acid + H2O2 in 1:2 ratio. Total etch time is around 20 min.

For case construction. I use Solid Edge (which has a free student edition). I export the board layout in DXF from ECAD, import into CAD and model a case and structure around the PCB board. I include display openings, switches, standoffs for the PCB, and even snap fit backs. I have and Ender 3 Pro for printing the CAD parts.

This video will walk you through my general process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mubBqKiNc0&ab_channel=KrisKasprzak


If you want more detail to each step, let me know.
 
Sometimes I guess it depends on how fancy you want it...

For me with some of these components, I will simply use a 1x14 .1" spacing generic...

So for example my current experiment board that I had PCBWay partially assemble, when I have diptrace create a 3d render of it looks like:
View attachment 29352

Now if I really want full layout information and the like for some components, especially ones on the board, some I do on my own, other I look at a few places that
you can find stuff to download.

For example:
https://grabcad.com/library/tag/ili9341#!
https://www.3dcontentcentral.com/Search.aspx?arg=ILI9341&SortBy=match&PageSize=10

I'm interested in the 3.2" version which is on 3dcontentcentral. It seems you have to sign up for it. I can't tell what file types they actually have. If it is Solidworks, I can't import it directly into FreeCAD. Maybe I could get someone to export it to a step file that might work.

I can (and did) use the 1x14 pin generic female header for the ILI9341, but I need somehow to positively locate the 4 mounting holes relative to the pins. I do have a FreeCAD model of the board with the holes for the male header (that solders into the ILI9341) but am struggling to figure out how that gets back into KiCAD.
 
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For what it is worth, I requested SnapEDA make the KiCAD symbol and footprint for the display. I found some info and an Altium library for the 3.2" part. Who knows if they will do it, but I tried. :)
 
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How funny I just did the same thing on a Ebyte E220-900T30D except for DipTrace. I hope they can do it also Good luck!
 
How funny I just did the same thing on a Ebyte E220-900T30D except for DipTrace. I hope they can do it also Good luck!

It would seem they will do it quickly if you pay a small fee. Otherwise it is at their own pace, whatever that may be. I requested a freebie. In the interim, I will attempt to make a footprint. Think I know how to approach it now.
 
It would seem they will do it quickly if you pay a small fee. Otherwise it is at their own pace, whatever that may be. I requested a freebie. In the interim, I will attempt to make a footprint. Think I know how to approach it now.

Yeah i really don't find 24 or 26 dollars a small fee and rather see that as greedy. I am not that good at that stuff so i guess i will live without it. My daughter breakout board looks good but it would look better with the Ebyte i have to say. Only time will tell.
 
That's for 24 hour response which is pretty good. That being said, I made my own in-expert footprint. Nearly done with routing the board. Can't say it's a great job, but it is my first PCB I've ever made with KiCad. It's also the first PCB I've made in 40 years. Hmm, there doesn't seem to be a way to attach a picture in mobile mode. I'll attach it later tonight.

Had to use full site mode.
 

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Sent out my order to PCBWay! Cost me $34.13 with shipping for five boards. Too bad I only need one working board. Well, lets hope the board is good! I will know in 2-3 weeks. Now I need to design the box and get some circular connectors.
 
I went to download the 3.2" Version on 3dcontentcentral for you and the part said 3.5" when I clicked download so i didn't download it. If you still want it I can download it for you and send it to you.

PS. I like the Teensy footprint you made but I sure would like the 3D Teensy 4.1. If anyone knows where I can find it I sure would appreciate it. Thanks!.
PSPS. Nice board!. I found that JLC's boards are better and cheaper. PCBway drill holes are off consistently.

Regards,
Marathonman
 
I went to download the 3.2" Version on 3dcontentcentral for you and the part said 3.5" when I clicked download so i didn't download it. If you still want it I can download it for you and send it to you.

PS. I like the Teensy footprint you made but I sure would like the 3D Teensy 4.1. If anyone knows where I can find it I sure would appreciate it. Thanks!.
PSPS. Nice board!. I found that JLC's boards are better and cheaper. PCBway drill holes are off consistently.

Regards,
Marathonman

If you can download it, I'd like a copy to look at. I found a 3d Teensy 4.1, but it is mono-color and grey. It honestly doesn't look good at all. I have the step file if you want it. If I get ambitious, maybe I can import it into FreeCAD and colorize at least part of it.

The next time I make a board, I will look into JLC. This was my first PCB design, end to end, that I have ever done at home. $34 for 5 pieces that are 4 layer and 98x95.5mm isn't that bad, but a lower cost supplier is always welcome. I will look out for the drill hole problem, thanks for the heads up.
 
JLC is quite a bit cheaper. Because it was pretty cheap, I ordered a few more boards from them. We will see if they are better. Going Pb-free was an upcharge of $11. Even so, JLC is a lot cheaper than PCBWay.
 
The simplified colored model worked for DipTrace (Thanks thebigg) and did not freeze like the others did. It isn't all that pretty but it still beats a blank space any day. The daughter board with the LoRa and sensors will get attached to the Teensy.

Solar Tracker.PNG
 
Does anyone know how to fix 3D parts. I found a 3D part of the EBYTE E220-900T-30D but the markings are on the wrong side (bottom). I would like to move the markings from the bottom to the top side of the 3D part but I have no clue how to. If anyone is interested I downloaded the 3D part but it does need the proper markings fixed. Can Free Cad fix this problem?
EDIT;
Actually it was for some reason picking up my markings off of the board and showing it as the other 3D model. Doptrace is rather flaky sometimes now a days and wigs out on me.
Here is the 3D model of the EBYTE E220-900T-30D of anyone can place proper markings on the top would be nice. I can put the file on Google share if anyone can fix it.
EBYTE E220-900T-30D 3D model.PNG

Regards,
Marathonman
 
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I haven't had much luck editing step files, in FreeCAD. However, I have only been using FreeCAD since January of this year. I can view the step files, and select faces, but haven't been able to make significant changes. If someone knows how to do it, I'd like to learn how it is done.

Using just the simplified Teensy as an example, I cannot move a device on the top side to the bottom side. The step file seems to be an encapsulated simplified external view only. I can add stuff to it, or even make a hole in the part, but don't know how to remove or move existing stuff in the file. Hope there's someone more skilled than I that can help you with this.
 
Well it is not the end of the world if i can't. At least i filled up the blank spot lol! I found the other all grey one one doesn't fit, the pins are not 2.54 so i am sticking with the colored one. What u can't see is I have a place for both the 22D and the 30D. The 22D is 36 mm long and the 30D is 43mm long so I have female pins for both so one can choose which one they need.
I will be glad when my coder gets back off of vacation.
 
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