Board checks

Board Checks

These are things you should check for every PCB before it is ordered. They are common issues that have popped up multiple times for the team and are usually preventable. Learn from the mistakes of those before you, so you don't have to make them yourself.

Review custom parts
- Pin ordering, footprint/pad sizes
- Make sure that parts aren't flipped to the wrong side of the board. (Ex: the 48 to 12 V power bricks are on the right side)
- Stop property is ON for through hole components and surface mount
Review routing
Mechanical mounts (and that they use appropriately sized holes)
- Holes, clearances
Pass ERC and DRC (use 477 Senior Design rules here)
Ground stitching
- Lots of vias
Trace widths
- 8-10 mils for signals. 20-30+ for power
- Use 1 oz copper https://www.4pcb.com/trace-width-calculator.html
Current (amperage) expectations though polygons
Isolates (all polygons should have isolates of 12-24 mils)
- I.e. no polygon areas under inductors and enough clearance around connectors
- Also enough clearance between polygons and other traces/polygons
No MOSFET floating gate voltages
Power traces go through decoupling capacitors / they are in the correct location
Component availability
Realistic values/availability of parts
All power named the same names (no 5V and +5V in same schematic)
Logic levels/ mosfet switch voltages match (no 3.3V driving 5V or vice versa)
Breakouts for testing (GND, Power voltages, communications
Power indicator LEDs
Diode (reverse) voltage (in buck and boost circuits)
No copper (traces or pours) near mounting points
Connector labels
spacing of boards that connect (ex: ESC into backplane)
turn off thermals for high current pads
connector pinout matches
Connector accessibility
Programming signals are in correct order on header and connector to proper pins.
If there are many unused pads on a micro or large IC, anchor some of them with a via