Got the PCB prototypes back.
Cleaning up the edges where they were panelized by the fab.
I’ll post some more pics once I get the components soldered on.
They are as follows (clockwise from top left):
Nano Sensor board
Nano Gateway board
Power Regulator Board
Mini Pro sensor board (rev 2 is a bit different…haven’t ordered yet)
RGBW board with attached power board.
Crossing my fingers that they work…
Awesome!
Keep us posted!
very cool! I can’t wait to hear how they work out 
Here’s the Gateway wired up…it’s fully functional too.
Working on the sensor boards now…got one done and it got HOT very fast…turns out the pinout for the library item I used was different to the pinout of the 3.3V VREG I have…so gotta fix that for future use.
Workaround is changing the orientation of the TO-92 package and swapping two legs. Not ideal but should keep things functional.
Neat!
Wow you got on that ASAP!
Looks 100% PRO.
Pretty AND functional.
Nice work!
Sigh…there might be something wrong with the Mini Pro device I used in Eagle…
Both the base sensor above and the RGBW boards have something weird with them. The Arduino is fine until they get plugged into the socket, then they stop responding properly. So I’m gonna have to double check every pin and all in the schematic and board layout.
Which sucks, because those two designs are the most expensive. Another run of prototypes will be almost $40…if I can figure out what’s wrong. Hopefully I can cut traces and use prototyping wire to correct the boards I have so they aren’t wasted.
Here’s pics of the assembled sensor and RGBW boards…if I get them to work.
Well…apparently the Mini Pro pinout I used in Eagle had the RST and GND pins swapped…so basically the boards are etched where the Arduino is in perpetual reset mode.
On the sensor board I can cut the trace and see how it goes…on the RGBW board there are 3 traces that all converge on that one pin as GND.
Of course it happens on the most expensive board to manufacture
So I’m gonna cut those two pins off the Arduino since it has other GND pins.
Will fix in REV 2.
Awesome work! Sorry to hear that there were some issues. I am looking forward to the files so I can get some made up for myself!
Finally got one of the sensor boards working…cut off the Arduino pins that went into the wrong traces (GND and RST between RAW and VCC)
Cut one trace on the board itself and ran 3 new wires to provide GND that I must have missed on the layout. Once my brain is fresh I’ll try and update the schematic/layout.
Tomorrow I’ll tackle the RGBW board and see if I can get that one ironed out.
I need to tweak some of the silkscreen info on the Gateway, then I’ll UL and share that board design.
Gonna re-watch some episodes of Archer and let my brain stop spinning for tonight.
Just curious if you managed to make the RGBW board functional and finalize the revisions. If you did and you are going to do another run of these, I will take what extras you don’t want off your hands, as well as get more made on top of that lol. I plan on using 8 of these in my setup.
You didn’t say much about the sensor board you had built. I was curious if you could fill us in a little on what you plan to use it for, and maybe share what you have for a sketch as well. I am interested in making at least one multi sensor board for a bunch of different inputs, so I was curious what you had in mind for it.
I might be biting off a bit more than I can chew here, as I have never yet even seen an ardiuno or written a sketch, so maybe I should curb a bit of my ambition until I get the first built out of the way 
Well…the RGBW boards are fundamentally flawed with the GND and RST pins reversed…because unfortunately half the circuit grounds go through that one pin. A bit more complex than just cutting a trace.
In essence, the sensor board is just a base config of a Mini Pro with a power regulator circuit that takes 7v-20v DC input and cuts it down to 5v and 3.3v for use. The Mini Pro is connected to the radio card with the 4.7uF capacitor to stabilize it. This leaves Digital inputs 3-8 and Analog inputs 0-7 free to use for whatever sensors you want to put on it.
There is no sketch specific to the board…it just provides the basic hardware setup to connect sensors to.
The RGBW board will be more specific to that function…one of the radio address pins is moved to #4 allow the #9 ~PWM output for controlling the LEDs to be used. Digital pins 7 and 8 are provided in case you want to add a sensor or two into the sketch…like a motion sensor or temperature, etc. The rest of the board consists of the MOSFETs and connectors for the LED strips.
The RGBW sketches are something that the guys on here developed…blacey and korttoma did the work there. This is just assembling and making the hardware compact. Plus giving a little bit of expansion.
I’ve done a v2 of the RGBW board…this time using a Nano so I could drop half the voltage regulator circuit and go with a more common pinout. The Mini Pro devices vary in the pin configs a little depending on manufacturer, but all the Nano boards I’ve seen were the same.
I’m also looking at some new designs using SMD components to make them less cluttered feeling. Not terribly happy with the v1 board designs since I was trying to keep size down for sake of cost, but made it difficult to see stuff or connect to.
Hope this answers some of the questions…
Thanks
Ross
I think using the nano is a good compromise. I was just going to check your pcb layout against my many pro mini boards.
Seems like the 12-pin rails on each side are always the same…what varies is the positions of A4-A7 pins, some have a 3rd GND pin and others…so in general they could work as a generic board if I only put in those 24 pins and limit the board to A0-A3 on the analog pins. Since I design them to be sockets if you used a Mini Pro with additional pins to the inside they would just hang there unused.
If someone wants to solder the Arduino in place to make it low-profile, then the holes would have to line up.
I used the most common layout for the Mini Pro…with A4-A5 being just inside and shifted a half-space up from A2-A3, and with A6-A7 and a third GND being at the bottom
The pin problem with the prototype boards came from my own mistake. When I edited the package data in Eagle to clean up the device and remove the FTDI pin holes from it, I messed up and placed the actual pins for RST and GND reversed but the labels were right.
So the schematic was correct and when the auto-router drew it, it drew the PCB with the traces going to the wrong pin locations. Totally my fault.
Once I get a solid design that works and has adequate spacing, I’ll post and share them. Probably will offer both a Nano-based and a Mini-Pro based sensor board so people can choose.
Notes to go with the image:
[ol][li]When the RF card and the Arduino are in place, you cannot really see the labels for the pin numbers.[/li]
[li]Putting power on one side and ground on the other, with sensor leads on each side means you’ll have crossovers like this for each sensor.[/li]
[li]To alleviate the sensor/power/ground placement, I plan to put 3 connectors for each pin using color-coded headers like this image. Have +5V, GND and SENSOR for each pin.[/li]
[li]Here are the GND and RST pins that were backwards[/li]
[li]Here’s the other ground pin…notice the trace connecting it to the 3rd pin up top…3rd pin is actually RESET so this created a permanently pressed RESET button.[/li]
[li]Used the wrong Voltage Regulator package, so I had to change the orientation on the VREG chip and swap 2 of the pins to align the Vin, GND and Vout lines with the actual board.[/li]
[li]Thinking of converting the VREG circuits to surface mount components to make them much smaller and possible tucked in the space between the rails under the Mini Pro. Only the DC jack will need to remain exposed.[/li][/ol]
Also posting a concept schematic for non-SMD version of the Mini Pro sensor…trying to fix what I know is wrong.
Ross,
Bringup up an old thread back from the dead but I could not find any info/update on these PCBs. (here or mysensors forum).
Is there a way I can buy them? I would be very interested in buying a couple.
-AM
I too have been trying to contact Ross regarding a LED PCB board but have not heard a response for quite some time.
There is fairly active hardware development underway here - Hardware | MySensors Forum. I am currently developing an IR Blaster (vera compatible) and once that is done (soon), I will develop a multi-channel LED dimmer as described here (http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,23342.msg176334.html#msg176334) but extended to include the MCU (i.e. Arduino on-board).
So that means I should start bugging you blacey
any ETA on your PCB?
Thanks
-AM
Yes, you should start bugging me. Look for a thread on the mysensors forum within the next month where I will solicit feedback; similar to this thread - IR Blaster (progress) | MySensors Forum
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