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The EDA work on the 84 Badge - Prod PCB

The production board was a much more difficult proposition than the development board even with tested electronics.

I had to size it to present the artwork properly and fit all the components onto the PCB in such a way as to not detract from that artwork.

PCB Layout

I decided to put most of the components in a corner where they would be out of the way of the artwork.

This had the added effect of becoming part of the artwork as the resistors appear to make a sort of box that Wonder Woman is launching herself from.

It also helped in my assembly since having most of the components in a small area of the PCB allowed my manual pick and place machine (my hands holding tweezers) to get the parts on the board faster.

Prod_PCB1

With most of the components in the corner done I focused on placing the LEDs next.

I had three different colors of LEDs grouped in different quantities to serve different purposes.
So, I had to match up the exact LED I wanted in each place within the artwork of the board.

In some cases this was easy to do.

Prod_PCB3

In some cases this was more difficult.

Prod_PCB2

Once the LEDs were placed I had to run all the traces to them.

This was challenging because unlike on my development board I wasn’t lining these up in neat lines but rather all over the board.

The help with this and avoid complicated routing I put the ground traces on the back of the board and used vias to connect them to the front.

To minimize the number of vias needed I chained several LED grounds together to be routed to a ground via.

Prod_PCB4

Once all the placement and trace routing was complete I added some logo’s and some text to the back of the board and it was finished.

This completes the Prod PCB review.

You can download a PDF of the Prod PCB file here.

Prod_PCB5