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Manual assembly/paste printing and debugging of thin flex boards can be a bit annoying. Luckily resin printers exist 😄I'm using this frame with a vacuum pump for easier paste printing, which would be difficult even in a panel due to the different thickness stiffeners on both

While I´m using a screw-mounted sheet metal part for connector retention in the open-source smartwatch, Huawei uses an interesting clamshell type clamp to secure the high-density connectors. The lower part is directly soldered to the PCB and the upper part hooks into one side of

I love how detailed 3D models from Würth Elektronik are. I´m going to use the 3D data to model the characteristics of the U.FL connector I´m using in the Framework SDR module

While waiting for prototypes of the smartwatch, SDR module, PiMX8 full system and laptop trackpad, I thought I'd clean up the standalone keyboard design and get it ready for release

Effectively only 20% of the layer stack for the SmartWatch SiP is used for signal routing. PDN and signal integrity considerations have a much greater impact on board layer count than the number of signal pins on the SoC.

We just launched our first product on CrowdSupply. It's our original board, but we're adding IO-link (link in next tweet)

For stylized renderings, Altium can export trace geometry in mesh format. It's possible to export OBJ geometry and associated material libraries via the 3D PDF output. Blender for example can directly import OBJ files

The PiMX8 full system consists of a stack of three boards including the module. I´m currently testing the stack with the module and will publish the Altium project together with the module design data during the CS campaign

New PiMX8 modules and heatsink prototypes will arrive this week. There is also news on the firmware side 👀

Started prototyping the Framework Laptop 16 SDR module enclosure. We´ve redesigned the expansion bay into a machined part to give us more space to work with.

The open-source PiMX8 compute module now also has a small heat sink as part of the CrowdSupply campaign 😊

The bottom cover prototype of the open-source smartwatch is currently a 3D printed part. With a standard SLA printer this part can be easily customized. Due to the small size of the part 3D printing can be an alternative to injection-molding up to surprisingly high quantities.

I've designed a small power module to test the silicon-based inductors before embedding them in the SiP. The power module is 8x6mm and has nine rails, four of which are generated by buck converters plus some additional load switches. The inductors are 200um thick and are embedded

Time to assemble the Cherry MX keyboard version 😊

I've designed a small stand-alone case for the mechanical keyboard module I'm using in the open-source laptop design. It's still missing the wireless interface/USB hub/card reader PCB though

A few more boards to assemble 🙌 This time the full system for the PiMX8 CrowdSupply campaign.

On a rigid-flex PCB it's possible to have the flex section lift-off the rigid section. This will certainly come in handy in the smartwatch project, as it gives a bit more freedom in routing the flex sections in some places. This can even be done if the flex section is somewhere

Tried to visualise EM simulation output in 2D using BVTK nodes. I've simulated the voltage step using openEMS