i want to make a PCB that houses all of the electronics but i don’t know which PCB i should use that can handle the voltage and amperage coming from the ESCs. my ideal goal is to have all of the power lines and the signal lines integrated on the board and that has to hold 6 ESCs, 1 Pixhawk, 1 Raspberry Pi, 1 Fathom X, and that’s pretty much it. i need to know the specifications for the PCB that can handle the voltage and amperage without frying up and burning the board. Thank you SO MUCH for all you help
i checked it out and i was wondering what kind of PCB did you guys use for the ESCs. would i be able to use that type of PCB to make the custom electronics board. how would the specifications change when you add more ESCs. i assume with the increasing current, the board will have to change. i very new to this btw. thanks for all the help
I am presently completing the PCB layout and then I’ll print some prototypes.
I hope to get it by the end of the month.
At present I am struggling with everything I want to put on the board VS the space I can use. I wishes I could plug the pixhawk straight in but its not possible at present.
I have changed this last design to have one current sensor per ESC and additional sensor for other peripherals.
I also have signal conditioning to sum all those up and an isolated op amp for voltage measurements so it can still go in the pixhawk.
Once I have tested this in depth.
I’ll be selling this board naked or populated for all the DIY people out there.
I have also designed a piggy back relay board and a piggy back arduino board with fans that will mount on this main PCB.
Coming later will be small opto-coupler boards to isolate the PWMs but I will need a lot of tests to make sure this will perform. I might have to modify the pixhawk a bit.
The Arduino board has a traco power isolated DC-DC 12VDC 60W module for all the peripherals.
This is all in complement to my subsea power mod so I can measure voltage, currents, temperature etc.
I dunno, I’m pretty good with electronics design, analog, digital high speed, power electronics. If you are having trouble fitting stuff I am a darn good layout artist, mostly work in Altium. I could also help make parts or test it or review or something.
i see that you added a lot of holes on the PCB. did you do that because you wanted to completely eliminate the wiring in the ROV. i you planning on attaching the servo rail of the pixhawk directly to the PCB?
I use 2 boards back to back. Some of these holes are for communicating to the other board so because I have the boards back to back I needed to duplicate the signals from one side to the other.
With regards to having the pixhawk connected directly tis will be done via another board that will fit over the RaspPi.
Trying to eliminate as much wires as possible is only one of the goals on this board.
No worries, definitely seems like a valuable upgrade to enable fitting more into the 4 inch tube, any reason for the project being binned? Was it due to technical feasibility?
