Sunday, January 18, 2015

Printed Circuit Board Design and Status

PCB layout so far.
The insides of the Stenosaurus consist of a single printed circuit board (PCB). The above image is a top-down view of the current state of the PCB design. The four rows of rectangles with two circles each correspond to the key switches. The protrusion near the center on the top side is the micro USB connector, which is how the Stenosaurus will connect to a computer. The protrusion to the right of the USB is the SD card holder, which will be where the steno dictionary and other settings will be stored. The concentric rectangles below the micro USB connector is the LCD. Everything else is what's needed to make everything work together and mount the PCB to the physical case.

This is a work in progress. The board outline and placement of the main components pointed about above are mostly finalized. The positions of the remainder of the components is still in flux. Most critically, the electrical connections between all the components haven't yet been routed, which is the next and final step before this design can be sent out for manufacturing.

All this is to say that progress is being made toward the first manufactured Stenosaurus! More soon.