USB-C an Experiment

USB-C is more and more becoming a standard in the maker community for power supply and coms with peoples creations. But there is a catch to this although the USB A plug to USB C plug cable is freely available almost everywhere, the sockets can be a little more daunting. There are not only many to choose for including some with and without through-hole pin the pitch and spacing often means you have to spin a PCB to make them work. then there are concerns with soldering them effectively. 

Who wants some PCB USB-Micro breakouts? I have like a billion, they're so much fun pic.twitter.com/xbk6nVj9JW

— Sam Ettinger (@DHammarskjold) July 20, 2020

I started to wonder if this would be possible with a USB-C socket with one edge of the PCB inserting into the USB-C plug connector directly. I did a quick Google search and was very surprised that this seemed as though it hadn't been done before. 😏

Next task was to do a deep dive into the USB 3.1 spec sheet 

And there it was the "tongue" of the USB-C receptacle is 0.6mm wide wit the contacts proud of the Plastic or in my case PCB. 

Wondered if 0.6mm PCB would break the bank in production costs so it was time to have a search around. My usual stop now for PCBs is JLCPCB. Is I went and had a quick look to see that it wouldn't cost the earth to at least experiment and see if this is viable.

Surprising enough that even with a lead-free finish it would only cost £6 including shipping, at least to do some experimenting.

Even if I ordered V-cut panels which would give me 90+ pieces they would cost less than £0.13 each. 

It was slightly shocked at how the price jumped when I selected my usual black solder mask finish, with a large "Special Process Fee". That would certainly blow the budget feels like I'm ordering boards in 2013 again 😅. Looks as though I want to be able to sell these at a reasonable price then they will have to be green.

With my mind made up it was back to the USB-C spec sheet.

Time to fire up KiCAD and get on with creating the part.

It took a bit of drawing but here is. there is something that I found frustrating within KiCAD. this is I couldn't find a way to draw on the edge cut layer in the footprint editor. Not entirely sure if it is something I missed but decided to draw the board edge into the user drawing layer that I can copy over later.

At the end of the day, I just want to see if this is a workable design so decided that making a breakout is the best plan. 

So far I have done two designs the one on the left has all 24 pins broken out for USB-SS and the right one is just for up to USB-HS. All the highspeed lined have their differential traces matched in length but the SS traced don't have the required supporting hardware, caps and filtering etc.

It was around this time i started to tell people what I was up to at which point I found there have been a few previous attempts at this type of connector.

Been there, done that, it is not worth it. The connection is super flaky, it wears off quickly and with a 3D printed case it's not even cheaper. pic.twitter.com/Qs3lwCRHlV

— Jan Henrik Hemsing (@JanHenrikH) October 9, 2019

We've seen a few people experimenting with this. @bobricius and @deshipu have examples of their experiments so far.

Fluff is a good example. https://t.co/kJvKny5hSv

— Tom Fleet (@tomfleet) July 27, 2020

 

I'm not put off exploring this path however I still think this could be a viable option could do with some tweaks in the long run. The other reason for continuing this is I don't think this option has been completely explored of documented yet.

At this point, I'm making some final tweaks to this design and hopefully sending off for production next month.

If you are interested in exploring this concept yourself all my Kicad files are available on Github so feel free to use them as you desire.

Footprint file: https://github.com/rabid-inventor/Kicad-assets/blob/master/footprint.pretty/usb-c-pcb.kicad_mod

Breakout Design: https://github.com/rabid-inventor/UBSC_PCB_Socket_Adaptor

A quick tour of the Sheffield UTC (University Technical Collage)

The other week I was invited on a mini tour of the University Technical Collage (UTC) in Sheffield. The UTC is a school for kids aged between 14 and 18, with a focus on technical and creative subjects including Engineering, Game Design, 2D/3D Design and Industrial Processes. This is alongside more regular subjects like English, Maths and Sciences.
   

The facility is a combination of new and old, parts of the building being the sympathetic resorted Sydney Works the site of Sydney Silversmiths and a brand new build.  

The reason I had been given a tour was to loan out some WS2812 and LPD8806 addressable led strips for there up coming Prom.  

This is the 'Multi-purpose Room' where it was to be held and spent a few minutes scratching our heads on how to get the LEDs into the gantries and how to power them.

The  amount of computing facilities is quite amazing with both PC and Mac facilities. Though I do find myself cringing very slightly at a room full of Macs.   

Some of the computer suites have dual monitors this is the game design room where the students make games and graphics using the Unreal engine. This is game engine is being used currently to create games so definitely promoting up to date skill sets.

    

 The UTC has a very good compliment of manufacturing equipment including mills, lathes, routers and laser cutters. As well as plenty of opportunity for students to get there hands on and build 3D printers of many types including fused filament and liquid resin SLA printer like the FormLabs Form 1.       

Then I was shown my favourite room of the whole tour the mini factory room.

This room is filled with Festo industrial processing equipment the same as could be found in any automated production facility WOW.   

This proper equipment with real industrial control look at them PLCs.  

Even a 5 axis Mitsubishi robotic arm to load parts into a CNC mill. 

Dealing with real axis, sensors, conveyors and stuffs. 

There is also equipment for liquid processing and mixing.

This is one of the Festo pneumatic workstations for that students can use to design airflow systems. The shiny blue and brushed aluminium of the Festo kit is very familiar as the Pick and Place machine that I operate at Pimoroni uses the same valves and vacuum generators. In the background you can see a Delta 3D printer built and maintained by some of the older students. 

'Be Creative' I'm sure I've tweeted that before, Totally in awe of the place and find myself wishing the collage I went to was like this. :)

This is a School that is well ahead of the curve, teaching up to date skill sets and with mentors from real creative businesses it's helping the next generation to go and MAKE STUFF!

Thanks to the Staff of the UTC for the tour It was inspiring.