Hello hello! This is a part of the Electrical/EPS onboarding process. The goal of this onboarding is to get you familiar with PCB design (with Altium specifically) and introduce you to a few power-specific design concepts. You’ll be given the requirements for your board, find your own parts, design it in Altium, assemble it, and test it yourself. This specific onboarding project is related to the Power team’s work but is applicable to general PCB design.
You are tasked with creating a PCB that can produce at least 1 stable power output given a range of inputs and monitor input and output power. Basically a mini (incomplete) EPS board.
The power sensor(s) on your boards will be considered for use in the actual EPS board to monitor the power going through and out of our solar panels!
Here’s the recommended schedule for onboarding:
| May 24 | Find your components |
|---|---|
| May 24 - May 31 | Finish your schematic |
| May 31 - June 7 | Finish your layout |
| June 7 - 14 | Buffer time (if needed) |
| June 14 | Complete board and get ready to order! |
If this sounds a bit stressful, don’t worry! The schedule is flexible but we just want to make sure that onboarding doesn’t last the entire summer. It is highly recommended to finish the board and order it within the first two weeks of June. Even if it isn’t perfect it can still be sent out! There will always be mistakes and improvements so better to just get it done then wait to fix everything :)