A PCB that arranges WS2812b individually addressable RGB LEDs in a rectangle underneath a Jetson Nano to give it a swank gaming-PC aesthetic. Designed for UCSD's ECE148 final project by Team 1, SP21.
This PCB was hastily designed and is not my finest work, due to the time constraint we faced and the fact that turnaround times for PCBs take a few days unless one pays a small fortune.
The PCB was designed in KiCad.
Features:
- STM32 F103C8T6 Microcontroller
- 10-pin SWD debug header
- JST-PH power connector with MIC5219 3V3 LDO Regulator
- Power LED
- Input voltage range from 3.7 V to 5V
- 16x WS2812b (aka Neopixels) arranged in a rectangle
Absent Features
I mention these not to roast myself (well kinda), but as a disclaimer to those looking at my design as reference for theirs. As I mentioned, I was on a time crunch so I couldn't afford the time to make this a good-quality PCB. The following features should be included in a good design:
- Reset Pushbutton
- Generic I/O Breakouts
- Generic Button/LED for testing
- Testpoints for signals/power
I used Michael Tien's STM32 code for driving WS2812B LEDs using SPI over DMA
Porting his code was easy. I created a new STM32CubeMX project for an STM32F103C8T6 microcontroller, enabled the SPI1 peripheral, added a DMA channel for it, and set the clock as he described.
Then I automatically generated the code, and copied over Tien's helper functions from his main.c file,
and it worked like a charm. His functions are very straightforward to use, so thanks!
(TODO Pictures)
I dislike using clunky IDEs unless I absolutely have to (i.e. for large projects). So I setup my CubeMX
project to use a Makefile, and use make to compile the code. Then I use my STLink V3-SET debug adapter
to flash the code, though any ST-Link probe that has a mini 10-pin cable will do. A quick guide on how
I flash STM32 code is on my CubeProgrammer TechNotes