Bourge Development Board
One of the funest parts of being a hardware engineer is being able to build custom hardware solutions from scratch. In this project i build a custom development boarding housing an IMU sensor, the goal was to have a basic platform to start testing out various motion analytics use cases for other projects i had in mind. I leverage Jlcpcb services and produced first version which had design flaw after which i produced the second version with some improvements and cost reductions.
System overview
The Bourge development board is a 4 layer PCB containing the following key sub systems:
ESP32 S3
MPU6050 IMU
Voltage Regulator
LiPo battery Manager
Power LEDs
Reset & Boot Push buttons
Hot Air Reflow
In order to reduce assembly cost, i just had the basic parts soldered by Jlcpcb, and choose to solder the Esp32 myself using a hot air gun.
Toolchain:
I used Kicad for my PCB schematic and board design.
Final solution
Bourge V1:
The first version has a design flaw in the voltage regulator, i was so caught up in reducing cost that i didnt pay attention to the max current supply which the regulator could provide, this resulted in board not powering up.
Bourge V2:
In next version i correct the above flaw, and also tool an opportunity to replace the MPU6050(currently obselete) with the ST lm6dsl chip which is more recent and cheaper.
Next version:
The next version ill focus on making the board alot smaller and further reducing the cost. Will likely replace the Esp32 S3 which the newer Esp32 C6 which upon up use cases to leverage the new Matter protocol which i could be interesting for other project i want to explore.