Firmware Training Board - F2021

Introduction


The firmware training board was designed as a part of the fall 2021 firmware bootcamp re-design led by@Gordon Fountain (Deactivated). The primary activity in the new firmware bootcamp is to have students write firmware code to read the input of a potentiometer through an MCP3004 analog-to-digital converter using serial peripheral interface (SPI). Once students have written their code, they will use the physical firmware training board to test.

NOTE: The board was initally designed for an SMD version of the MCP3004, however due to lack of chip avaliability, modifications were made to accomidate a THT chip.

PCB Render

NOTE: Potentiometer is untextured, however in the model the knob is pointing in the positive Z direction

Flowchart


MCP Breakout


The primary component in the firmware training board is a SOIC package MCP3004, as shown below. On the PCB, there are two decoupling 1uF capacitors placed near the VDD and VREF pins. 1uF decoupling capacitors are reccomended on page 19 of the datasheet.


Full Schematic

Â