• First pass at schematic

    zakqwy07/10/2019 at 04:14 1 comment

    This project should probably be prototyped using a collection of breakout boards and jumpers, but.. here we go instead. My first pass at a design includes:

    • a 3x5 keyboard matrix, intended for use with those nice square ALPS switches
    • a pair of OLED displays, one 128x64, one 128x32, on a common I2C bus with different address jumpers
    • a SAMD51 microcontroller; specifically, the big version with 1 MB flash and 256 kB RAM
    • a HopeRF RFM95 SPI-controlled LoRa radio module
    • an AAA-size Li-Ion battery, charge controller, and regulator

    As suggested on the front page, I referenced a few open-source Adafruit hardware designs, including the Grand Central M4, various Feather boards (such as the LoRa one), and the OLED breakout boards. This mostly saved time getting the 'utilities' to each subsystem, and gave me a good starting point for bypassing requirements and the like. Making sure I use the same I/O pins where possible means getting various libraries (GFX, LoRa, etc) running should be fairly simple. Famous last words.

    I'm new to a lot of things here, including the LoRa module (read: LoRa generally), the SAMD51, and the bare OLED displays (I've only ever used the ubiquitous breakouts). I like the idea of adding an SPI flash chip, but I'm a bit nervous about sharing a bus with the radio.

    This schematic draft needs a good once-over before I start thinking about layout, but I think it's a good start. Comments and suggestions are highly welcomed!