Advanced BLE-CELL (ABC Board)

Overview

This is a course focused on building out a Raspberry Pi HAT with Bluetooth and Cellular on it. This board has 3 intended purpose at creation:

1. Education for CE Members
2. Development platform for easy access to a cellular and bluetooth design
3. Reference design for future build outs, including other Zephyr based systems

Prerequisites

• None

This course in the style of an "Apprenticeship", where the viewer is not expected to have all required elements, but will still be able to learn from watching the design process and layout of a board.

Learning Objectives

• High complexity routing of a 4 layer PCB
• Creating a platform, as opposed to a one-off board
• Understand the interaction between high complexity components, such as a bluetooth SOC and a cellular SOM
• Use the open source Zephyr RTOS to create an extensible firmware/software ecosystem
• Create "daughtercards" to create additional functionality using sensors and other components

Future Plans

This course documents a board designed in 2020–21. Hardware availability and the tools used in the videos may have changed; review the linked design material before planning a build.

Documentation

The ABC board and daughterboards are not currently licensed as OSHW, but schematic(s) is available below

• ABC Board Rev A Schematic

Access

The overview is public; lessons may require a paid plan. See current plans for access.

A public overview video, recorded 11/16/20

Lessons

• Advanced BLE-CELL Introduction
• BLE-CELL Component Background and Research
• Design Planning
• Choosing components and doing preliminary placement
• ABC Layout
• ABC Manufacturing
• Hands-on with the ABC
• Creating a daughtercard (ABCDCBA)
• Zephyr on the ABC board