Building my first Pico W Robot Controller, Phase 1
Full disclosure: This was done in collaboration with PCB Way who reached out to me. Thanks to Emily who reached out to me in the comments section of one of my articles. Also, they are having a Christmas campaign that includes a free upgrade to Pink, Purple and Matte Black solder masks. Check this link for more information.
Table of Contents
Intro
The Opportunity
My first PCB Design (Flaw discovered)
Sending off the Boards
Time to Solder
Testing Things Out
What’s Next
What I learned in this Phase
Intro
This is the first part of the multipart series where I show you the entire process of building my very first Pico W Robot Controller. I will document my mistakes, successes and lessons that you can learn from my journey.
The Opportunity
The reason I even got to this was because of Emily from PCB Way. Shout out to PCB Way for making all of this possible. It all started when she left a comment on one of my articles.
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So I emailed her right away and after a bit of back and forth I agreed to collaborate with them and I got working on my two PCB designs. For the purposes of this article I will only focus on the Pico W controller.
My first PCB Design (Flaw discovered)
To start my PCB journey I had considered many free applications for PCB designs but then after some reading I realized that Fritzing was the best option. Not only is it good for breadboard prototyping, it’s also good for PCB designs. So I went to the PCB tab and started to design. I added the Pico W which was the easiest thing to add first. Then I added four buttons and the potentiometer. I made sure to use the buttons that allowed you to insert all four legs. And then I used the correct potentiometer that I use on my projects. Below shows a screenshot of the design. I also added a copper fill for added stability. I decided against using Ground Pour as I wasn’t using high current devices. But as you can see there’s a flaw (look at the right button) I didn’t notice until it was too late. But luckily it wasn’t too hard to find a temporary solution.
Sending off the Boards
After I was done I sent off the Pico W controller and ESP32 Controller (I’ll talk about this in a later article) to PCB Way. Emily was able to help me with the credits and I used the credits to buy both boards. First I chose the default settings for the PCB design and for first time purchases that’s usually the best option if you’re new to using their site. I chose my shipping option and then the order was complete. The boards shipped within 24 hours and took only 8 days to arrive here. And they arrived just fine in the packaging shown below. The boards were of good quality and were appropriately wrapped to protect from moisture.
I did an unboxing of the boards and you can see how solid the boards were and the attention to detail. Video linked here so you can get an idea of what the boards looked like in person. Again, thanks to PCB Way for the opportunity and for prompt delivery.
Time to Solder
So I got to solder and while my solder wasn’t perfect it was good enough to hold the headers, the buttons and the potentiometer. Image sample below so you can get an idea of how my solder job was. Also image of the board with everything solder below.
Testing things Out
I tested things out by keeping the Pico W in my breadboard and then testing with some MicroPython. Well I ran into a few issues. The Backwards button did work but the Right button was stuck on always pressed because of the flaw I mentioned. I had both ground and GPIO on the same area and that caused it to always stay pressed. However, it’s proof that the design does work. I inserted the Pico and suddenly the other buttons also worked but only when I shoved in the Pico correctly. I also tested for continuity using my multimeter and every trace tested good for continuity. The potentiometer did work but acted weird because of solder balls behind the legs. That issue can be fixed with less soldering. Overall, Phase 1 was a success despite these setbacks.
What I learned in this Phase
In this phase, I learned about how to use Fritzing, how to send off the boards to PCB Way, and I learned not to use too much solder. I also learned how to fix my mistakes and how to test for continuity using a multimeter.
What’s Next
So what’s next? Well I will improve on the soldering and add a temporary fix to the Right button to avoid it from pressing down. And I have already fixed the PCB design to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. But for the next part I will show you this board working with my BLE projects so you get an idea of why I created this board.
