PCB Design using Fritzing

Due to the Space Port America rules and restrictions, it was clear that a payload of 10x10x30 cm was not a lot of room to be creative, much less the reserved 10x10x8 cm that our rocketry team agreed upon, it was clear that as an organization, we were going to have to hone in our skills. This is where we decided that it would be in the best interest for both the rules and our member's if we learned together how to design a custom PCB with all our necessary components in place that would assure us a better shot at the restrictions imposed.

Although there are popular PCB schematic design software out there such as EagleCAD, we quickly learned that with the competition coming up soon, it would be unideal to explore using EagleCAD with such time restrictions. Therefore I suggested using Fritzing a open-source hardware initiative that makes electronics accessible as a creative material for anyone. Initially, our student organization was using Fritzing as a method to create easily viewable and understandable wiring diagrams such as the one pictured below:

*NOTE: This image is not a final wiring diagram and is only the 1st iteration of our design.

However, we quickly learned that Fritzing had a built in PCB design function. After further research, we decided to watch Youtuber's Mario's Ideas Part1 and Part2 videos on how to design and order using the Fritzing Application and JLCPCB.

Upon watching this video, I felt comfortable enough to order my own simple Arduino Nano, Resistor and LED circuit using the Fritzing Software and came up with this design:

With these specifications:

• Layers: 2

• Minimum Trace Width: >=10 mil

• Minimum Trace Spacing: >= 10 mil

• Minimum Drill Size: 0.8 mm

• Width: 51.41 mm

• Height: 35.99 mm

My order was placed and arrived after 3-7 business days. Upon arrival, I was more than pleased with the results and looked forward to our actual payload design.

Being able to customize our own PCB design will eliminate the need for lots of soldering especially with all the wires that would eventually gather up after all modules are added. Pairing up Fritzing with another program called Gerbv would allow the team to manually check the Gerber files to assure quality and functionality. Below you will see the current status (4/5/22) of our team's payload.

Despite the looks of a tight squeeze, according to the built in feature in Fritzing called "Design Rules Check (DRC) ", there is no issues with the current way the wires are routed. Via the manual check in the Gerbv program, showing a layer by layer view, there also appears to be no current issue.

In the future for further iterations, we plan on implementing test pads incase we need a quick circuit changes, in the situation an error slips by while prototyping our PCB. Lastly, we also plan on developing a custom Arduino Shield that would also help us cut down on wires and soldering.