Driver unit
About the Driver unit PCB
Driver unit is an open source PCB design by davidanton, published on GitHub under the GPL-3.0 license. It is a 2-layer board measuring 172.5 × 56.1 mm, with 66 components from 16 distinct parts.
Other key parts include the PCA9685. By type, the board carries 24 resistors, 23 connectors, 9 capacitors, 8 ICs, 1 transistor and 1 diode.
From the project
A Vibrotactile Navigation Aid for the Visually Impaired
Bachelor Thesis at the Media Computing Group, Computer Science Department @ RWTH Aachen University (Germany) Author: David Antón Sánchez Project Website: https://hci.rwth-aachen.de/openvnavi
OpenVNAVI is a vest equipped with a depth sensor and array of vibration motor units that allow people with visual impairment to avoid obstacles in the environment.
The ASUS Xtion PRO LIVE depth sensor, positioned onto the user’s chest scans the environment as the user moves. From the video feed of the depth sensor a frame is captured and then processed by the Raspberry Pi 2. Each frame is downsampled…
Main components on the Driver unit
Driver unit bill of materials (BOM)
66 components, 16 distinct parts.
| Qty | Part | Footprint | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | PCA9685 | TSSOP-28_4.4x9.7mm_Pitch0.65mm | IC0, IC1, IC2, IC3, IC4, IC5, IC6, IC7 |
| 1 | P-MOSFET | TO-252 | Q1 |
| 16 | CONN_01X08 | Pin_Header_Straight_1x08 | P0, P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P7 +8 |
| 1 | Fan | Pin_Header_Straight_1x02 | P17 |
| 1 | RPi2 Power | Pin_Header_Straight_1x02 | P19 |
| 1 | I2C | Pin_Header_Straight_1x02 | P20 |
| 1 | GPIO_INPUTS | Pin_Header_Straight_1x05 | P21 |
| 1 | GPIO_OUTPUTS | Pin_Header_Straight_1x04 | P22 |
| 1 | GPIO_INPUTS_SWITCHES | Pin_Header_Straight_2x05 | P23 |
| 1 | GPIO_OUTPUTS_LEDs/SPKR | Pin_Header_Straight_2x04 | P24 |
| 1 | ON LED | SMD0805_LED | D1 |
| 8 | 10uF | SMD0805 | C0, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7 |
| 1 | uF | Elko_vert_11.5x8mm_RM3.5_CopperClear | C8 |
| 15 | 10K | SMD0805 | R0, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 +7 |
| 4 | 220R | SMD0805 | R8, R28, R29, R30 |
| 5 | 5K1 | SMD0805 | R12, R15, R19, R22, R25 |
Driver unit design files
The KiCad project lives in the davidanton/OpenVNAVI repository on GitHub; these links point at the commit this page was built from.
Driver unit: common questions
How big is the Driver unit PCB?
The Driver unit measures 172.5 × 56.1 mm, has 2 copper layers and is 1.6 mm thick.
How many components are on the Driver unit?
66 components, from 16 distinct parts. The full bill of materials is listed on this page.
Where can I download the Driver unit design files?
From the davidanton/OpenVNAVI repository on GitHub, which has the KiCad layout; the links under Design files point to each one.
Can I use the Driver unit design in my own project?
Yes, under the terms of its GPL-3.0 license, which davidanton chose for the repository.
