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Masters Thesis

Keaton-Ruthardt·Masters_Thesis·hardware/SmartBall_PCB.kicad_pcb

Masters Thesis PCB layout, top view — open source Nordic nRF board by Keaton-Ruthardt

About the Masters Thesis PCB

Masters Thesis is an open source Nordic nRF PCB design by Keaton-Ruthardt, published on GitHub under the MIT license. It is a 2-layer board measuring 25 × 20 mm, with 29 components from 18 distinct parts.

Its main chip is the NRF52840-QIAA-R, from the Nordic nRF family. Other key parts include the AP2112K-3.3, H3LIS331DLTR, LIS3MDLTR and MCP73831T-2ACI/OT. By type, the board carries 14 capacitors, 7 resistors, 5 ICs, 1 antenna and 1 inductor.

It belongs with the iot & wireless, sensors and test & measurement designs in this gallery.

From the project

Reproducibility materials for the MS thesis An Instrumented Baseball for Per-Finger Grip Force Measurement: Finger Force Tracks Delivery Effort Rather Than Release Velocity (Keaton Ruthardt, MS Computer Science — Data Science, Oral Roberts University, 2026).

Reproducibility materials for the MS thesis An Instrumented Baseball for Per-Finger Grip Force Measurement: Finger Force Tracks Delivery Effort Rather Than Release Velocity (Keaton Ruthardt, MS Computer Science — Data Science, Oral Roberts University, 2026).

A regulation baseball instrumented with four thin-film force sensors under the leather cover, sampling all channels at 480 Hz and streaming over Bluetooth Low Energy, paired per pitch with TrackMan radar release velocity.

Main components on the Masters Thesis

AP2112K-3.3NRF52840-QIAA-RH3LIS331DLTRLIS3MDLTRMCP73831T-2ACI/OT

Masters Thesis bill of materials (BOM)

29 components, 18 distinct parts.

QtyPartRefs
1
AP2112K-3.3
U1
1
NRF52840-QIAA-R
U2
1
H3LIS331DLTR
U3
1
LIS3MDLTR
U4
1
MCP73831T-2ACI/OT
MCP73831T-2ACI_OT
U5
1
ANT016008LCS2442MA1
ANT1
1
X50328MSB2GI
XTAL1
1
2.2uH
L1
5
100nF/16V
C1, C2, C4, C5, C14
1
1uF/16V X7R
C3
2
12pF/16V
C6, C7
1
10uF/10V X5R
C8
2
4.7uF/16V X5R
C9, C10
1
1pF/50V
C11
2
1uF/10V X7R
C12, C13
4
10K
R1, R2, R3, R4
2
4.7K
R5, R6
1
2K
R7

Masters Thesis design files

The KiCad project lives in the Keaton-Ruthardt/Masters_Thesis repository on GitHub; these links point at the commit this page was built from.

Masters Thesis: common questions

What microcontroller does the Masters Thesis use?

The Masters Thesis is built around the NRF52840-QIAA-R, from the Nordic nRF family.

How big is the Masters Thesis PCB?

The Masters Thesis measures 25 × 20 mm, has 2 copper layers and is 1.6 mm thick.

How many components are on the Masters Thesis?

29 components, from 18 distinct parts. The full bill of materials is listed on this page.

Where can I download the Masters Thesis design files?

From the Keaton-Ruthardt/Masters_Thesis repository on GitHub, which has the KiCad layout and the schematic; the links under Design files point to each one.

Can I use the Masters Thesis design in my own project?

Yes, under the terms of its MIT license, which Keaton-Ruthardt chose for the repository.

Can I test firmware for the Masters Thesis without the hardware?

Yes. HardLabs builds a simulation of the board from its netlist and BOM, so you can run and debug Nordic nRF firmware against it before you order a PCB.

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