W01 and L01 (OEM modules) drawings and reference designs

[danielm]

Are you planning to release any reference design of a carrier board for your OEM modules? Especially one with on-board LoRa antenna (ceramic and/or PCB-trace) would really be helpful.

[jmarcelino]

@danielm
I don't know about Pycom but I'm planning a breakout board using the Proant SMD metal antenna: http://www.proant.se/en/catalogue/embedded-antennas/--onboard-smd-antenna/onboard-smd-868915-antenna-pid55.htm

I don't particularly like the PCB trace, ceramic or ceramic+PCB trace antennas for sub-1Ghz.

[danielm]

@jmarcelino
It seems to be very interesting, well documented antenna with a good price. Are you going to follow the application note for your PCB design? When do you expect to have some test results?

[jmarcelino]

@danielm
I evaluated this antenna with their eval kit and it worked very well for LoRa using the Laird RM186 module. Then I used just the part itself for a Sigfox prototype which has been performing nicely.

Proant is super friendly to deal with too they answered all my questions, just found out the other day that they designed the new Raspberry Pi Zero W "PCB cavity" antenna as well!

Yes I followed the application note. If you use Altium you can find a schematic and footprint library in my open source Sigfox PCB Ruler design

[jmarcelino]

Are there any 3D model STEP files for the OEM modules like there is for the LoPy/SiPy/etc ? I can't find it on https://www.pycom.io/downloads/#3d-models

I need it fairly quickly (next week) to show some board concepts to some interested parties - as well as have a open source board next month - so if there is something already sitting on someone's hard drive please release it :-) otherwise I'll need to commission one.

Also if someone - unlike me - has good 3D skills to make such a part message me and so we can work something out.

[patrick]

@daniel Any chance to get the Altium files and component libraries for the reference design available anytime soon? Or am I looking at the wrong place?

[jmarcelino]

I have an Altium symbol, footprint and 3D model ready now - this is my own, not official from Pycom. ,

I'll make it public next month if there's nothing official until then. Hopefully by then I should also have had access to a real module to check.

[daniel]

Hello,

I just updated the docs with the final drawings of the OEM modules and the reference designs. The complete Altium design files are also available for download.

https://docs.pycom.io/pycom_esp32/pycom_esp32/datasheets.html#oem-baseboard-reference-design

Cheers,
Daniel

[danielm]

@daniel
Thanks a lot. However, the zip file seems to be corrupt, I tried to extract it on two different PCs. Could you please check it?

[livius]

@danielm

the zip file seems to be corrupt,

for meee too
Yust for confirmation that this not only you.

[danielm]

@livius
Thank you for confirmation.

@daniel
Could you please export the design in ACCEL ASCII format so we can try to import it into Eagle as described here:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/eagle-forum/importing-files-from-altium-designer-to-eagle/td-p/6827258

[daniel]

@danielm and @livius thanks for the report. The file was indeed corrupted (git trying to "fix" the line endings). I have resolved the problem. Please try to download it again. Thanks!

[patrick]

Thanks Daniel, the zip isn't corrupted anymore and is working like it should :)

[danielm]

@daniel
The zip file is OK now.
Could you please export the design in ACCEL ASCII format so we can try to import it into Eagle as described here:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/eagle-forum/importing-files-from-altium-designer-to-eagle/td-p/6827258

[scott]

@danielm @daniel I've uploaded my own Eagle library for the W01 WiPy OEM chip here

Check yourself that you are happy that the libraries match the specs and are fit for your purposes.

If the W01 library proves useful to people and there's enough interest then I could create and share an Eagle library for the L01 too.