PCB Boards are in and Mounted

Our Team's Electrical Lead - Nicholas Socky - has been working on the PCB board design to reduce weight and minimize space needed for electrical component connections. After weeks of work ensuring the boards were close to perfection, the boards were ordered. For Nick's first board design, the boards came in and worked flawlessly. The connects were correct with no errors. The design stacks the PCB boards over the Arduino to reduce the wire connections needed. Two boards are used to connect the majority of the electrical systems and are stacked on top of each other to minimize the required space even further.

Attached on the board (and visible in the photo above) are the GPS unit (top), the Current Sensor (right side), the DC-DC converter (top back), and the Arduino Board (below). A lot of work went into the electrical design to take from the DC battery packs from Cell-Con to provide enough power for all the components on the rover.

Testing is still underway, but these PCB boards are really helping keep the electrical components organized and condensed.