How to get the PCB
I would like to clarify that I am not going to sell the boards directly or to create a business about it. It's just a hobby for me.
There are two PCB versions, v3 and v4.
- Version 3 is rated up to 65v of input voltage and is the first version released.
- Version 4 is rated up to 80v of input voltage and was relased due to the global chip shortage during 2021 because some chips used in version 3 was not available.
v4 is a better choice for those using a 14s battery as in that case with the v3 you only have about 5V of headroom. On the other hand the v3 has a slightly better DC/DC conversion efficiency and the PCB will be slightly cooler (about 3 C°)
Ordering the boards directly on a site like PCBWay is much easier than you might think.
Here follows the instructions to order the PCBs on PCBWay (the manufacturer i have used).
First you should download these three files from here.
- Gerber_TSDZ2-ESP32-xx.zip - (Gerber file)
- BOM_TSDZ2-ESP32-xx.xlsx - (Bill Of Material)
- PickAndPlace_TSDZ2-ESP32-xx.csv - (Centroid file)
If you decide to place an order on PCBWay please use the following link to register to PCBWay. It is a Referral Program link and in this way you will help me recover part of the costs that I have incurred.
Board Costs: For up to 10 assembled boards there are 35$ fixed costs. 5$ for the bare PCBs and 30$ for the assembly service. Then there will be the variable cost of the components based on the number of assembled boards you want to buy. The v4 components are slightly cheaper and the component cost for a single board is now between 6 and 8 Eur while for the v3 it is between 10 and 12 euros.
Once registered, select on the upper menu PCB Instant Quote and then select Quick-order PCB(Autofill parameters) option.
Then select Add gerber file and upload the dowloaded Gerber zip file.
Then fill the data like the image below. I have highlighted the data you should fill-in. Leave the other data with the dafault values (in any case check if the values correspond to the following imges).
Fill the two quantity values (number of bare PCBs and number of assembeled boards) with the number of boards you want to order. The minimum number of bare PCBs you could order is 5 but the cost will not change up to 10 PCBs. The number of assembled boards obvioulsy should be less than or equal the number of PCBs.
Now select Save to Cart on the right side.
And then select Add File to upload the "Bill Of Material" and "Centroid" files.
And finally select Submit Order Now
Now the order is placed and is under review. Normally within 24 hours the order will be confirmed and you will get the final quote including the components cost.
When the order is placed you could also upload additional instructions: I suggest to upload the images of the already assembeld board as reference. You could find these images in the same v3 or v4 folder were you dowloaded the PCB files.
When the order is confirmed you could proceed with the payment (you can use PayPal) and the order goes in production almost immediately.
The PCB normally are done within 36/48 hours and the assembly takes normally about 10 days (depends if the components are in stock).
I should also say that PCBWay support is very kind and willing to solve any problems. In any case, for those who decide to place an order I am also available to provide support.