Hey guys!
Sorry for the delay in releasing some updates here!
I haven’t forgotten about you
We are up to v018 now, but many of these versions are iterations of different options we could go with for the RF switch layout and actual component used. More on this later.
My current issue with kicking out another design to the public repo is that it might not be the one we go with ultimately, and we need to have the new design RF-tuned again so a different layout other than the v010 board will have slightly different values on the Pi filter (most likely).
I can offer some suggestions right now though:
v010 photon_at7020_1.brd can be RF-tuned in this manner: replace C1 with a 3.9nH RF inductor, replace L1 with a 3.9nH RF inductor, replace C14 with a 3.3nH RF inductor.
Some cost can be saved by changing C9, C11, C13, C15 10uF 0402 caps to an 0603 package.
The RGB LED footprint needs to be rotated… this is fixed in the Spark.lbr now (will push that out today)
The RF switch needs 10pF RF dc-blocking capacitors on each of the 3 RF ports in series with the various feedlines. This has been the source of the iterations from v012 to v018 to get 3 more components to fit on the board. If your design has more room than the Photon, you will definitely have more hair remaining than me!
You should do the calculations on your RF traces to ensure they are already very close to 50 ohm impedance, but you should also ask your board house to perform this impedance matching for you as well.
Here is the recommended PCB stack-up, RF traces should be 0.013" with 0.0075" clearance to GND on top layer.
0.018mm - TOP COPPER (GTL)
0.19mm - 7628M/46 x 1
0.035mm - LAYER 2 COPPER (G2L)
1.09 to 1.10mm - Core
0.035mm - LAYER 3 COPPER (G15L)
0.19mm - 7628M/46 x 1
0.018mm - BOTTOM COPPER (GBL)
The photon can be JTAG programmed with the original JTAG Shield with a number of JTAG programmers including but not limited to the ST-LinkV2, R-Link and J-Link. The new JTAG Shield has an FTDI part on-board to handle everything that the ST-Link would off board.
There’s a firmware repo for the photon, but it’s not public yet. It’s coming!!
cc: @mtnscott @mars please let me know if I missed any questions!