Trill Craft Touch plate PCB

Floris

I've been using my Trill Craft with a simple stripboard.
As these stripboard lines are too small and close together, I'm designing a board with touch plates in illustrator.
Where can I get such a board etched? Anybody else had tocuh plates etched?
Any recommendations how to do this?
Are there PCB prototype services that allow Illustrator (or dxf) files?

A PDF or vector file of the Trill Craft board would come in handy, as it can be directly under the touch plate PCB.

Floris

Last weekend, I spend hours on Gerber and Cad pcb building software, but concluded it's not for me.
I think this CAD code is for the Craft
https://github.com/BelaPlatform/Trill/blob/master/hardware/craft/trill-craft_A3.kicad_pcb
It would be great if someone could convert this to Illustrator or PDF.

bela_robert

Hey, yes PCB software takes a lot of patience but it's amazing what can be done if you persevere.

I don't know of any PCB fab houses which will accept image files, they all tend to require gerbers with details of what's on each layer. We are working on a tutorial about how to make custom touch plates with KiCad which will hopefully help you in the future. It will be similar to the tutorial on designing a custom flex sensor:

The pitch of the header on Trill Craft is with standard spacing (2.54mm) so that it can be plugged into a breadboard. If you make your grid 2.54mm this might help when drawing it out. Here is also a PDF of the Trill Craft with outline and placement of all the holes. Hope this helps.

https://learn.bela.io/assets/images/tutorials/trill/trill-craft_A3-B_Cu.pdf

ruipenha

Hi, bela_robert ,

I am interested in designing a custom touch PCB using trill craft. Any news regarding the new tutorial? Also, can we find the outline of the new craft somewhere? The castellated pins would be super helpful for PCB to PCB connection. Thanks!

Floris

Thanks for the PDF!
There's a few local services that make simple double sided PCB's from PDF.

I'm curious for the new video too.

bela_robert

Hi @ruipenha

Excellent, we'd love to know your plans for that. We will be coming out with this tutorial material in the next couple of months to coincide with the launch of the new generation of Trill sensors in May. If you have some specific suggestions for steps you would like to see as part of the tutorial please let us know and we'll try and build them in.

At the moment we are planning to show how to design a custom breakout PCB which will act as a touch interface and faceplate, the end result being a USB MIDI controller. Trill Craft will be soldered directly to the back of the PCB and we will use an inexpensive microcontroller (Teensy or Arduino Nano) to generate the MIDI signals which will be sent out over USB.

We will also be releasing the outline at that point alongside all the KiCad files for the sensors so others can remix the designs. In the meantime here the latest PCB layout with dimensions to give you an idea:
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More very soon.

ruipenha

bela_robert

Hi,

Thanks! It seems that the dimensions are similar to the older one, with the added castellated pads, right?

I am planning to do some tests soon, maybe before May, but I think I get the general idea from what I've tried so far. I'm just unsure on the pros and cons of using solder mask above the touch areas (as you do on the trill boards?) or of leaving the copper exposed (as you do on the gliss and flex?). Do you have some insights on that?