This is my first try in creating an homebrew DIY breakout board for the ADXL345 accelerometer.
Yes, I know: it’s pretty ugly.. but it works! This is the first try.
I’ll try again soon using all the things I understood this time!
This is how I did it:
- Design the PCB using Kicad
- Print the PCB tracks to an Press and Peel sheet
- Iron the Press and Peel sheet on a copper board
- Etch with Ferric Chloride
- Clean with Nitro Solvent
- Drill with 0.8mm drill bit
- Cook the PCB after placing the ADXL345 chip with Sn62 Solder Paste
- Solder capacitors and male headers to the PCB
- Wire the PCB to Arduino through a breadboard
- Use some Arduino and Processing programs to test the board. Source codes available here
I want to say thanks to:
Kicad developers for making such a great Free, Libre and Open Source PCB design software
Laurent Saint-Marcel for giving me some great Kicad ADXL345 footprints
The guy behind http://codeyoung.blogspot.com/ for providing a great Arduino and Processing ADXL345 tutorial
I’ll probably write a more detailed how-to in the next days, meanwhile feel free to add a comment below.