CircuitPython Fixes Timer Bugs, Requires Redesign

Published on 2019-05-07 in Kubik M0.

It turns out there have been some bugs in CircuitPython’s pulseio module, related to how it selected what timer/channel to use for PWM for each of the pins. Long story short, it would sometimes re-use the channels that were already in use, resulting in those pins sharing duty cycle — you change it on one of them, it changes on the other as well. Obviously that’s not good for us. The good news is that the bugs have been all fixed now. The bad news is that it’s not possible anymore to have a PWMOut created for all the pins I’m using for servos at once — it was possible only because of that bug…

That means I need to redesign the PCB to use a set of 12 pins for the servos that can have PWMOut created for them all at once. To do that, I will need to do more testing to determine which pins I can use, and there is always a possibility that I don’t find such pins — in which case I will need to switch to a bigger package, and possibly also a SAMD51 chip.

I also need to rethink the battery charging circuit — I want to keep the robot off while it’s charging. Would also be nice to add that flash memory chip, for extra filesystem space for all the files.

I think I will drop the accelerometer in the process, because it turns out to not be that useful. I will also give up on the idea of keeping the top of the PCB clean and fitting all the components inside the hole in the battery holder — that was an interesting, but ultimately pointless challenge. I still want to have all SMD parts on one side of the board, though, because that makes assembly easier and cheaper, so they will probably all go on the top, with only THT parts on the bottom.\