USB Type C

Published on 2022-11-20 in µGame 22.

Today I bit the bullet, and designed a version of the µGame22 with a USB Type C socket. What finally convinced me was the fact that a prototype I gave out had its USB port brutally ripped out, probably because it was put in a bag with the plug still plugged in. The USB Type C socket is much sturdier, and the particular model I choose has through-hole mechanical mounting, so it should be really solid. The main thing that was stopping me from doing this before was the fact that there is no ready footprint in Fritzing for such a fancy part, and that making such a footprint stretches the capabilities of Fritzing pretty thin. Not only do you have to deal with elongated plated holes, but also it’s an SMD part that is two-sided. I ended up making two separate parts, and placing them on the opposite sides of the PCB.

Will the fab house accept this design? We will see on Monday. Will this work? We will see in two or three weeks, when the PCBs and parts arrive.

Shout out to the nice people at Mastodon who helped me to simplify the routing and to get the resistors right!