3/20/2026 10 PM - routed fe1.1s chip

the fe1.1s chip has built in symbol and footprint in kicad so it was really nice to work with it. it is also pretty cheap, you can get it on lcsc for 0.65 usd.

3/20/2026 11 PM - Finished the rest of the schematic

routed upstream usb c, downstream usb c, usb a... the annoying part of importing lcsc footprints is that they don't use standard pin numbers. for example, instead of B1 A1 for usb c, they use 1 2 3, etc that only works with that part symbol

anyway,

3/21/2026 12 AM - finished pcb routing

zone fills are underrated. use them so you can minimize and maximize headaches of routing gnd or 5v and do more fun things such as routing usb and stuff

3/21/2026 1 AM - deco-ed the pcb!!!

may you bless your pcb with artwork... lots of artwork, like boykissers... include mentions! give shoutouts! the world is your white silkscreen oyster!! do solder mask, make your graphics SHINYY OOOOHHHHH

3/21/2026 4 AM - designed protective cover for pcb

there were so much jank in the sketches when i was trying to use onshape like a drawing program lol. it came out so nice at the end tho so good job to onshape

3/21/2026 1 PM - removed bulk capacitor

after some researching, having a bulk 470uF capacitor while being bus powered risking tripping OCP, so the bulk capacitor has been removed, leaving only 50uF of combined capacitance on VBUS behind.

3/21/2026 11 PM - fixed length matching issue

fixed length matching, can't believe how i missed that... maybe thats why i shouldn't route pcbs at 4am..........

anyway heres the updated pcb picture:

4/13/2026 9:31 AM - Soldered the PCB and fixed some issues

aura

printed solder paste:

reflowed it:

Y1 is a little ugly, also i found out that if i pull busj low, then it won't give my devices enough power and thus does not work. i tested that and found out so i decided to cut the gnd trace and bridge vbus to busj so it reads high and give my downstream devices more power.

Result:

I was trying to debug a crystal error:

found out it was a short that caused the crystal to not oscillate lol

4/13/2026 9:52 AM - Fix CAD

removed all of the holes on the top cover because this looks so much cooler.
sending to printer to print... very hypedddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

4/14/2026 - printed the case and assembled everything together

i had to fix the hole size in cad, it extruded wayyy to much, also forgot to add cutouts for the through hole legs and solder, and the tolerance for the pcb to fit in was a little too little.