June 11th: Started working on the schematic!
Opened up KiCAD and, after looking through some online references, like the onboard guide, started to place components.
However, I soon realised that: 1. KiCAD does not have all the components that I would require in its library, and 2. Also, the board would require PCBA,
So instead, I shifted to EasyEDA.
I added all the components that best fit my requirements and started wiring them, but when trying to rotate one component, I accidentally reloaded the page, so all progress was lost (learned that EasyEDA does not auto save your work the hard way) :(
Now I am downloading the desktop app and will continue with the schematic tomorrow!
Time spent: 2 hours
June 13th: Almost finished the schematic!
Decided to move away from EasyEDA because all of the UI and the keyboard shortcuts were different, and I couldn't get the hang of them. So I opened up KiCAD again and started the schematic from scratch. I used the 16-pin USB C ports schematic and, after some research between FE1.1s and SL2.1A, chose FE1.1s as the USB 2.0 hub controller!
I opened up the FE1.1s datasheet and then routed each pin to where it specified. I left the config and LED pins alone for now, and will get to them later on after researching more about what they are supposed to do!
And I also routed the power pins on the hub and ports with 10uF capacitors to ground and the CC pins on the USB-C ports through 5.1kΩ resistors to ground.
Time spent: 1.5 hours
June 14th: Finished the ports part of the schematic!
Looked at lots of USB-C hubs schematics and used them as a reference to modify my own! - Powered each of the ports with direct 5V from the upstream USB-C. - Added 2 decoupling capacitors on the 5V. - Added a crystal. - Routed the config pins using those schematics!
Also edited the resistor and capacitor values to show their actual values (e.g., 10k or 10uF) instead of Resistor
.
And routed the shields to ground.
Time spent: 1 hour