This past week, I had planned to solder the PCBs that we ordered last week, but the
components that would go onto the boards weren’t ordered, so I’ll have to do that next week…
Instead, I continued to design the toolboard schematic.
With all the requirements of the toolboard putting constraints on the component
selection, such as the 3.3V logic, power and data maximums, and compact footprint goals, I
think the method I used to look for valid components demonstrates my ability to identify,
formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of
engineering, science, and mathematics. Especially with the ATSAMC21E, I think I have
found a very optimal set of parts that will work altogether with the tight constraints. Putting in
some of the filterable requirements into Digikey narrowed down the selection of parts by a lot.
Then I let price be the final deciding factor between the few components that made the cut.
My experience with digital communication systems is very limited. Earlier this summer, I
had been debugging an SPI line for a different project. And since CAN isn’t one of the
protocols that I am familiar with, when I was trying to determine the bitrate that could be
transferred, it was odd to me that it was a protocol that doesn’t technically have an unlimited
speed. It is interesting to me that the data speed for CAN 2.0 is not specified by the datasheets
of the parts that communicate with it, but instead through a standard. I think this covers my
ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning
strategies.
Demonstrating an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences can
technically be fulfilled both with the toolboard’s schematic, where the schematic is the same as
an engineering drawing, which is used to communicate how to manufacture a part to the
machinist. The main communication was from my discussion on what would make a slicer
more valuable. I’m pretty sure that the founders have not ever heard of the Bain Value Model,
so directly citing it would be weird in a normal conversation. But I think being able to reference
the important details of what would need to make their slicer worth adopting was a form of
communicating what I had written in the 322 writeup, but to an audience unfamiliar with the
framework.