Thank you so much for taking the time to inspect all of this and write this up! I feel as though I have bitten off more than I can chew - for now - though I’ll probably use this as an excuse to dive into learning more about PCB-stuff in the future. Now to play the waiting game to get some funds and wait for more trash man goodies…
1 Like
Hey, thanks for your interest in the SteamVan! Rico did a great job reviewing the design and sharing his thoughts. For this project, I only ever had the PCBs printed, and I did the assembly myself. As a result, I don’t have a component placement file ready to go.
For my other PCB project, the CO60, I have sent it out for PCBA. I’ve only ever used Elecrow for PCB assembly, and I’ve been really happy with the results. For an example of preparing a PCB for printing and assembly at Elecrow, have a look here. I don’t think it would be too difficult to get files prepared for the SteamVan. Also, Elecrow sources components from a variety of places, so even if something’s out of stock at LCSC, they can source it elsewhere.
As Rico mentioned, having the PCBs printed and assembled will definitely cost more than buying a PCB from someone else, just because of economies of scale. You’ll probably need to order a minimum of 5 PCBs, and that will likely cost in the hundreds of dollars range. If you’re interested in trying to do the assembly yourself, the Gerbers should be all you need to get JLC to manufacture the PCBs. I got really into PCB assembly at home for a while, and it was pretty fun! Having PCBs fabricated, but not assembled, is significantly cheaper. But you have to be willing to do a fair bit of surface mount soldering.
Hope that helps. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any more questions!
3 Likes
Hello @jmdaly!
Thank you for the links explaining how to order from Elecrow with PCBA service, this is very instructive!
As you said PCBA service can be very expensive, I roughly tried to estimate the price with PCBWay on my own PCB and estimated that it would probably be in the 300 to 400 range for 5 PCBs, so your hundreds estimation confirm my guess.
Made my first PCBA order at JLCBC and eagerly waiting for the results, but damn they are sooo cheap !
Of course there are the limitations explained, like having to solder the USB connector yourself, but I’m getting pretty proficient on soldering tiny things so it does not matter much for me.
Soldering 100 SMD diodes on the other side…
So yes the cheapest way is solder everything yourself, did it for my first 2 designs, and it is rather fun 
2 Likes
Thank you so much for this info! I appreciate it a ton as I’m looking to get into pcb design and stuff one of these days.
1 Like
Hey, that’s great that you’ve got your first PCBA order in! Definitely share the results on KeebTalk when the final boards arrive 
It was nerve wracking for me sending off my first PCBA order, and crossing my fingers that everything would come back ok!
JLC started offering PCBA after I’d begun my foray into PCB design, but it would certainly be an attractive option for new designs!
1 Like
Yes it is indeed kinda stressfull, haha !
We’ll see if everything is fine at the arrival, I’m supposed to have 5 fully assembled PCBs(except JST connector) by the 26th of January.
I usually post my (slow) progress at the following KT thread:
@10gu10gu10gu, if this PCBA experiment is successfull and if a few other people in this forum are interested by a StreamVan PCB I may think to order a few of them for you guys 
Of course we need those STM32 MCUs to be back in stock, and to have @jmdaly agreement.
Very cool, I’ll be sure to check out your thread!
And absolutely, if you’re interested in doing a production run of the SteamVan, I think that’s awesome and you have my full support. I don’t have a lot of time at the moment to actively support too much, but know that I’d be glad to see the design produced and used. And I’d probably be in for at least one PCB
Too bad the MCU is out of stock at LCSC. I think it’s a fairly common part, so hopefully the lead time to get it back in won’t be too long!
2 Likes
I know this thread is a little dead at the moment but I’m (hopefully)shortly going to be running a custom case for the Minivan PCB, is there anyone interested in Either running this or helping me Get the order placed for some fully assembled ones? I love this project but know basically nothing about submitting PCB’s for assembly or constructing a gerber file/working in Kicad
1 Like
Interesting 
I have little experience in that sort of thing, although my own PCBs came out well soldered by JLCPCB.
Now I don’t think JLCPCB is suitable for a proper public GB as they have a lot of limitations.
But for a private projet they could be used if some hand assembly of a few components (like the USB C connector) is acceptable.
Also having a few PCB prototypes in hands before launching something more official is a good idea IMO. It allows to find potential problems (like fitting in your case design) and ways of improvements.
I can try to find a little bit of my time for that if you need.
For medium to high volumes, probably other manufacturers would be better like Elecrow(used by @jmdaly in several projects), PCBWay, etc…
This part is unknown to me, and raises many questions other than strict PCB electronics design.
One for example is having official QMK and VIA support (@jmdaly looks to have a working firmware in QMK repo, but in the handwired directory and no VIA support as it looks).
1 Like
Thank you for this detailed response, the case is made to support all existing Minivan PCBs So if I can’t figure out how to produce some I’m inclined to launch my IC as a BYOP Kit, but if there isn’t enough interest for that I guess I’ll be doing a lot more studying on PCBs
Hey, that’s great to hear about your custom Minivan case! I’m glad you’re interested in this PCB too 
I unfortunately don’t have enough bandwidth to run a GB myself for the PCB, but I’d be glad to try to answer any questions about the process and help that way. The Gerbers for the SteamVan are here.
@Rico is right - this board has QMK support, but not VIA support. I haven’t looked into what it would take to add VIA support, but that is something I’d be interested in looking into at some point. The SteamVan is in the handwired directory just because, so far, it’s only been a personal project. If a GB were run, I think we could move the SteamVan QMK code to the main keyboards area in their repo.
I’ll have to check when I’m home, but I may have an extra blank (unpopulated) PCB from the most recent rev of the SteamVan. If so, and if you’re interested, maybe I could get the blank PCB to you for test fitting with your case.
I’ve never done a full assembly run of this board, but I have with my 60% PCB, the CO60. If you want to have a look at what sort of documentation Elecrow needs for a PCBA order, have a look at my CO60 fabrication files here.
2 Likes
Doing a QMK port for an ARM chip is significantly more involved than for an ATMega.
As you already did the QMK port, VIA is not very complex to do;)
I have a question on how the reset work on your board (I’m not proficient on STM32 MCUs).
The push button is linked to BOOT0 pin that select the boot mode:
- Not pressed means restart from flash (the QMK firmware).
- Pressed means restart in DFU mode.
So you short NRST and GND pins while having the switch pressed to enter DFU mode ?
Or maybe you used SWD to flash the firmware ?
2 Likes
I’m glad to hear VIA isn’t too complex I’ve been meaning to get back into the QMK code and see what’s changed since I last had a look. The QMK ARM code was evolving heavily as I was developing these PCBs, so I’m curious to see where it’s at now!
You’re right about the resetting and going into DFU. On my board, if you hold the reset button down while plugging it into the USB port, the chip will start in DFU mode and you can flash firmware. In practice, this is how I flash QMK the first time, but once it’s flashed, you can do a software reset to get back into DFU for re-flashing. No SWD is needed for the flashing.
The hardware reset isn’t as elegant as the way resets work on the ATMega chips. I have seen some guys implement additional circuitry on their STM32 boards so that a press of the reset button, while the board is plugged in, puts the chip into DFU mode (similar to the ATMega boards).
1 Like
Yes, the reset circuitry on STM32 looks quite complex.
The man who did a great job to address that is Gondolindrim.
He wrote a very interesting article on STM32 reset on its Acheron Docs website, a must read.
Ty @jmdaly for the information !
The article I was making reference in my previous post is:
http://acheronproject.com/reset_article/principle.html
Hey, thanks for sharing that article! I hadn’t seen it before. In the article, Gondolindrim reference’s ishtob for the original reset circuitry. I had some chats with ishtob when I was designing these boards. He was super helpful and knowledgeable.
I didn’t know about Gondolindrim’s website either, so I’m going to browse through some of the posts there!
2 Likes
Good news, it looks like JLCPCB is now able to assemble USB connectors as well!
Still need to wait for these STM32 MCUs to be back in stock …
2 Likes
long live the Van!
2 Likes
Hey, that’s awesome, thanks for sharing! Having the boards assembled minus the USB-C connector could be kind of troublesome. It’s interesting that the STM32 chips have been out of stock for so long, hopefully they come back soon!
1 Like
Yes, JLCPCB constantly improves its PCBA offering
ST Microelectronics is not the only one to have trouble producing chips, this looks to be a global trend in the electronics industry; we can expect to have shortages of many components in the future due to the Covid19 situation unfortunately (production lead time of STM32 chips looks to be around 12 weeks).
For example I also had a hard time sourcing ESD protection chips made by Texas Instruments.
2 Likes