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Drone Motor Carrier

drone-motor-carrier v1.1 · passive baseplate for the single-motor test cell
104 × 104 mm4-layer, 1.6 mm 96 × 96 mm datumhosts RP2350A/ADS1220 + PiProbe

Project overview

From the project's own overview document (author-written).

Motor Carrier v1.1 — Function

104 × 104 mm, 4-layer JLC04161H-7628, 2.000 mm corner arcs. Machine-pin datum 96.000 × 96.000 mm.

Carries the motor, passes the three phases from the ESC through to the motor leads, and hosts the RP2350A+ADS1220 molecule (N2) and a PiProbe (N1).

Analogue routing

The machine contacts sit upstream of the molecule's RC filter, so anything the carrier picks up arrives unfiltered at the bridge's 350 Ω source. The layout follows from that:

+5V_REF1 and +5V_REF2 are separate nets with no carrier-side tie to +5V. They merge only inside the molecule. See 03-Molecule/Overview.md for the ratiometric topology this preserves.

UART arbitration

The FC and the nested PiProbe both reach the molecule's RX line. debugprobe drives its UART TX from power-up regardless of USB enumeration, so a populated probe holds that pin continuously.

Net-(N1-TX) : N1.9 (PiProbe TX), R1.1          two pads only
/UART0_RX   : MC18 (FC), N2.14 (molecule RX), R1.2

R1 = 300R 0603 1 % sits on a 4.31 mm stub in the PiProbe branch alone. The probe reaches the net only through R1; the FC and the molecule's RX connect directly.

contention    3.3 / (300 + 50 + 50)  =  8.25 mA
R1 dissipates 300 x 8.25mA^2         =  20 mW of 100 mW
FC drives 0   3.3 x 50/400           =  0.41 V   valid LOW

R1 is not in the BOM — it has no LCSC field.

Phase path

Three large contacts (Ø2.62 hole / Ø4.40 ring, ~20.8 A each), one per phase, into a 4-layer pour with 49 vias at 2 mm pitch per phase, out to 8 × 8 mm wire pads with a 2.0 mm hole.

Phase copper is 12.02 mm × 4 layers = 1.207 mm², 0.214 mΩ over the 15 mm run.

Harness rules

What it does

A passive carrier baseplate. It mounts the BLDC motor, passes the motor's three phases straight through from the ESC to the motor leads, routes two load-cell channels, and nests the RP2350A + ADS1220 acquisition molecule and a PiProbe over its machine-pin datum. It carries no active silicon of its own beyond a single arbitration resistor — its job is mechanical location and clean analogue routing.

The board, section by section

Molecule nests

Two carrier slots (16 × 32 mm): N2 takes the RP2350A / ADS1220 acquisition molecule, N1 takes a PiProbe debug molecule. Each seats over the carrier's machine contacts as an already-populated sub-assembly. R1's placement (below) lets N1 and N2 sit without conflict.

BLDC phases

The three motor phases — A, B, C (J1 / J2 / J3) — pass from the ESC through the carrier to the motor leads. These are solder-pad terminals; they carry no 3D body in the STEP export, so they appear in the section legend but not as dropped parts in the viewer.

Load-cell headers

Two JST-PH 5-pin connectors (J4 / J5) — Load Cell Conn. 1 and 2. The analogue pairs run at a constant 0.45 mm pitch on B.Cu with no vias, referenced to the In2 GND plane. The machine contacts sit upstream of the molecule's RC filter, so what the carrier picks up arrives unfiltered at the bridge's source — which is why the routing is disciplined.

UART arbitration

A single resistor keeps the debug bus clean: R1 = 300 R (0603, 1%). The PiProbe reaches the /UART0_RX net only through R1, while the flight controller and the molecule's RX connect directly — so a populated probe (whose debugprobe drives its TX from power-up) never contends the bus, and R1 dissipates only ~20 mW of its 100 mW rating under contention.

Machine-pin datum

The 96 × 96 mm machine-pin datum — 25 contacts (MC1–MC25) plus four corner large pins (MP1–MP4) — locates the carrier in the cell and passes signals to the nested molecule.

Base-plate mounting

Four mounting holes (H1–H4) fix the carrier to the base plate.

Layout

Interactive PCB — click any pad, trace or zone to highlight its whole net; hover for pad and live part data.

Schematic

Interactive schematic — hover a symbol for its KiCad highlight plus live MPN / stock / price / LCSC.

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