Colour-coded PCB photos

[AndrewS]

Hi all,
I've "combined" the PCB photos from http://www.elinux.org/RPi_Hardware with the PCB schematics, to colour-code each 'component' on each side of the board, according to which schematic module it's used by.
Could be useful as a teaching guide, or just for people wondering "what bit does what?"

[jbeale]

Wow, great effort to get all that organized! It is interesting to see,but I have to admit I had a bit of trouble matching all the different colors to the associated text. I wonder if there's some way to do something in javascript or the like, where you hover your mouse over the text and the matching parts light up.

[plugwash]

My feeling is you used too many colors with the result that it's difficult to match things up. Which IO bank a power decoloupling cap is associated with really isn't all that interesting.

[AndrewS]

Yeah, I had trouble choosing enough different colours (it's obvious I'm not a designer!), with the result that it's hard to distinguish between them   I decided to stick to the "modules" used by the schematics PDF, rather than try to invent/decide my own component grouping.

I guess the alternative to one-image-with-lots-of-colours is to split it into lots of separate images, with just one module highlighted in each image, but my gut feeling is that 19 separate images will just be too unwieldy.

I'll have a play to see if I can come up with anything clever in javascript   or if anyone wants to try doing something "clearer" with this image themselves, the source GIMP file is on http://elinux.org/RPi_Hardware......2F_Layout - you'll want to play with the "Select by Colour" tool on the "Modules front" and "Modules back flip" layers.

[Robert_M]

This is really a great idea - thanks for putting it together!

Perhaps for clarity it could be broken down into two images each for front and back: one pair with all the BCM2835 info, and the second pair with everything else? Still, this is cool to see

[AndrewS]

Robert_M said:

one pair with all the BCM2835 info, and the second pair with everything else? 
The BCM2835 is such a highly-integrated SoC, it's basically all "BCM2835 info"

[AndrewS]

jbeale said:


I wonder if there's some way to do something in javascript or the like, where you hover your mouse over the text and the matching parts light up.


Something like this?   http://www.andrewscheller.co.u.....dules.html

Let me know if you like it, and I''ll make a bit of an effort to tidy-up that page.

[plugwash]

If I was doing it I think it would be along the lines of

Power input and linear regulators

SOC and support components

Audio

USB/ethernet (since the same chip handles both may as well group these)

GPIO and board ID

Video output

[jbeale]

AndrewS said:


jbeale said:


I wonder if there"s some way to do something in javascript or the like, where you hover your mouse over the text and the matching parts light up.


Something like this?   http://www.andrewscheller.co.u.....dules.html


Wow! that"s very cool, and also useful. Nice work! One thing that comes immediately to mind is to have the option to view the populated board, as well as the bare board. Sort of like the Google "Map" or "Satellite Photo" view. Or even both views at once, if you have the screen real estate.

At first I expected to have to press a button for each group to highlight. Having it work immediately by mouse-over does make it quick, but you might prefer a button-press if you are using the image as a reference and want a group to stay highlighted while you use your mouse to open another document elsewhere.

By the way "status LEDs" highlights only two (OK, PWR); but aren"t there actually five? -oh nevermind, I see; the other three are part of the Ethernet system.

[AndrewS]

jbeale said:


AndrewS said:

Something like this? http://www.andrewscheller.co.u.....dules.html
Wow! that"s very cool, and also useful. Nice work!


Thanks


One thing that comes immediately to mind is to have the option to view the populated board, as well as the bare board. Sort of like the Google "Map" or "Satellite Photo" view. Or even both views at once, if you have the screen real estate.


You mean something like http://elinux.org/RPi_xray_wallpapers ?

That image, and all the ones in this thread, have been created from my same (recently updated) high-res GIMP project. Feel free to have a play yourself I don't have a RPi myself yet, so I don't have a "satellite view" of the bottom of the board.


At first I expected to have to press a button for each group to highlight. Having it work immediately by mouse-over does make it quick, but you might prefer a button-press if you are using the image as a reference and want a group to stay highlighted while you use your mouse to open another document elsewhere.


Quick update before bed - you now have the choice of "hover mode" or "click mode"

http://www.andrewscheller.co.u.....dules.html

[jbeale]

Excellent work! Maybe it is just me but I definitely like the "click" mode better than "hover". Having your nifty x-ray view available also would cool, but I think the page is absolutely useable as-is. Maybe just add a title to it . I guess you labelled things per the schematic notes, although for general use I would say "Video Out" is more descriptive than "BCM2835 DAC", since (AFAIK) it is dedicated to that one use, video output.

Will your web page be its permanent home? I would like to see that linked to from the R-Pi Wiki somewhere. It is very handy for anyone trying to understand the board.

[AndrewS]

Right, today's update now done, and I think it's "finished"

• Added brief descriptions of each module
  Added introductory text
  Added cell-highlighting (especially useful in "click mode")
  Added a "all components" view
  Also painstakingly added all the pins from IC2 (BCM2835) and IC3 (LAN9512)
  Added a link to it from the wiki

Really pleased with how it turned out. I love the way the colour-coded SoC pins look just like a Damien Hirst painting

[jbeale]

Excellent work- I stand amazed again at your painstaking attention to detail, with all the pins and the BGA.  Good informational content and would work nicely as an exhibit in the Ras-Pi museum, if such a thing is ever built!

[oztrailrider]

That's brilliant, I think that is a great tool to show people the various components and how they connect. I especially like that you have done all the pinouts etc. for the SoC. That must have taken a lot of work to put it all together. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

[Jim Manley]

AndrewS said:



Added a link to it from the wiki

Really pleased with how it turned out. I love the way the colour-coded SoC pins look just like a Damien Hirst painting


This really is a work of art!  If I had attempted it, it would have looked a lot more like a Jackson Pollock painting, complete with bits of trash scattered among the paint splatters and drippings!  :D

If you haven't already done so, I would strongly recommend placing copies on the wiki itself, rather than just linking from the wiki.  Of course, that requires agreeing to the creative commons license, so, you would need to allow unlimited publishing on any site that follows the creative commons licensing (you still retain copyright and attribution).  I would also encourage you to have the page(s) containing the images copied into The Wayback Machine at http://www.archive.org so that they're archived for posterity beyond the commercial Internet.

Thanks for putting in the effort to do this - it really is yeoman's service to the community to which we all should aspire to emulate.

[HansH]

fantastic pictures....

Perhaps someone can also post some same detailed photos of a real production board (including the connectors, same angle/resolution)

Currently this is all from the beta pcb boards and I would like to see if the components used in production made any difference.

[Jim Manley]

HansH said:


fantastic pictures....

Perhaps someone can also post some same detailed photos of a real production board (including the connectors, same angle/resolution)

Currently this is all from the beta pcb boards and I would like to see if the components used in production made any difference.


Supposedly, the only differences between the beta and production boards are a missing trace that needed to be jumpered on the beta boards, the composite connector is now yellow (instead of black, IIRC), and the production boards have a lower-profile SD card slot (that's relocated further in from the edge?) so the card is now nearly flush with the edge of the board when inserted.  Otherwise, I haven't seen confirmation whether the beta and production boards are precisely the same layout and outside dimensions.

[HansH]

correct, but if you resize the picture or take the gimp version, you wind up with a pcb with the size 850 x 531    which does not match the production pcb of 85.0 x 56.17

Also the production connectors used can make small differences...

I was hoping that someone would place some very good photos of the production board.

Nevertheless these pictures are very good and informative....

[AndrewS]

Thanks everyone for your nice comments   It's nice to see my hard work appreciated.

In response to particular points:


place a copy on the wiki - unfortunately the advanced html and javascript I've used can't be retrofitted into the limited Wiki markup. But as you can see I have placed lots of other content on the wiki.
CC license - already thought of that, scroll down to the bottom of the page
add it to archive.org - I just had a look, and their FAQ says "Neither organization has a 'crawl my site now!' submission process. .... The best way to ensure that we find your web site is to make sure it is included in online directories and that similar/related sites link to you" and "When a dynamic page contains forms, JavaScript, .... the archive will not contain the original site's functionality". Rest assured I have no intention of removing the content from my website though.
if someone does volunteer production-board photos, could I ask that they're at least the resolution of the original PCB photos (approx 4000x3000). I'll hopefully have my own Pi early next month, but I'm not sure how good my close-up photography skills are
differences between production and beta boards - there's nice production-board pictures here. The SD card position hasn't changed, it's just that the socket is now shorter, but the card itself still pokes out. Looks like the flat-flex connectors, the composite video out and the analogue audio out connectors have all changed colours. And the P2 header (SoC JTAG) has been fitted. Does anyone (yet) know if there'll be any differences between the first-10,000 batch of RPis, and the volume-production RPis?
mismatched dimensions must have got introduced when I perspective-corrected the original PCB photos - I never thought to double-check the aspect ratio! If I get time this evening I'll see if I can tweak the GIMP file as necessary and re-export all the images.

If anyone else has any (small) suggestions for changes, I may think about including them.

[AndrewS]

Just uploaded some small updates:


Minor graphical tidyups
Highlighted the IC2 and IC3 outlines
Added "All components" and "Gerbers" views
Added the schematic page number for easier cross-referencing
Corrected the aspect ratio and re-exported all 52 images (!)

Unless/until I get high-res images of a non-beta board, I think this is the final update for now

Same URL as before: http://www.andrewscheller.co.u.....dules.html

[AndrewS]

Forum user meltwater has kindly provided me with front and back images of his production Raspi, so http://www.andrewscheller.co.uk/rpi_pcb_modules.html has been updated and now for the first time shows the actual components on the back of the PCB

[selsinork]

I was hoping that someone would place some very good photos of the production board.

I'm sure someone can do better than these, http://imgur.com/a/v5efD#0

Would be nice if someone could take some really high resolution photos and put them on the wiki, the two hi-res beta board links on the wiki seem to be dead now too.

[jbeale]

I'm sure someone can do better than these, http://imgur.com/a/v5efD#0

That's already quite useful. I have not seen anything more clear and detailed than what you have there. Good job on getting the full depth of the board in focus. I'd recommend putting that in some at least semi-permanent place for referencing.

I plan to do a high resolution photo when I get mine, if there isn't one already by that point. Who knows when that will be- may still be a few months yet.

[alexeames]

I got mine yesterday and took some basic shots, but I'll get the macro flash out and try to improve the depth of field and also remember to take some of the back


http://eames.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/DSC_3127.jpg

[alexeames]

Don't know if this one's any better
http://eames.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/DSC_3171.jpg

Slightly off straight as the flash was reflecting nastily

If we get any daylight tomorrow, I'll see if I can do better.