MRover · Michigan Mars Rover · Since September 2025
MRover modular power distribution
I contributed to the rover’s power-distribution hardware from MCU-area PCB layout through motherboard and daughtercard assembly, continuity checks, and troubleshooting.
PCB assembly, circuit troubleshooting, and MCU placement and routing
Final motherboard assembled · Further power-team work planned
Power for a complete rover
The rover’s motors, control electronics, and other subsystems require different supply voltages. A modular power-distribution system brings these supplies together on a motherboard, with replaceable daughtercards providing individual power outputs.
My contributions connect board layout with hands-on hardware work: placing and routing components around the MCU, soldering the motherboard, and assembling and checking daughtercards.
Design phase: placement and routing around the MCU
I placed components and routed signals around the motherboard’s microcontroller in Altium Designer. This section connects power monitoring, CAN communication, and status indication.
I prioritized short, direct signal paths and kept routes on the same layer where practical, reducing unnecessary vias and making the connections easier to follow.
Short signal paths with fewer unnecessary layer transitions.
What this section does
The motherboard’s STM32 microcontroller is designed to monitor current across the rover’s power outputs, communicate over CAN, and control status lights.
Building the final motherboard
I soldered the final motherboard used on the rover and checked continuity throughout the assembly. The photograph shows that motherboard populated with its modular power cards.
My assembly work helped turn the board layout into hardware ready for the power team’s wiring and system integration.
Final motherboard soldered and continuity checked.
Assembling the daughtercards
Daughtercards are smaller boards that plug into the motherboard to provide individual power outputs. Their modular format allows a card to be replaced without rebuilding the entire distribution system.
I assembled these boards using a stencil to apply solder paste, placed the components, and soldered them with hot air. I checked continuity on every board I worked on and troubleshot connections during board checks.
Continuity checked on every board I worked on.
Investigating an earlier power-stage issue
During work on an earlier 18 V daughtercard, we noticed excessive heating in the high-side MOSFET. Understanding the cause matters before carrying that power-stage design into another revision.
I identified the bootstrap capacitor as a possible area to investigate because it supports the high-side gate drive. That remained a hypothesis: the root cause was not confirmed, and further investigation is still pending.
Excessive heating was observed; the bootstrap-capacitor hypothesis remains unconfirmed.