Yes — that makes sense, and it will help the board fit.
Instead of building telemetry radios onto the PCB, we can make the board provide two telemetry connector ports for redundancy:
Telemetry Port 1
Telemetry Port 2
Each port can expose:
3.3V or 5V power
GND
UART TX
UART RX
Optional enable/reset
Optional SPI pins if you want LoRa modules that use SPI instead of UART
That means I should remove the onboard telemetry modules and SMA antenna connectors, then replace them with two compact external telemetry headers. This will reduce board area a lot because the placement issue is driven mostly by the bulky modules/connectors, not by component count. The connector-replacement workflow requires preserving the old nets, replacing the parts, then rewiring the new connector pins to the same functions so the design stays electrically valid . For placement, the board should then be re-placed after resizing because the placement tool works inside the current board outline and cannot resize the board itself .
Recommended next move:
Remove onboard telemetry radio modules and SMA antenna connectors.
Add two compact telemetry connectors.
Wire both connectors to the MCU for redundant telemetry.
I added the two compact external UART telemetry connectors and removed the onboard telemetry radios/antenna connectors. The schematic ERC is clean, the board is still 70 × 100 mm, includes the corner mounting holes and ZEN, and the placement now fits/routs cleanly enough to start routing.
Routing was started, but the job paused because the account ran out of credits. Remaining work: add credits, rerun routing, then review/fix any remaining airwires or layout issues.
Wirelessly connects nets on schematic. Used to organize schematics and separate functional blocks. To wirelessly connect net portals, give them same designator. #portal
General Purpose Thick Film Standard Power
and High-Power Chip Resistor
47 kOhms ±5% 0.125W, 1/8W Chip Resistor 0805 (2012 Metric) Automotive AEC-Q200 Thick Film
Features:
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- Nickel barrier terminations standard
- Power derating from 100% at 70ºC to zero at +155ºC
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- AEC-Q200 compliant