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Electronics Prodution
FabISP made

In 2017, …

millimg PCBs Everyone at the Lab wanted a FabISP!!!!

… Electronics production was a fight I took until the very end.
We were producing our electronics on a semi-closed/proprietary CNC called Carvey.
As an educational tool it carves wonders, and we managed to come up with a very simple workaround, which for simple boards like these, works very well.

That workaround, which I will describe first, allowed most of my colleagues to finish the course right there in 2017. In my case I was very unlucky using it and running against callibration problems.

Contents:

Explorations and Experiences - Hacking the Carvey for Electronics Production

At the lab, we thought that by having a small and precise milling machine available - in this case, the CARVEY - we would easily follow Fab Academy repositories steps and produce electronics would easily become a “walk in the park”.
That wasn’t the case. Carvey revealed itself as a pretense open but quite close environment.

As a workaround and since Easel accepted SVG files, we were exporting Eagles boards as an High Resolution PNG, tracing it on Illustrator or Inkscape and after that saving the resulting file as SVG.

downloadable FabOptimus from Ali Shtarbanov traced and ready to export for SVG and then import to Easel Download this SVG of FabOptimus from Ali Shtarbanov traced and ready to import to Easel

Easel UI Easel - A very comprehensive and simple software the comes along in a free version

Electronics Production at Fab Lab FCT

ChilliPeppr In this case we were using the Grbl Workspace

"EagleCAD -> ChilliPeppr -> CARVEY" Workflow

  1. Requirements:
    • Browser supporting ChilliPeppr ;
    • Install Serial Port JSON Server available on this Github Repository;
    • Tools:
      1. 0.8 endmill (holes and outline cut)
      2. 0.3 or less mill;

    2. preparing it

  2. Prepare the PCB by adding thin double-sided tape to the back and sticking it to auxiliary plate you could than attach to the CNC table;

    3. Custom block Filipe Silvestre designer and prototyped a new custom block and circuit to allow to use the PCB itself as a Surface Block

  3. Find Zero position: This task is quite easier after the customization Filipe done;
  4. Import .brd Eagle file just by dragging and dropping on the browser window;

    5. settings some important settings

  5. Choose Settings for Eagle BRD, according to chosen tools and machine;
  6. Send Gcode to Workspace;

    7. Auto-level made easy thanks to Filipe Hack

  7. Run Auto-level;
  8. Send Auto-levelled Gcode to Workspace;

    ChilliPeppr machine pause Then the machine will pause...
  9. The machine will pause for toll changes:

    In this cases you will have to position the new tool (the 0.8 end mill) at the zero position manually.
    Chillippr doesn’t allow for automatic tool length measurement.
    For that you will have raise Z 30 mm, attach the tool not screwing it too much so it can still slide. Then, lower the tool again on the same amount (30mm).
    If the tool is not touching the PCB, just pull it down manually and then screw in a definitive way.

  10. After these step unpause again and wait for it to finish.