5. Electronics production

Learning outcomes Described the process of milling, stuffing, de-bugging and programming Demonstrate correct workflows and identify areas for improvement if required

The electronics production as been one of the hardest assignments for me and has taken me several weeks to complete. Although it took a while for me to finish, I learned a great deal about eletronics.
I attempted to fabricate a PCB, solder the electrical components, and program the Fab ISP.

PCB Board photo I got my first board from one of my local instructors and stuffed the electrical components to the PCB.

I manually soldered components and made a bit of a mess on the board. This was my first time soldering, so I focused my attention on ensuring that the components were properly aligned and adhered to the board.

Next, I conducted a smoke test. While there was no smoke coming from the board, I did receive an error message saying that there was too much power coming from the USB. Upon further inspection of my board, I realized that I used too much solder on the USB component which caused to much power to run. I desoldered the USB from the board with the heat gun and accidentally ripped off from the copper from the board. This board was no longer usable, and I milled a new boarded on the Roland CNC. I milled the traces properly but didn’t cut out the board properly, so the board is larger than I expected. I will either cut off the excess part of the board or mill a new board later this week.

I created a milled and soldered Fab ISP.

Next, I followed the program steps on the tutorial and successfully programmed my Fab ISP.