To make (almost) anything

About Me Assignments Final Project Fab lab 2019

Electronics Production

Group Assignment

characterize the design rules for your PCB production process

Introduction

characterize the design rules for your PCB production process

In this week, we have to characterize the specification of PCB production processes and learn how to work CNC milling machine. there are different types of PCB board and we use FR1. For cutting and traces we are using 1/32 and 1/64 drill bit respectively.

PCB Producton

For PCB must use PNGs file and and we download PNG file from Neil's lecture.

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Downlaoding

After download png file we edit in paint for outline

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Trace and outline

There are few steps for generating RML files

  • Open the fabmodules.org
  • Input the image, i.e png file of pcb layout of ISP shown above
  • Select the machine, in our case it is Roland SRM-20.
  • Now Select the tool size that is 1/64 for traces and 1/32 for cutting
  • Now there are few details that we need to input, we can see those details from the images given below.
  • Repeat the same process for border cutting png file as well.
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    Calculation

    Same steps follows for outline,click on PCB outline 1/32 and click calculate to save the file.

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    Trace

    while we generate rml file for outline it did not show the bottom line of outline and we told issue to instructor, he says that same problem they facec, and edited png file again in paint,then we generate outline .rml file.

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    Trace Calculation

    After generating RML, sent both files to Rolan monoFAB SRM-20 machine and follow below steps.

  • Place PCB on machine bed
  • Open VPanel for SRM-20 in Desktop
  • Select the machine, in our case it is Roland SRM-20.
  • Change the Drill bit for traces 1/64 and cutting 1/32.
  • Now there are few details that we need to input, we can see those details from the images given below.
  • Select the origion to x/y and z axis by changing values fo x, y and z axis from where it should be start.
  • Adjust drill bit until it touches PCB board.
  • Change Z-axis value little bit to dig PCB board slightly, then select new value of Z-axis as origin.
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    Setting of Vpanel

    Click on "Cut" and delete all old files,then add new .rml file which you want to use.

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    Deleting Old Files and Add new One

    Click on "Output" to start the process

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    Click Output

    We initially made a mistake with resolution while generating rml files.. Ignoring PCB image's default dimensions we changes its dpi/resolution from 5000 to 2000 that resuted increased size of the PCB

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    Output

    After that we generate again .rml file using above method.

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    Final result

    The group assignment shows that how much machine works precisely with 1/64 drill bit to show even 0.001 in.

    Individual Assignment

    Make an in-circuit programmer by milling the PCB,then optionally trying other processes.

    Introduction

    During this week the goal was to learn how to fabricate a PCB from scratch using just FabLab devices.The target was to built a micro-controller programmer that will be useful for us in future weeks
    .We did not have to worry about the design. It was already given to us.It is also very usefull thing too.

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    Our CNC milling machine. A Roland SRM-20

    Here is our pcb layout of FabISP and its border for cutting

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    Trace and outline

    Creating the .rml files

    Before working with the CNC machine I had to create three different rml files: one to cut the traces, one to cut the board itself from the FR-4 and a third one to test that the size of the board and the milling bit
    utilized is the appropriate one. rml format is a Roland's proprietary format for its CNC milling machines based on G-code. I utilized fabmodules to transform Brian's png files into rml files

    There are few steps for generating RML files.

  • Open the fabmodules.org
  • Input the image, i.e png file of pcb layout of ISP shown above
  • Select the machine, in our case it is Roland SRM-20.
  • Now Select the tool size that is 1/64 for traces and 1/32 for cutting
  • Now there are few details that we need to input, we can see those details from the images given below.
  • Repeat the same process for border cutting png file as well.
  • 5 Terre

    Trace and outline

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    Trace and outline

    Miling

    For Milling with Roland SRM-20 we are using VPanel software, it has a direct wired connection with the machine. Following image shows the GUI of this software and mine working with SRM20.

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    SRM-20

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    Vpanel

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    Interaction With SRM-20

    There are few steps to work with this machine, are given below

  • Seleciton of the tool. For traces we will use 1/64 and for cutting we use 1/32
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    Tools

  • Place the copper board in the machine, but make sure the board is straight. I checked it using scale.
  • Power up the machine and open the VPanel software in PC. Sometimes we forget to power the machine and start working with the software which is absolutely useless..
  • Set the XY axis with the button given in the GUI
  • When you find the correct XY coordinates, save it by clicking the XY button given on upper right side of GUI.
  • Now Its turn to set the Z-axis. It is very important, otherwise there are many possible error may appares like your machine will start milling in air or it may print just top of the board in this case we will not get clear traces.
  • After setting origin now load the file by clicking at the cut button on bottom right of GUI and load your RML file.
  • now machine start milling my fabISP circuit. :)

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    Machine While Milling

    Soldering

    I used the BOM from the tutorial to find my components. Good practice is to ensure you have all components before milling.

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    Choose Components

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    List Of Components

    It took almost 3 hours to solder the ISP beacuse , i have not worked before with soldering and finally it is ready. :)

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    While Soldering

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    Ready

    Testing
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    Testing

    Programming

    Following steps were required for the programming of ISP:
    I used Ubuntu Operating System for the programming purpose. Following steps were required for the programming of ISP :

  • Installing the necessary softwares for AVR Programming.

  • Open the termianl and type following commands: