electronics production

Milling depth

Once you have set the milling depth, it remembers this for the individual milling cutters.

ProtoPlace

With the placer I can first apply soldering paste to place the electronics afterwards.

ProtoFlow

In the last step the assembled board is put into the soldering oven.

Design rules test

I tested the design rules for our milling machine.

Design rules

For this I have created a test piece in mm, you can find it here: Download
It starts at a thickness of 0.02 mm and goes in 0.02 mm steps up to 0.4 mm.

0.02 mm

Material was milled, the remaining 0.02 mm thick part was neither lined nor does it conduct.
The other fine lines are all conductive, which means that I can theoretically produce conductors up to a thickness of 0.04 mm with this milling machine. But this is very fine and can be destroyed quickly during soldering so I will work with a thickness between 0.1 - 0.3 mm.

Up to 0.4 mm

Also with the upper separation between the two sides I get acceptable results from 0.02mm which is our thinnest cutter. For the separation between the tracks I will choose a thickness of 0.2 mm or more, as this corresponds to the next larger cutter, which is much more stable. For the boards I want to solder later I will make the distance even bigger to make it easier for me to solder by hand.
With this knowledge I can now create my first circuit board.

Add components

Now I can add my components by clicking on the marked symbol in the left menu bar. To do this I have to look up which components I have and add them. Not all of my parts were in the library. I searched them on the internet and added them.

Add libary

Since not all parts are included in eagle, I can also add libraries. To do so, open this menu and you can add an external parts library.

Connecting components

Next I have to connect my components with each other. For this I have to select the marked area in the left menu.

Create board

Now I can start building the actual board. All my components and connections correspond to the schematic.

Sorting components

First I move all my components onto the building plate.

Done

Cutout

Since I want to have a special shape I converted my shape with SVG to Eagle into a polygon.

Draw the tracks

After I got my components I have to draw the tracks. I have to make sure that the tracks do not overlap each other.

Export

Now I turn off all irrelevant components and can export the finished sketch.

Import

Since I designed my board in Eagle I have to import it here as a foreign part. I need the files that end in BOA for the outside cut and top for paths to be milled.

Load

The yellow line is my outer cutting edge and the red lines are my circuit.

Milling path settings

Now I have to make the toolpath settings. For easier soldering later on I choose single around the lines and double around the pads. You could also mill away everything you don't need but this has two disadvantages: the first one is that the cutters wear out faster, the second is that you can use the surface as a ground connection area.
The lower settings are how much material remains when the board is milled out, in my case, no material remains.

Calculations

Now I let the software calculate which cutters to use, so I can check if they are there. I also check if everything is possible the way the programm suggests.

Calculations

After that my board looks a little bit different, since the milling paths are now visible.

Place

Now I place my board on the material.

Fixing

I fixated my circuit on the next machine.

Soldering paste

The first step is to apply the soldering paste.

Add components

Now the components can be placed on top.

Add components 2

All components have been placed.

Soldering oven

Now everything is put into the soldering oven.

Finished

Next Step

Now I can start with the programmer.

First cut

During the first cut the copper tape did not stick properly to the underground and got tangled up.

Second cut

At the next one I glued the copper tape on the cutting foil, and put a cover on top. But this time, it stuck too well so I could not transfer it without destroying the thin lines.

Third cut

Next I used a foil which is intended to be printed with silver ink and glued the copper band on it, which worked well.

Soldering paste

So I applied the soldering paste as on the other board.

Add components

And then added the electronic components.

Comparison

The final cutted and mounted board, made with the silhouette cutter.

Too hot

The flexible material on which I placed my board did not tolerate the temperature and curled up. I'm afraid that didn't go too well. The week is over now, maybe I have some more time in another week to test the Vinylcutter again. And maybe I will find a material which works well as a base.