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Electrictronics Design

March 2nd, 2011

Well, it took a while but I finished a board. Most of my time was lost trying to get used to Eagle and finding all the right components.
One component, the ATTiny44, was in neither the NG or SparkFun library and we had to download it ourselves. The solution was found on a German forum.

We spend a couple of days trying to recreate the "Hello" board without a lot of success and we decided to ask for help in other parts of the world. Harris Sunyoto from Amsterdam had some good advice. For one, he used a pre-made version of the "Hello" board. This allowed us to take a look at how a proper schematic should look like.

Untill now, we where all trying to connect the lines directly in the schematic instead of using the labels and "Airwires". After seeing how it was done, I was able to figure out how to use it and it made my schematic much easier to understand (even for me).

My final schematic in Eagle.

I have to say that I wouldn't have been able to do this assignment without the rest of the Vestmannaeyjar team. I am not very experienced with electronics, it has been about 8 years since my last Physics lessons and it showed.

In the end, I used a spare board that Sammi made because my patience ran out with Eagle. I just could not create the right paths and always had some yellow lines that could not be resolved (quickly). We where also running behind on the FabAcademy schedule and should already have started on the Molding and Casting chapter.

"My" final board. Sammi's design, my soldering work.

In the end, I did learn to work with Eagle. The main reason that I did not use my own schematic is that it took too long to get the board right and frankly, I got bored of trying. It felt like a slot-machine! You put something in, pull the lever and hope it comes out alright. The results where different every time as well, so I couldn't discover a pattern and learn from my mistakes. Despite all this, I did learn to make a proper schematic and I am sure that next time I will be able to create my own board as well.