Fab Academy 2012

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Electronics Design



Echo Hello World Board

The assignment this week was to redraw the echo hello world board and add 2 components, the components were an LED and a push button.
I used eagle to layout the components and make a schematic which I then saved as a .png file.
Image of my redrawn board

Machining

I used the Roland Modela MDX20 to machine the traces on the board.
The Fab Modules was the program I used to create the toolpath as I had done previously with the Fab ISP board, this did not present any problems and produced a nice finish.

Populating the Board

I soldered the surface mount components in place without any difficulties and found that I was able to place and fix the components much faster having developed my technique whilst making the odd mistake on the ISP board.
Having soldered all components in place and checking for continuity I discovered that I had neglected to make a conection between 2 components in Eagle which resulted in their not being a trace between them. The image above shows the missing trace which I have added as a red line.
Rather than machining another board I chose to use a small piece of wire as a link and soldered it between the 2 pads.
A continuity test with the multimeter confirmed that I had a connection and hopefully when programming the board for next weeks assignment I should not have any difficulties.

Learning Outcome

Having never used Eagle before I have managed to familiarise myself with the basics, enough so that I can produce a basic circuit. As I gain experience with this program I intend to right a tutorial that will reinforce my understanding of the program and assist other Fab Lab users who may be starting out with this program. Picture of my Echo board
Picture of James Kitson
James Kitson FabAcademy 2012