How to

1-Create the files to create a circut board

1. François sends us a Eagle file that have all the component in it. In Eagle, you can create a schematic of your board and from there generate the final form of the board. The adventage of it is if a component changes or you want to create another shape, you can without changing all of your line
2. When the board is created, you want to choose a Gerber file reliated to the type of circut you will do. It is gooing be one side or both side circut for exemple
3. On FlatCAMthe first thing you need to do is to change your Preferences and in the general section change the unit for mm. Our cnc machine can not work with the Fabmods because of that conversion of the code. Even if we change the code in the program, the gcode generate is not good.
4. When your parameters are good, you can open your Gerber file in FlatCAM (choose the copper_top because in eagle you specify the top_copper.
5. FlatCAM will generate the trace of your board
6. Double click on your Gerber file copper_top, select Full Geo and enter the good parameter for your machine.
7. It will generate you a CNC Job and if you double click on it, you can save the job
8. Create a New Blank Geometry, Editor and draw manualy a shape around the circut. save object and enter the parameter of Geometry Object for your machine
9. It will generate you a CNC Job and if you double click on it, you can save the job
10. These two file can be saved on a USB and then sent to your machine

Here is the Eagle file

Click on this logo to generate your final form

The final form. You can add here some texte or inscription on your circut

Click on CAM Processor and chose Top Copper (for circut for 1side)

At the end it will create a file like this with all your gerber in

Open FlatCAM and change your preference setting for the tool you will use on your machine

Open your gerber file

You will see something like this

To create a new geometry for your path, click on your Gerber file and select Full Geo)

Here are the parameters in Geometry Object for the path

Create a new geometry for your outline of your board, edit it and save it

Here are the parameter in Geometry Object for the path

2-Mill and soldered

1. Verify the level of the bed where you will mill your circut.
2. Put some double side tape under your FR1 plate and push has hard has you can your FR1 plate on the bead to flatted it and make it stick hard. Don't use the double side tape a little bit foamy it will move the plate.
3. Install your bits on the cnc machine. The one I use comes from China and they have a flat surface that create a triangle shape. That allows the tips of the bit to be 10mil. The more your bit is in the milling machine, the more it will be stable and the bits will be stiffer, so it have less tandency to break.
4. Set the origin of your axes and on the Z axe verify the conductivity between the top of your FR1 and the bit.
5. Send your job.
6. Sand very lightly your board to clean it with a 400 sand paper. It's only to clean the little copper that is supposed be detached, but is still attach by a tiny piece.
7. You are ready to weld everything.

Steps for weldding

1. Tape lightly your board to a surface
2. Apply some flux
3. Weld left to right if you are a right handed
4. Clean your soldering iron with the tip tinner and a wet sponge
5. Apply the tiniest solder wire on the tips of your soldering iron
6. Create a fix pad (heat the surface with the iron and apply some solder wire next to it
7. Take your component and fix it by heating the pad
8. Fix the component in the opposite diagonal
9. Weld everything else
10. Be very carefull, fix your component and add a little more on top after
11. It must be little bubble shinny
12. You can verify your work with a microscope and a multimeter
13. You can see in the last picture of this section that I soldered a resonator and not a crystal. It was an error. I discovered that a resonator is pretty similar to a crystal, but it capacitance is already combined to electronic part. In that schemetic, the capacitances are outside (so it's a big hint of what you neeeded here) Also a resonator will have 3 pins. It the strip in the middle, it's normaly the ground so you must soldered it at something (second hint, I only have 2 pins..oops) You can see in the first picture of the next section that I changed it.

Mill your pcb

Put some Flux Paste

Start by soldered the usb connector first and than work true the other side

The web adress on the picture before is the ssh adress of the repository on Git Lab

3-Program the board on a Mac OS

1. Following the official tutorial from the Fab academy, I downloaded Crosspack AVR,Xcode and the FabISP Firmware for MacOS 10.8.2
2. Connect your board and a programmer board on USB and connect the ISPheader together. I use a FabISP from a year before
3. Open the Makefile with TextEdit and change the # from the code like the turorial says.
4. Open a terminal with the FabISP firmware you download and make this sequence:
   • make clean
   • make hex
   • make fuse
   • make program
5. Boommmm success!!!! First board, first soldering, first programming...I am amazed!

Connecting the programmer and my board

Edit the Makerfile on TexteEdit

Do the secquence

Verify

Group problem

There is a problem. The situation is that everybody in the lab who already made it have their circut done, have their program and everything is looking perfect. When we all verify the usb connection, it is the same surprising silence for everybody. We check a lot of things, but everthing looks perfect. The weirdest thing is that Philippe , made a programmer Attiny 85 that he programed with another programmer, have a different method and he still have the same problem of us. Really spooky.

Solution

It was a problem of component. So, usually on the packaging, it indicates the maximum amount that the component can support. For exemple; RES 499ohms 1/4W. That means it is a resistance that can not have more than 1/4w that pass true it. In the case of the zener diode, we verified in the datasheet, it is the same number that means that it will consume that amount of watt. so you need to install zener diode of 500mw.

Check