Assignment

  • Group Assignment: characterize the design rules for your in-house PCB production process
  • send a PCB out to a board house

  • Individual Assignment: make and test a microcontroller development board
  • extra credit: personalize the board
  • extra credit: make it with another process

    • All the important links are Here

    Learning outcomes

  • Described the process of tool-path generation, milling, stuffing, de-bugging and programming.
  • Demonstrate correct workflows and identify areas for improvement if required.

    • Machine

    What is a PCB milling machine?

    A PCB milling machine is a dedicated device used to fabricate printed circuit boards (PCBs) with precision. It operates by removing copper material from a blank copper-clad board, creating traces, pads, and other circuit features. These machines are essential in electronics prototyping and small-scale PCB production, allowing for the creation of custom circuit designs quickly and accurately.

    This is the milling machine we have at our lab

    Roland Monofab SRM 20 dektop milling machine

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  • Model:Roland MonoFab SRM-20 Desktop Milling Machine
  • Software:V-panel software
  • Setting:To engrave the traces, we will use the 1/64 endmill and to cut the edges we used the 1/32 endmill.
  • Tools:drilling bits; 1/32 and 1/64
  • Material:Copper board

    • This is a labelled diagram of our PCB milling machine.

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    Before printing, we set up the settings

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    Group Assignment

    The PCB milling machine we used at the DGI aesthetic center is the Roland Monofab SRM 20 desktop milling machine. During our collaborative project, we learned that the machine faces challenges when dealing with extremely fine lines ranging from .001mm to .010mm. Additionally, we observed that the cutting of outlines wasn't consistently smooth or complete. This issue may have arisen due to the improper adhesion of the copper plate caused by the limited availability of double-sided tapes and our team's limited experience in handling such intricacies. However, upon acquiring sufficient double-sided tapes and reattempting the process, we achieved successful results.

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    Reflow

    Reflow soldering is a method used to assemble circuit boards by applying solder paste to surface mount pads, placing components onto the paste, and heating the assembly in a reflow oven. The solder paste melts, creating solder joints between the components and the PCB pads. This process ensures reliable electrical connections and is widely used for its efficiency and precision in electronics manufacturing.

    I would like to thank Mrs.Tshering Wangzom at the Super Fab Lab for teaching us how to perform this task.

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    Me trying!

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    For more information, Group Assignment

    Individual Assignment

    I got the following .png file of the files I used to print and customize my circuit board is the images from QuenTorres

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    Since we were asked to personalize the circuit board, I simply added my initials in a fancy font. I planned on adding a logo with it but the space wass limited

    I just added the initials instead of the whole thing

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    For the logo and lettering, I used Looka

    They gave me many options to choose from, I chose the font I liked

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    Firstly, after downloading the images from the QuenTorres page, Convert the images to .svg format to have it's outline to mill on the machine.

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    Then I used ModCE

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    Printing!

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    Me with the printed board

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    Now, soldering the board!

    Firstly the components, Sorry I forgot to include the 3 LEDs I used.

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    Now photo session with the boards!!

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    Testing!

    Firstly, open your Arduino IDE

    You will be needing the below URLs

    https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-pico/releases/download/global/package_rp2040_index.json https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json

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    Add the URLs I mentioned above here

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    Then open the arduino Blink file

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    Downloading Pico, because it is needed for the QuenTorres board

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    Before uploading,make sure to do the following

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    Me done with this week's assignment

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    My files

    My .rml zipped file All are in the zipped file

    My .svg zipped fileAll are in the zipped file