Group Assignment

Testing and Third Party Frabrication

Please for group assignment details visit Anderson Zelarayan Web Page.

Individual Assignment

EDA Tool: KiCad

We select KiCad to design our boards. To proceed we instaled the Fab library (i/ all FabAcademy listed electronics components) following the instruction at GitLab repository., licensed by Fab Academy and contributors 2021.

  • We need to be sure that both Libraries, Symbol (a) - for Schematics editor - and Footprint (b) - for PCB editor -, are updated.
  • It is important to decide which components we will use for our circuit
  • We will start working on schematic Editor (a), and from that design we will automatically obtain the baseline to generate our PCB design.

PCB Designing

We select Module XIAO RP2040 as a starting point to develop a basic board to interact and communicate with a embedded microcontroller. Thus, it will include a push bottom and a LED. Based on this minimun components we proceed to work on our project schematic. The electronic components considered as listed as follow:

When working on schematics, we need to be careful with labeling each component in/out or GND adequately. This means that each component pins label must be the same with the ones labaled at the board. This to avoid problems when working on PCB Editor

This is the schematic where you can see all the components. You can download Schematic design file and the PNG file here.

PCB Designing

To obtain PCB design and fabricate it, we need to take the following steps:

  1. Select the PCB Editor File from the KiCad Principal Menu.
  2. Update PCB from Schemnatic option located at Tools Menu on PCB Editor.
  3. Set track sizes (width) and appereance (material) option located at Edit Board SetUp Menu. Here we set 0.4 for traces width and 0.8 for ground traces.
  4. Setup constraints option located at Edit Board SetUp Menu. The most important it is to setup cleareance at 0.4 to no exceed the end mill diameter
  5. Start drawing the traces selecting width and material correctly

This is the pcb design where you can see all the components. You can download design file and the SVG files here.

PCB Machining Setting

To fabricate PCB design we use SVG files applying following steps within FabModules Software:

  1. Upload SVG Board file.
  2. Convert SVG image inverted it using 1000dpi.
  3. Set mill traces (material) using 1/64" end mill (select 2 as offsetting number).
  4. Calculated Mill raster 2D.
  5. Visualize the image selecting width and material correctly
  6. Applied same steps for Cutting Edges but use 1/32" End Mill

The machining was made with a Modela MDX-20 in two parts. First traces using 1/64¨ y secondly cutting the edges using 1/32¨ end mills.

PCB Soldering

To proceed with soldering I fix the PCB with double contact tape. Thus, we can avoid any movement when tin soldering

  1. I started soldering the with small components
  2. The strategy was to fix one (pin) of each component and then the others
  3. At The final step I soldered the Seed Studio Xiao

The following photo shows the final result and the soldering process

PCB Testing

The testing process was undertake in two steps:

  1. First testing with the multimeter potential problems with the solding process. Due to the design, only ground traces produced sound during testing.

  2. The final test was made with basic programing using Arduino. We upload a basic programing to test LED functioning

  3. After runing the program, we specified pin number and check for LED lightining