✨🌸Electronics production🌸✨

Hey there sis, welcome to this week's assignment where we're totally learning tall about PCB design and fabrication! Get ready for some really cool pink stuff ahead.

First of all I will explain what PCB fabrication is all about. So, basically, special gorgeous machines that are programmed to do this take our digital designs and turn them into real-life circuit boards. It's just like a carving wizzard omg🌟 they use this super fast cutter to carve out pathways on copper boards, making the circuits we need. The minimum trace width on a PCB is like the narrowest path it can take, it is like a little highway for electricity. It's super important because it keeps things from overheating or breaking when carrying current.

And then there's the number of layers - I like to think of it like building a sandwich! More layers mean more room for cool stuff without making the board bigger. But you gotta find the right balance because it affects how well everything works and how much it costs so be careful, we are not millionaire´s...YET😎💸

Unlike those big machines that the current industry uses, here at the FabLab Puebla we use Mini-Millst wich are all about detail, thanks to their fancy software. For this assignment I personally used the ROLAND SRM-20 model gurl, AND YES, I had my own personal wizzard carving my own pretty design.✨

I will recomend that you read your machine´s guide so you´ll know perfectly what to do, here´s mine:

SRM-20 Startup Guide

Finally here at the FabLab Puebla, when it comes the time of making PCBs, we've got some really cool tools like the one I used that is a pretty 15-degree V-bit for engraving and a 0.8mm diameter two-flute end mill for cutting. Also I recommend you to use this cool software called MODS to make things easier. Trust me, it's a bit intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, it gets better!🌺

✨Massive shoutout to our instructors for their engaging and enlightening session, guiding us toward mastering the art of PCB fabrication here at the FabLab Puebla. With these insights, we're ready to use this tech! Thank you!!🧸

For a better knowledge, feel free to check the Electronic Design week below

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Puebla´s Fab academy class of week 4

All about the design💅🏼

First off, I downloaded KiCad, this awesome platform our instructors recommended for designing electronic PCBs. I kicked things off with a tutorial from my fab lab advisor in Puebla. He showed me how to design a custom Arduino-like controller for my Xiao board and we downloaded together all the libraries my KiCad needed. This was my first time using KiCad and we started things off designing this board, easy peasy.

My pretty design featured an ESP8266 chip and a bunch of resistors to bridge connections since we couldn't drill holes or use ferric chloride to make our boards.

Personally, I was itching to use ferric chloride because it's way quicker, plus the Roland machine was booked 24/7. So, for this assignment I couldn’t complete all the task that included soldering because of the lack of time, but next week this will be updated with my results.

Soooo getting back to the deal… when I was designing the board, I made sure to include resistors for each LED and component output. Plus, I wanted to add pins to make it more versatile. Here's what I used:

When you're about to export the margin, you should check the boxes for 'margin' and 'user drawings', remove them for the paths. Remember, before saving, verify that the paths you create are preferably the width of your tool, in my case it was 0.4 millimeters, and that's how I reset it from the beginning.

My pretty table of components

SOPHIE´S ESP 8266	Where to buy?	Amount	Price	Total price
Proto Board FR1	Digikey	1/4 board	$24.80 MXN/unit	$24.80 MXN
AMS1117 3.3V	Digikey	1	$12.80 MXN/unit	$12.80 MXN
1uF capacitor 50V	Digikey	1	$7.30 MXN/unit	$7.30 MXN
ESP-12-F	Mercado Libre	1	$90.00 MXN/unit	$90 MXN
Switch 1206	Ckswitches	1	$0.80 MXN/unit	$0.80 MXN
SMD capacitor 1206	Yageo	1	$37.00 MXN/unit	$37.00 MXN
10kΩ resistor	Digikey	6	$3.40 MXN/unit	$20.40 MXN
LED	Digikey	1	$6.60 MXN/unit	$6.60 MXN
0kΩ resistor	Mercado Libre	14	$19.00 MXN/unit	$266.00 MXN
Male 2 row vertical header	Digikey	33	$4.00 MXN/unit	$62.00 MXN
			Total cost	$527.70 MXN

Look my pretty 3D perfect model

PLUS my fab files

NOOOW... let´s convert the 🎀files🎀 into Gcode (setting that toolpath)

Okay so for the correct reading of my file in the gorgeous ROLAND SRM-20 machine I had to generate my GCode in the Mods CE server. Let me break down the steps for you because even tough it looks a little bit difficult, it will be easier than you think.

First things first, I visited the server and got ready to dive in (okay I was very nervous). Once I was in, I opened the program and selected the Roland SRM-20 PCB option.

Next up, I chose the PNG file I wanted to carve. It's all about picking the right design but for this assignment our FabLab Puebla friends gave me everything I needed for an amazing carving experience. I learned that there are servers like ------- and ----- that will help you design your PCB. Then, I left the defaults as they were (because hey, if it ain't broke, why fix it?).

For the cut image I had to hit the invert button so the Roland could carve just where I wanted it

After that, I headed straight to the Mill Raster 2D option. Here's where the magic of the wizzard happens! I gave it a 2 offset number—just a little tweak to make sure everything turns out perfectly.

Now the next step: setting the x, y, z values to zero. It's like telling the machine, "This is your origin" Getting those coordinates right is key to getting the perfect carve (among other things of course).

And finally, the moment of truth: I hit download! The file saved with a .rml ending, like a digital signature saying, "I'm ready to carve, sooo hungry for the copper plate guuuuuurl!"

This were my beautiful parameters:

My sacrificial bedding ⚰️💀

For this week's assignment, we had to cut a sacrificial bed in MDF to fit the Roland machine's measurements so we wouldn't mess up the aluminum panel underneath. Our teachers hooked us up with a DXF cutting file, so I went ahead and cut and engraved it using the laser cutter.

This were the parameters that worked out for me and my graving and cutting situation

Max power: 37%

Min power: 30%

Vpanel instructions but CUTE🌷 (setting that toolpath part 2)

Okay so imma tell you what you need to know to about the Vpanel program to get the ROLAND SRM-20 machine to do its thing on your pretty copper plate, here's the deal: First, I calibrated in x, then in y, and then the z-axis is where we mark our starting point. So, I swapped out the engraving tool for this super cool V-angle one. After I finshed, I did another calibration, but this time just in z, so I could pop in my 0.8 mm diameter cutting tool. Oh, and remember, when you're putting your tools in the holder, make sure it's not too tight! Gotta leave it loose so we can do that last bit of calibration by hand and make sure it's all perfect. Don't wanna break the tool when it goes down in z, you know girl...?

For this week´s assignment my board was a fail because idk why my file exported with a problem in the board´s size, it´s originally a 10cm board and it ended up being a 5cm one...