Electronics production

First, we downloaded the image and opened it in VCarve. It's important to position the image in the bottom left corner to avoid wasting material. Additionally, it's much easier to calibrate the router in this location, as we have better visibility the board and the drill. It's crucial to note that our VCarve is already configured with the working area, in this case is 10 x 10cm, corresponding to the size of the copper board.

The next step is to vectorize the image by clicking on the bird icon. It is not necessary to adjust the default values since this image has only 2 colors, and both have high contrast. In this case, we just click to generate a preview, and if everything looks good, we click "Apply button" and close the window. 

The third step is to generate two different layers: one for the traces that will only be roughed out, and another layer for the contour that will be cut. It is crucial to separate them as both will be machined with different drills. 

Next, we will design the toolpaths for each layer clicking on the menu located in the upper right corner. There, we will select the 1mm drill, with a cutting depth of 1.7 mm, and for the traces, we will use a 0.2mm drill with a cutting depth of 0.2mm, this will only removes the copper but will not cut the board. 

Now that we have both files ready, it's time to open each one in VPanel. We should first send the traces and, at the end, the outline file to prevent the piece from moving during the process. In the image, you can see the manipulation options; you just need to move in the x, y, and z coordinates to set the origin. This will be the place where we want the piece to be located, but as mentioned before, we will position it in the bottom right corner. Once these values are defined, we can start by clicking the resume button, and the machine will automatically begin working. 

Quentorres PCB

I imported the image and placed it in the lower left corner to later be able to manipulate it better on the router 

The machining process for this piece is exactly the same as the previous one; we need two drills: one for the traces and other for the contour line. However, we must be very careful with the depths and passes the drills will make since it is another drawing with very specific and different characteristics. 

The first time I sent it to the Rolad, I followed the same criteria as the previous exercise, but added 3 traces offsets to remove more cooper around the PCB traces in order to make soldering easier. However, the time it increases was too much and the traces went very thin, so it didn't work that way. I fix it drawing just one trace offset.

Another mistake I made was lowering the depth too much, leaving very thin PCB traces and some of them were completely broken. After several tests, the appropriate depth turned out to be 0.2 mm

In the end, it turned out well, and I have the PCB ready, waiting for all the components to arrive soon. 🫶

I will also make the HDSPM PCB, following the same criteria as before and I will manually clean the copper that is not part of the traces to simplify the soldering work. 

Definitely this time was easier and faster because i already learned from mistakes and analysis. 

This is an express lesson that my instructor Luis Hernández gave me, where he explains the basic programming structure, which is divided into three parts:

1. description of variables: as its name says, it describes each of the elements arranged on the card.

2. program configuration. It is the part in charge of collecting the configuration

3. Loop section. It is the one that contains the program that is executed cyclically.

I used this scheme to verify LEDS position and describe the variables properly 

int Led1=0; int Led2=1; int Led3=26;

void setup() {

pinMode(Led1,OUTPUT);

pinMode(Led2,OUTPUT);

pinMode(Led3,OUTPUT);

}

void loop() {

digitalWrite(Led1, HIGH);

digitalWrite(Led2, HIGH);

digitalWrite(Led3, HIGH);

delay(1000);

digitalWrite(Led1, LOW);

digitalWrite(Led2, LOW);

digitalWrite(Led3, LOW);

delay(1000);

}

Connection of the XIAO RP2040 board