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4. Introduction to Electronic Production Week

Welcome to Electronic Production Week! This week, we dive into the exciting realm of microcontroller development and PCB fabrication. Our main task involves creating and testing a microcontroller development board, honing our skills in electronic design and prototyping. Additionally, we’ll explore the process of ordering a professionally manufactured PCB from a boardhouse outside, gaining valuable insights into the intricacies of electronic production. Was quite of a challenging week for aguy like me because before I have never even touched on making a PCB being from a Design Background also had a lot of fun while exploring this tangent as well

Also here are all the reference links that I have used in this week to learn something or the other hope it helps you!

14/2/24 - Electronics Production

  • https://www.mcmaster.com/ - for Fastners joiners models

  • https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/tinyml_course_Image_classification_project/ - And here is Image classification demo I made with XIAO

  • https://www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-RP2040-v1-0-p-5026.html

  • https://fabacademy.org/2023/labs/riidl/students/jesal-mehta/weekly/week4C/
  • https://gitlab.fabcloud.org/pub/programmers/quentorres
  • https://www.ablcircuits.co.uk/what-are-pcbs-used-for/#:~:text=Printed%20circuits%20boards%2C%20also%20known,with%20layers%20of%20copper%20circuitry. - To know about what the PCB is
  • https://worldsway.com/types-of-pcb-boards/ - Types of PCB’s
  • https://www.ultralibrarian.com/2021/04/13/important-printed-circuit-board-terminology-you-should-know-ulc - Terms used in the PCB
  • https://jlcpcb.com/ - Boardhouse

Terms that are used in PCB

When designing a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), several terms and concepts are commonly encountered:

  • Schematic: A graphical representation of the electronic components and their connections, typically created using schematic capture software.

  • Footprint: The physical layout or pattern of a component on the PCB, specifying the arrangement of its electrical contacts or pins.

  • Trace: A conductive pathway on the PCB that connects components and facilitates the flow of electrical current.

  • Pad: A small area of copper on the PCB surface where a component lead is soldered or connected.

  • Via: A plated hole in the PCB used to create connections between different layers of the board.

  • Silkscreen: Non-conductive ink markings on the PCB surface used for component identification, labeling, and assembly guidance.

  • Gerber Files: Standardized files generated from PCB design software that contain information about the PCB’s layers, traces, pads, and other features, used for fabrication by PCB manufacturers.

Understanding these terms is essential for effectively communicating and executing PCB designs, ensuring successful fabrication and assembly of electronic circuits.

Types of PCB Boards

Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) come in various types, each catering to specific applications and requirements:

  • Single-Sided PCBs: These basic PCBs have components and copper traces on one side of the board, commonly used in simpler electronic devices.

  • Double-Sided PCBs: With components mounted on both sides and copper traces on both sides, double-sided PCBs offer increased flexibility and are suitable for more complex circuit designs.

  • Multilayer PCBs: These PCBs consist of multiple layers of copper traces sandwiched between insulating layers. They provide high density and accommodate complex designs, commonly used in modern electronic devices.

  • Rigid PCBs: Made from rigid materials like fiberglass, rigid PCBs offer mechanical stability and are widely used in most electronic devices.

  • Flexible PCBs: Also known as flex PCBs or FPCs, these PCBs are made from flexible materials like polyimide, ideal for applications requiring bending or shaping.

  • Rigid-Flex PCBs: Combining the benefits of rigid and flexible PCBs, rigid-flex PCBs feature both rigid and flexible sections in a single board, offering enhanced design flexibility and reliability.

  • High-Frequency PCBs: Designed to operate at frequencies above 1 GHz, high-frequency PCBs are used in applications such as telecommunications and RF devices where signal integrity is critical.

  • Metal Core PCBs: Featuring a thermally conductive material base layer like aluminum or copper, metal core PCBs offer improved heat dissipation, commonly used in high-power LED lighting and power electronics.

Each type of PCB offers unique advantages and is chosen based on the specific requirements of the electronic device and its intended application.

Introduction to the Protomont E44 PCB Milling Tool

Meet the Protomont E44, our companion in the world of PCB fabrication. The Protomont E44 is a state-of-the-art PCB milling machine designed for precision and efficiency in producing prototype circuit boards. With its robust construction and advanced features, the E44 offers a versatile platform for creating intricate PCB designs with ease. Equipped with high-speed spindles and precision motion control, this milling tool ensures accurate etching and routing of circuit traces, enabling us to bring our electronic designs to life with impeccable precision. From rapid prototyping to small-scale production runs, the Protomont E44 proves to be an invaluable asset in our journey through the realm of electronic production.

FAILS AND TRIALS!

In total have tried 3 to 4 tests for milling the PCB using adrians Design file quentores V1 and V2.

TRIAL 1

This was the first time trial of me to mill a PCB so let me go into small details of it in the first one

First step was to connect the PC and the Machine together in the software we were using it looked somewhat like this

After connecting the software and the machine the next step was to opening the Design file into the software and importing it

After the Design file is set and is placed on the software on where on the board it needs to be milled The machine gives a requirement list of what all tools will be required during the milling process.

Then we start the milling process

Changing of the tools for every fuction of the PCB there was a different tool to mill it, for example for the drilling the tool was different for isolation the tool was different etc. It was difficult for us in the begining to change the tools but once we did it twice or thrice we got the hang of it.

This was the prompt given by the software and then we had to change the tool

Let me show yo ho the tool box look like there are many tools inside it and we have to carefully remove the required tool from it for the milling.


Now here came the twist, When we put up the Universal tool for the isolation path there came some noise and we new that the tool must have broken we still let the machine finish its process and this was the outcome

As you can see even in the isloation here the tool was going through the copper plate which technically itshould not but then we thought that maybe the copper plate and the sacrificial layer that were on the machine were really old and the copper plate had a bump in the middle of it so we thought of giving it another try by changing the copper sheet and the sacrificial layer.

Above is how we replaced both the layers

We also lost a universal bit which broke during the milling.

TRIAL 2

We again followed the same process in the first trial the only change that we made this time was that we had changed the copper layer and the sacrificial layer from the machine. Here is the final outcome for it the same thing happened again this proved that the copper plate was not a problem.

We started suspecting that the problem was in the design file itself (sorry adrain xd) so for our third trial we took Jesal sir’s file because he had used the exact same machine last year for his PCB’s

TRIAL 3

We again followed the same process mentioned in the first trial only difference here was we had changed the design file itself, which was jesal sirs file, Here is the outcome of our third trial.

It was a fail again! we were really dissapointed because we were doing everything right, We came to a conclusion that there is definetly an issue in the sensor of the machine that detects the Z-axis because it was going through during the Isolation Process which it should not.

SRM-20 - PCB Milling

After trying all our luck with the protomat we switched up to Roland SRM - 20 which was not used for past 2 years, we were kind of worried if it will work or not but it proved us wrong it did work! Let me walk you through the process of manufacturing a PCB with SRM.

  1. Copper Cam

The software that we use for thr SRM 20 is the copper CAM, We input all our layers here and then it goes to the machine.First select the engrave layer that you have made of your board like this.

After you select the Layer you will get something like this

  1. Once you get the milling file on the interface the next step is to get the drill layers on the another layer go to file>layers>drill layer. Once the drill layer is added you can the align the drill layer with the engrave layer.

  2. Next as you added the drill layer same way just add the cut layer which is usually refered to as .GKO file and allign it as you want to.

  3. The next step is to set the pad settings and track width ( this needed a lot of trials for us to fixate to final readings).

 track width is 0.7-1 
 Pad width is 1.7-2

  1. Now the final step is to setup the contours for milling even this took us a few trials to get the exact number of contours for a good finish.

Keep the contours ranging from 7 to 9. Once this is done just hit ok and your copper cam file is ready to mill!

  1. After we are done with setting up the file in the copper CAM its time for V-pannel and tool loading and unloading. V-Panel is a software that comes with the machine itself, it controls the x,y and z axis of the machine. we can set the axis from here or if you want to pause or stop your milling even this you can do from here (Note: only when the lid of the SRM-20 is closed the V-Panel will work)

This is how the Interface of the V-panel looks like.

  1. The next step is to start with the engraveing layer for the engraving layer we use 0.2mm Conical Engraver which is already added in the tool library, with the help of V-Pannel set the x,y and z on the copper board and Press ok.

  1. After the Engraving is done the Machine stops and then we have to change the engraving tool to the drill tool because the next steps are goin to be Through holes and the outer layer cut.

Now here a very very veryy and verrryyyy Important thing that you need to keep in mind is that you have to keep the x and y postition of the too the same as it was in the Engraver layer. If you set the x and y for the drill layer different the you file if gone you have to redo everything again.

Just get the Z Axis up and remove and load the tool. for drill and cut we use the same tool that is 0.8mm Endmill, just load it and set the z axis properly.

  1. After you load the Drill tool same as engraver just select the drill tool and hit ok!

After the drill layer is over the machine stops again, without changing any positions of x,y and z just start the cut layer and done!!! Your PCB is milled and ready for soldering of components!

Milled PCB Hero Shots

Soldering

It was my first time soldering SMD’s so was quite tough for me but I somehow did it, I first started by soldering the seed xiao rp2040 to the board and then all the components.

Then I started with the led’s and resistors which were really really tough to solder it took me almost an hour to solder all the leds, switches and resistors on the board. After all the led’s resistor and switch was soldered I tried to tes on of the Led with blink code and it worked!! I was really nervous when the code was getting uploaded, I thought that it hadent soldered correctly but then the led start blinking and I litterally screamed!

Then I finished up the soldering with adding the headers and completed the board. Here is the final board that I soldered

Testing the QT

I did multimeter testing first to see if all the connections were alright and they were!

Then I ran a basic code of pressing the switch and Led Turning on and off which is on the board itself. and it worked!

Here we end the journy of producing the Quentores, Thanks to Adrians documentaion it helped a lot here is the link to his webpage - Adrian’s webpage

files

Gerber File for quentores

Copper Cam File

Group Assignment

In this weeks group assignment we had to order a PCB from a boardhouse, We ordered the PCB from JLCBCP which costed us around 17 dollars 15 dollars for shipping and 2 dollars for making it.

Below is the process we followed -

Go to the website of JLCPCB

Next step is to upload your design on the website

Next step is to select the specifications you want in your PCB

Next step would be to check out and proceed to payment

DONE!! Now the order will be here in next 10-15 days!