Group Assignments

Link : week 8 Group Assignment

For this week we were supposed to characterize the design rules for our in-house PCB production process and submit a PCB design to a board house and also make a test board using multiple processes like X Tools laser Engraver, Trotech laser engraver, Solder mask & Flexible PCB.

Milling My PCB

we were given a board to mill first i inspected the boar for any issues through visual inspection.

The next step was to apply adhesive layer o the bottom part of the board.Then i loaded the board into the milling machine and set the origin of the board.

While loading the board on to the milling machine, I made sure to align the board properly as much as possible

Fist step was to export the gerber file from the KiCad and convert this into a PNG File, For this I used the Gerber to PNG converter tool from the Super fab lab kochi

Link : https://gerber2png.fablabkerala.in/

The next step was to set up the Fab mods for the milling machine, first open fab mods then open the mod setup for the specific machine.

In this case I have two kinder of process one is milling and second is cutting. Then first I took the PNG file and loaded it into the mods and then selected the tool for milling I am using the v tool

Then I set the values of the V tool and then send the calculated setting and after that calculated ever thing was looking good

Then I checked the path of milling to make sure that the milling wall be done properly.

NOTE : The value we gave for the angle of the tool bit was 30deg but actually it was 60deg this error may have lead to the issue of not removing the copper properly that i faced while milling.

And for changing the tools our instructor had added a custom button for this position to change bit after pressing the the machine will go into a position where it is easy to change the bit.

After completing the set up the next step was to load the tool needed for milling, This first step should be always milling the copper layer for this I loaded the v tool using the allen key first from the mods press the tool change button then loaded the tool make sure the tool is inserted into the milling machine so that only the fluts of the tool is visible are then moved the tool to the origin.

Now when to tool reaches the origin move the Z axis down using the button on the milling machine and when there is almost 10 mm from the milling surface stop and loosen the tool and adjust the height and make sure that the tool make proper contact with the board and then properly tighten the tool. And then start milling

After setting the the origin we can easily move the tool in X or Y axis since the tool hops from point a to point b & an fount it very interesting and it looks good.

After this I started milling but the toll was properly removing the coper layer from the board even thought the depth of cut was set .1 mm the material was not being removed properly.

So to solve this issue I brought the tool to the origin and loosen the tool and made the tool properly come in contact with the board and then tightened the tool. and started the milling.

After the milling was done I inspected to board to make sure that the milling had been done properly

Then next step was to start cutting for this I changed the tool that we are going to use in fab mods. Since we are using the .8mm cutting tool a selected the tool from the interface.

After doing this I proceed to import the PNG file for making the cut then I proceeded with calculation after this I moved to the machine.

Now the next step was to cut so I loaded the .8mm cutting tool

And them repeated the same process done for the v tool and made sure the tool is making proper contact with the board.

Then I proceeded with cutting this time there were no issues the cutting was done properly.

After the cutting was done I cleaned the workpiece and inspected the board to make sure that the milling and the cutting had been done properly and it was good.

After this I first removed the part where the board was not supposed to be cut and then I removed the milled material and cleaned the board

I also made sure to remove all the adhesive from the bottom of the board.

After this I made sure that the board properly fits inside the encloser that was designed and 3D printed in the PCB design week.

Soldering

The fist step before soldering was to collect all the component needed for soldering from the inventory.For this first I exported the BOM from the KiCad .For this and for making the assembly process easier i installed the Generate Interactive HTML BOM plugin from the KiCad extensions.

The next step was to request for all the components needed for soldering through Fab stash which is an online inventory management website from super fablab kochi.

Link : inventory.fablabkerala.in

From fab stash I added al the comports needed to art and requested it & then took a printout and applied double side tape to it.Then collected all components from inventory and arranged then on the printout for easier assembling.

The next step was to solder the components to the board for this first I cleaned the board then placed the components on the boar.I soldered the components one by one and then soldered them.Also I made sure to start from the smaller components and solder them first.

But here I had made multiple mistakes as pointed out in the image,since the board pretty small there were some pills on the board and the major mistake that I made was due to misunderstanding I thought i was supposed to fully cover the top of part of the pad s on the micro controller and after solder i was filling those regions separately but my instructor pointed out it was not the correct way to solder, rest everything was looking good.

After this i tried assembling the board In the Encloser that I had made and tested if ever thing was filling properly and it was good the switch was working and all the ports were accessible and everthing was fitting properly.