Week 6: Electronics Design

Assignment

Group assignment:

Use the test equipment in your lab to observe the operation of a microcontroller circuit board (as a minimum, you should demonstrate the use of a logic analyzer)
Document your work on the group work page and reflect what you learned on your individual page

Individual assignment:

Use an EDA tool to design a development board that uses parts from the inventory to interact and communicate with an embedded microcontroller

Project

How I did it

This week we are learing how to make circut boards! This is an important foundational step in being able to make machines!

First we learned to make schmatis. This is how we define what we are going to make, and how. We are figuring out what lines need to be connected to each other.

Wiwick and bread boards are a good way to simlulate and test different arrangeents

next we draw it up on Kicad. Making sure to import the correct board, resistors, LED, and buttons. There are many different types of each of these things, and some of them need to be connected differently.

Next up is placing the wires where they belong. It is a puzzle because they can’t cross over each other. My instructor was adamant I changed the line thickness. This will make my life easier when we mill.

And voila! the board is complete and ready for milling. Export it, it will show you a whole folder of files

Troubleshooting

** Q: Do I have to create my board from scratch so the computer knows where to put the lines and connections? **

A: NO! Fablab already has an entire library of the most common boards used! Click PCB, Plugin and Content Manager to install the library.

** Q: It won’t let me download the library, does that mean I have to make my board from scratch? **

A: No, You can download specifc boards online, and specifically download the Fablabs library here

** Q: Can I put traces under where my board will be? **

A: Yes, and they will still work. However it is not ideal because sometimes there are other pads underneath the board that would interfere with the circut.

Reflection

I feel really good! I am proud of my work. I started with a basic board that is one button and one neopixel, and now I have tripled the complexity by adding more elements. Starting simple to master the basics, then iterating truly is magical.

Cats

Files

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Source code hosted at gitlab.fabcloud.org