Lecture & Recitaton of a Week:

Lecture on 14th of February, 2018: Electronics production by Neil Gershenfeld

Recitation on 19th of February, 2018: Functional representations by Matt Keeter

Tasks for a Week

group assignment:
characterize the specifications of your PCB production process

individual assignment:
make an in-circuit programmer by milling the PCB,
then optionally trying other processes

Group Assignment

For group assignment, we have to characterize the specifications of PCB production process and for that we are using Roland monoFAB SRM-20 Milling machine. For learning process in both group and individul assignments we are using basic PCB Board which is FR-1. We are fabricating a Traces-width board, which has a traces which is very near in different sizes. For cutting and traces we are using 1/32 and 1/64 drill bit respectively.

Fabricating PCB

We are using these png files for trace and outline

traces file using 1/64 drill bit to trace

outline file using 1/32 drill bit to cut

Steps for generating RML

In the program tab, click on open server program

Click on PCB under SRM-20

Click on image(.png) as your input format file

Browse and open your desired png file

After opening your file, select mill traces 1/64

Go to the modules tab and click on add server module

Click on save

A pop-up will appear as shown below, drag this file and connect it to the output node of Rolland SRM-20 milling machine

Click on "Calculate" and the file will automatically be saved

Your RML file is ready

To check the traces and path of PCB , click on view

Select the png format of outline and click on mill traces 1/32 and click calculate to save this file.

Generating RML files

After generating RML we send both files to ROLAND monoFAB SM-20 Machine. following steps below to show how machine works

Place PCB on board

Open VPanel for SRM-20 in Desktop

Change the drill bit

Select origin to x/y and z axis by changing values of x, y and z axis from where it should be start.

Adjust drill bit until it touches PCB board

Change Z-Axis value little bit to dig PCB board slightly, then set new value of Z-Axis as origin.
click on "Cut" and locate .rml file which we want to use

click on "Output" to start the process

PCB Fabrication uisng Roland monoFAB SRM-20 Machine

The outerline file of a PCB need to fix, it did not complete the path. To fix this boundary using Photoshop we are making one more file of outline boundary with same pixel/inch size with respect to traces file.

setting up pixels and inch size of file using adobe photoshop

Then we generate the .rml file using above method.

End Result

The group assignment shows that how much machine works precisely with 1/64 drill bit to show even 0.001mm line

Individual Assignment

The task for this week is make an in-circuit programmer by milling the PCB. I break this task into two main parts

Making and Soldering board

Uploading Program in the board

Making a Development Board

I download development board file from our week 5 lecture

File in red circle

Outline cutting file

traces file

I used same method which I mentioned above to make PCB using Roland SRM-20 Machine. Firstly I enlist all the components which I need to make a development board

List with components and PCB

After soldering my first pcb board is made, but I dont like the soldering in it so I make one more.

1st development board

2nd development board

Uploading Program in the board

For burning program in development. I use linux because it is easy to work on it. We dedicate our Lab one pc for Linux and installed Ubuntu in it. After installation of Linux OS I done this steps, I forgot to take screen shots thats why a history of commands in terminal shown below: