This week's assignment has been challenging and fun at once. My level of knowledge about electronics is purely from the user side. To be armed with the knowledge for creating the building blocks of an increasingly digital world is empowering to me as an artist and a human being. I feel a world opening up to me that I have not had access to before, where the possibilities are limitless. The question for me is how can I utilize this new information to improve and expand my work?
Issues with milling:
My process began with milling the backing board. My first cut of the traces was not deep enough, so I reset the mill bit to make its cut lower. My second attempt was not successful, so I reloaded another board in the Modelo and again changed the bit depth.
This time it worked well, creating a little pile of sand-like dust on the board surface. I loaded the outline cut and bit and began to make the cut. I noticed, mid-cut that it wasn't cutting all the way through the board, so I pressed "cancel" on the machine. The machine stopped and I reset the bit, but the machine wouldn't cut at all. After looking at what past students had done in the same situation, I attempted to clear the machine buffer by pressing up and down in view mode for several minutes. This did not work, so I filed an issue on Gitlab and proceed to use the Modelo in the CBA shop. TA Amanda responded to the issue with: the MDX20 in the electronics lab is now working again. If you cancel a job repeat these steps and you should be able to get mods up and running again:
try to run another file or move the machine - if it works, you're good to go
if not, hit stop mods server on the desktop and close the browser with mods open
hit start mods server on the desktop and open mods again
try to move the machine with mods- don't mess with any of the buttons in the Web Socket Serial module
if this still doesn't work, try some of the commands under Mods Connection Debugging in the mods docs:
https://gitlab.cba.mit.edu/pub/mods/tree/master
I think the problem seems to be when you hit the "Open" button under Serial Device in the Web socket serial module. It puts mods in a state where it throws an error about a port being locked. If this happens, close the browser, stop mods server, start mods server, then open the browser again and don't mess with any of the buttons in the Web socket serial module. Run another file or try to move the machine and it should work fine. I wasn't sure how to transfer a partially cut board to a new machine, so I recut the board traces and outline on a new board. During the outline cut, the board, which was attached to the machine base with double-sided tape, came loose. Even though I vacuumed the surface before placing the board down, I think there may have been debris which kept the board from fully sticking. I removed the board and decided hand cut the rest of the outline with a blade. It worked fairly well.
Soldering: The soldering process was very straightforward and fun. I'm a silversmith, so I have lots of experience using silver solder. It's a different process, with a different kind of connection, but the concepts are the same. Tacking everything down went well, and I became curious about the functions of the different parts, So I am reading up on what each part does.
Testing: Everything worked well when I tested the board today. I input the code using the computer in the electronics lab and connected the programmer to the ISP 2x3 pin header and the USB2 extension cable. The red LED lit up and the make flash command worked. Make fuses worked as well. After confirming that the board worked, I proceeded to disconnect the solder jumper. Can a piece of silver jewelry be made into a working circuit board? Use hammered and soldered copper wire to create the circuit pathways. Each resister and component would have to be heat resistant. Is it possible to make these components by hand and make them heat resistant? Or, would a cold setting be sufficient for connection? If so, could a setting could be made for each component which would have to be added during the cold stage that includes a magnetic base for attachment. Would the magnet affect the component's ability to do its job? How would having a magnetic (and therefore detachable) component affect wearability of the piece? Perhaps it could be resolved with a latch. In addition, there would have to be a strong insulator between the silver backing board and the copper wire.
Since I enter this work from the vantage of an artist, I sketched the board design in order to understand it from that perspective. I colored the copper layer and then cut out and colored pieces of paper for each component: resistor, ATtiny45, diodes, LEDs, capacitor and 2x3 pin header. This will be a diagram for me as I move ahead with possibilities the week our class studies electronics design.