This week we learned how to mill a circuit board and solder the necessary components to it. The challenge in the milling process was preventing damage to the expensive, yet delicate endmills. We used a 1/32 of an inch endmill to cut out the board and another one that was 1/64 of an inch to mill the actual circuits. Luckily, I was able to mill two successfully on my first attempt. There was space for two components on one peice of material and plus I might need a backup if I botch the soldering process.

We had access to some schematics that listed the necessary components for the board. Once these were obtained they were carefully labeled and secured to an index card using double sided tape. The soldering process was difficult at first. After some hacking, I learned that I needed to touch the iron to the surface and then poke with the solder wire to drop in a little blob. Once all the parts were attached, I plugged-in the ribbon wire and the red LED light came on. Bingo! Eventually I was able to program the USB using linux. More on that to come.