This week, we needed to remake this board from scratch and add two additional components. I used Eagle and the first step was to gather the components that we needed for the board. I installed the fab libraries onto Eagle, and the key was to turn on the library folder so it was visible.
Next, I clicked on schematic to start drawing the circuit diagram. I first gathered the pieces I needed from the library, but the components on the template weren't named the same as the ones from the library. I got some help from a few classmates to pick the right ones.
In addition to the basic template, I also needed to add an LED and a button that would serve as the pull-up resistor. I also added an additional LED that would indicate power, along with 1k resistors for the LEDs.
Once I finished the circuit, I moved onto the board itself, which can be accessed by clicking on the board-schematic toggle. Initially, the board looked like a mess, which is also called a rat's nest.
To make the board more structured, I placed routes to replace the yellow lines. This took the most time, as it's difficult to see all the connections all at once.
Once the board was placed into position, I added a rectangle to the dimension layer to make the trace for the board outline.
I toggled the layers off to export the traces into .png to be ready to milled.
In mods, it's important to double the DPI before calculating. Initially, the outer board trace didn't show up on mods, which required readjustment in Eagle.
Once the boards were all cut, I began soldering the pieces.
Done!
Finally, it came time to program the board. I followed instructions and was able to get my board to respond to the key presses. Yay!
