figure 1

figure 2

WEEK 4

This week we learned about basic electronics by creating a "Hello board" from a schematic created in Eagle . I used the Modela mini-mill (figure 1) and soldering iron to create the board. The goal was to create a small surface-mount circuit board that could be programmed through a parallel port and then send text messages to a computer monitor through a serial cable. 

When I was using the Modela, not all of the vinyl was completely cut, and I ended up having to clean up the board by scraping loose pieces off the PCB. I also found out that I have an extremely shaky hands which made it very difficult to place all the components on the board (stuff the board). Figure 2 shows the finished product in action.  It's difficult to see, but the screen is vertically scrolling: "Hello World"