Week 01: laser cutting and vinyl cutting
Week 02: electronics production
Week 03: 3D scanning and printing
Week 04: electronics design
Week 05: computer-controlled machining
Week 06: embedded programming
Week 07: molding and casting
Week 08: input devices
Week 09: output devices
Week 10: interface and application programming
Week 11: networking and communications
Week 12: mechanical machine design

Final project



Week 2: electronics production

Skills used: PCB (printed cicuit board) milling and soldering


Part 1, PCB milling:
For this week's PCB milling assignment we used a Roland SRM-20 to make and in-circuit programmer that includes a microcontroller using a provided template.



Pictured below is the final milled and soldered PCB


To start this assignment, my group and I milled a test strip to characterize the machine and gauge the tolerance of the circuit channels.


Once the Roland SRM-20 was characterized, I milled my own PCB following the methods used to mill our test strip. I gathered the 1/32 and 1/64 drill bits, applied tape to the back of the stock material, adhered it to the bed of the machine, uploaded the provided template to MODS, and milled two PCBs. The process was surprisinly quick.


Part 2, Soldering:
After cleaning the machine and the newly milled PCBs, I collected the various parts needed to solder the microcontroller. Starting with a scrap piece, I practiced soldering before commiting to soldering the microcontroller for this week's assignment.