1. Preparing to mill the board
With the PCB design from last week, I was ready to output it as a Gerbers file. I then convert it to .png and then invert the color of the edges layer so that the outermost edge is just the edge between black and white rather than a white line. This is now ready to be sent through the mod pipeline for milling. But then I was told that for our current settings in the shop, we can only mill single sided PCB so my original design with vials has to be re-routed. I then spent some time redesigning it, trying to avoid using a 0 ohm resistor to bridge across traces, but at last gave up and used one in the end. I would still consider this puzzle game a half-success since in the begining I would need to bridge across traces 3 or 4 times.
The layout
After redoing all the steps above again, I finally sent it to the milling machine and it’s so fun watching the board taking shape gradually.
Making sure the edges fit within the material Watching the birth of SpikeyBoard
Sadly, after cutting out the board, I sourced the components I needed which are Seed Xiao RP2040, a 16*2 LCD, and a proximity sensor, I realized the footprint I assigned to my board is totally wrong. The LCD in the shop is a tiny LCM-S01602DTR/M, while the KiKad library is using the LCD-016N002L. This means I’ll have to redesign the board once again. The good thing is the whole thing would be smaller. I will mill out the new board today after class to minimize the snowball forming.