Week of 6/9 - 6/13

This week I was working on my PCB and I got a lot done. I had finished the schematic last week so this week the only thing I had to do in fusion was to lay everything out and route it. This took a while since when I was laying everything out I had to make sure that the correct power went to the correct part, and that they were in spots close to each other. I also had to give space to some parts since they are larger.

I also had to put in the drc rules, and I had a bit of trouble with that since the layout had changed since the guide was made. Eventually though I figured it out and I also had to change the trace thickness as well as importing the drc rules. After that I exported it and got ready to mill it.

Then, I milled the board itself which came out good, I also made the machine cut more space around the wires so it would be easier to solder in the future. I had to relearn how to use it, but the guide on the computer was very helpful and nothing went wrong during the milling which I was thankful for since back when I was doing the lightbox project I had to redo the PCB many times because the machine messed up.

After milling it, I took all the parts from the breadboard and put them into the PCB. Then I realized I had put them in upside down, and that was why the parts were flipped from my design. It did not take too long to fix though, and I was able to look at where I had put the parts and just flip them to the other side.

I also noticed that the wires on the other side were really long for some parts though, so I trimmed them down to a uniform height. When I finished I did not have enough time to start soldering though, so I decided to tape the parts onto the PCB instead, as this will allow me to solder them much faster since they will stay in place. I plan to do this Friday and hopefully I will finish it then.