Week of 9/29 - 10/3

This week, I was primarily working on my new PCB and gathering all the necessary parts from my old one. The PCB from JLCPCB finally came this Monday, so I was able to get started on it. The PCB has several parts that I ordered specifically, such as the large insulator on the right, so I needed to remove it instead of getting another one.

I needed to take parts off the old PCB, which proved to be pretty difficult. A lot of the parts fit very closely to the PCB, so I needed to remove every single piece of solder for them to come off. I got the big pieces off by using the solder sucker, but at the end, there were still some little bits left.

I managed to remove most of the important pieces that I wouldn't be able to replace, but I was still stuck with a lot of the smaller ones. After trying to get a linear regulator out for 20 minutes, then having it break, I decided to just get the rest of them from the parts closet.

I also realized that the PCB box was outdated. I added a switch to the most recent version of the PCB, so when I made the box based on the previous version, I had forgotten to include it. A switch would be important because it takes up quite a lot of power, so I need a way to turn it off.

I'm using a switch with a circular bit at the top, so I measured it using calipers, then added a hole to the design. I made the hole slightly smaller because I want to thread it so it will stay in place and look better in the end.

my friend who was in robotics