Week of 9/8 - 9/12

This week, I decided to have my PCB made on JLCPCB instead of using our PCB milling machines in the shop. This seems like it will work a lot better since I need the traces to be thick, since they will be handling a lot of current, and the ones we make here break very easily. My last PCB broke when I tried to test it, and rather than make an entirely new PCB and solder everything back on, I'd rather just make a really good one and have it last much longer and be of higher quality.

I redesigned my board a little as well since I noticed that plugging in the wires to various external components was pretty hard, and it would be nicer if they were all together and out of the way. My shop teacher, Mr. Christy, suggested I use these polarized connectors, which would prevent me from accidentally plugging in something the wrong way and frying it all. I had to redesign the PCB in order to let them fit, but I ended up with a design I was really happy with.

He also suggested that I cut out my PCB from wood on the laser cutter to test how well the parts would fit on it. I had some trouble with this, but I eventually figured out that I could go to the 3d pcb and convert it to a drawing so I could then send it to Inkscape and laser-cut it.

I had some issues with this for kinda a silly reason. When I cut out the board, it was only half the size it should be. I initially thought that this was an error because of Inkscape and converting measurements; however, eventually, I figured out it was just because when I made the PCB into a drawing, it applied a scale ratio of 1:2 to it without me realizing it, so changing it to 1:1 fixed this issue, and the parts fit perfectly on it now.

Once I got everything sorted out, though, I downloaded the PCB in the correct format and uploaded it to JLCPCB in order to see if everything is how I want it to be. Everything looked as it should be, so I sent it to Mr. Chrisy in order to have it cut and sent out. Hopefully on Monday I can expect to see the circuit board and I can then solder the parts onto it.