Electronic design

Assignment for week six (March 05, 2014)

The assignment of week six was to redraw and make the echo hello-world board, adding a button and LED. I refered to the tutorial by Anna Kaziunas at http://academy.cba.mit.edu/2012/labs/providence/tutorials/07.html

1. Downloading Eagle 6.5.0

Went to http://www.cadsoftusa.com/downloads/
Downloaded eagle 6.5.0
Installed freeware on Linux

2. Downloading echo board and schematic

Downloaded the files from the link on the tutorial page mentioned above
Extracted the file on my home directory, in Ubuntu
Opened eagle
The helloecho folder was visible under "projects" on eagle
Ensured that the little dot on the right side of the libraries were green, by right clicking on it and checking the "use"

3. Downloading and installing the Libraries

Downloaded the libraries from http://academy/cba.mit.edu/2012/labs/providence/tutorials/Downloads/eagle_libraries.zip
Installed them using the sudo apt-get install command
Unzipped the files
Ebsured that the little dot on the libraries was green

4. Editing the schematic

As I had prior experience in using eagle, it was not that difficult editing the schematic. I added the LED, button, resistors and a capacitor. I connected all the newly added components and ensure that they did make a connection.

schematic

5. Designing the Printed Circuit Board (PCB)

Once the schematic was completed, I switched to teh board view
The components which were added were visible, with yellow unrouted traces attached
I moved enlarged the board outline in order to move around the existing components omn the board, to make space for the newly added components
Once the components were placed, I then routed all traces, however I used the manual routing instead of auto routing
Checked errors on the board, using the Design Rule Check
I changed the board outline width from 0 to 0.01 width to make it wider

I exported the circuit traces as png file, as per tutorial (monochrome, 500dpi)
Then after, I exported the board outline, as per tutorial - using the same settings as above

6. Importing the files into Fabmodules

Firstly, I loaded the traced png file on fabmodules and milled out the board
Then, I loaded the cut-out png file to cut out the board

7. Populating the board

Once the milling and cutting-out of the board was completed, I soldered the components on the board.
The image of the soldered board was taken prior to the 6 pin header soldering