Xavi/xavishobbies
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Added babysteps post

Browse Source
This commit is contained in:
Xavi 2023-03-17 20:59:31 -07:00
parent d58986af1b
commit 137e53ad31
1 changed files with 4 additions and 55 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

59
xavishobbies/content/electronics_science_more/babysteps_into_kicad.md
View File

@ -6,61 +6,10 @@ categories: ["Top_of_the_Stack"]
tags:
---
This week I spent a good amount of time getting much more familiar with [KiCAD](https://www.kicad.org/) which, as they say on their website, is a *electronics design suite*. Basically **[in dumb guy language]**, its just a bunch of programs that help with the design of *PCBs* or *printed circuit boards* **[you know, the green boards that you find inside stuff, like [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/PCB_design.jpg)]**.
There is a saying that there is no *more permanent* solution than a *temporary* one. That couldn't be more true than when looking at my electronics projects. They are always some half baked idea that makes it's way onto a *breadboard* which, if I liked it enough, possibly gets put onto protoboard **[if its lucky]**. However nothing has ever *quite* made it to being put on it's own *PCB* **[printed circuit board. you know. the green boards that you find inside stuff. like [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/PCB_design.jpg)]**. I *have* tinkered around a bit with designing one in the past, but it never was able to graduate from living on my harddrive. This week I took some steps to change that.
The goal at the moment is to *design* and *fabricate* a *PCB* completely in house. This means coming up with a purpose **[what? you don't just start a project despite not really having a purpose for doing it?]**, designing the circuit, laying it out on a board, and then actually yanking that design into reality.
Just a quick rundown
- create a design in *KiCAD*, both the schematic layout and the PCB layout
-
Overview
- Learning KiCAD
- Design a PCB
- What purpose
- Start with hard
- Fabricate the PCB
- Toner transfer method
- Some chemistry
- Safety is important
Kicad
- The Schematic Workflow
- Knowing design
- Use other software?
-XCircuit and NGSPICE
- Endgoal get schematic
- Recreate schematic in KiCAD
- Think all the same if schematic is had
- What are power flags?
- Make sure nets are all labled for easy layout design
- Check things with the ERC
- Add Comments just like in Programming
- Associate the PCB footprints with components
- The PCB Workflow
- Create the shape and size
- Does everything fit?
- Are the components reasonable
- Place and Route
- Put footprints with user and routing in mind
- Route, Most time consuming I think
- Add annotations to the board with silkscreen
- Check stuff with DRC
Fabrication
- Toner transfer method
- Print Cu layer on magazine
- Place on Cuclad sheet. Acetone on back to tranfer. then dry
- wipe with water
- put in etchent - now is Feric Chloride
- wipe with water
- put uv ink on
- put transparent screen with solder points covered
- smoosh uv ink. put in uv oven
- take out of oven and remove transparent
- wipe of uv ink. dots should go everthing else stays
- do the same uv ink process for silk screen
- invert text. print smoosh, uv oven, wipe off all the rest
I spent a good amount of time this week getting a lot more familiar with [KiCAD,](https://www.kicad.org/) an *electronics design suite*, doing quite a bit of research into fabricating a board *in house* **[or in shed in my case]**, and ordering everything that I needed to get started.
If you would assume that most PCBs aren't made in some guy's garage, you'd be right **[at least i hope not]**, most would be made in some fabrication facility that pump out tons of product in giant pallets **[well, maybe not in the last three years]**. Even hobbyists, like myself, can outsource a design to a [board house](https://www.eevblog.com/wiki/index.php?title=PCB_Manufacturers) for fabrication and I think most people would argue that this would be the way to go. *Board houses* have pretty quick turn around time **[one to two weeks]** and you get a really professional looking board. However, I am both sloppy and impatient meaning that *A.* there's a chance I made a mistake on the design which means it won't work after a two week wait or *B.* even if it does work, there's a huge chance I forgot why I made the thing in the first place. Finding a workflow to make them in house would mitigate both these problems and if I end up with something I really like I can send it to a *board house* after I go through finding all the bugs **[well... maybe just the bugs that make the thing not work at all]**.
The plan is to design something simple and use the toner transfer method to get the design onto a copper clad board. I'll go into the whole process in a later post but seeing that I am already a day late I'll throw this up and write up the outline for Monday's post **[we'll see if I don't get distracted]**.