Week 9 (Final Semester)

Title: Drilling


Objective:

• To make a hole on PCB for the component to fit in
• To master the skill  on drilling the PCB

Content:

Drill size is important to make correct holes for the correct electronic components. Difference components have difference size of leads and hence need difference pad sizes and hole. Following figure shows the difference size of drill bits and following table shows the functions of each bit. 

Difference size of drill bits and their functions. 

Analysis:

There are certain things must be considered while drilling. The most importance thing is make sure the drill bits did not cuts the diagram on the PCB. It may unconnected the circuit of PCB. And make sure the size of the drill bits is proportional for the functions just like on the table.

Conclusion:

If the drill accidentally damage the diagram on the circuit, the circuit must be fix with the soldering iron to connect back what the damage that has been done. After successfully finish the drilling, the next thing to do is to track checking and soldering the component. 

Week 8 (Final Semester)

Title: PCB fabrication

Objective:

• To copy the diagram of the circuit on the PCB
• To master on how to fabric the PCB

Content:

PCB fabrication

1.    PCB Drawing: PCB drawing is designed using Protel DXP 2005. Once the PCB layout has been correctly design, it is now prints out the layout on the A4 size transparent OHP paper. Note that, two types of printers are allowed to print the PCB layout, one is laser printer and the other is carbon type of printer such as Photostat machine. Inkjet and dot matrix type of printer will not work.

2.    Prepare tools required:

þ Fluorescent light

þ UV PCB

þ Marker Pen

þ Blade

þ OHP transparent paper

þ Iron (III) chloride, FeCl₃ acid

þ Clean water

þ Thinner

þ Plastic Container

þ Laser printer

þ PCB cutter and trimmer

þ Soldering gun

þ Soldering lead

3.    PCB Cutting: Cut photo PCB size according to the film size.

4.    PCB Photo Etching: Expose the photo PCB in photo etching kit for 8-10minutes.

5.    PCB Developing: Wash the PCB using PCB developer (white powder) for 2 min.

6.    Acid Etching: Etching is a process that removes materials from such us unwanted copper from the PCB surface to achieve circuit design requirements. The etching process used in this project is called chemical etch or pattern etch.

Once the image printed on PCB copper board, now prepare the iron (III) chloride, FeCl₃ solution and ready to do the etching. Add in hot water (80C) and shake the water until you see unused part is ‘washed’ and left only the tracks. The etching process takes around 30 min.

 

7.    Thinner Washing:

This is a process to remove the black ink on the PCB board. The black ink has to remove in order to solder the components. The green coating on PCB can be removed by alcoholic solution and leaving only the PCB trace. After remove the black ink, the PCB is then send for cleaning using normal water.

Analysis:

This project has two circuit, the circuit can do at the same time at the step acid etching and thinner washing to elude the waste. The acid etching is quite dangerous task, so must take safety precaution while doing it such as wearing a glove to cover the hand and the mask to evade from smelling the acid. If the route of the diagram is accidently  cut off, use the soldering iron to connect it back.

Conclusion:

This part of task is really important because the circuit is the heart of the project to operate. Without the circuit, the project cannot operate. After the fabrication is finish, the next thing to for the next week is drilling

Week 7 (Final Semester)

Title: Burn the program into PIC

Objective:

• To download the PIC program to PIC microcontroller
• To master the step

Content:

Step to download the PIC program to PIC microcontroller

1.    Connect PIC programmer to computer via serial port / USB port.

2.    Insert PIC into the programmer socket

3.   Copy ‘Winpic800’ folder to Desktop.

4.    Look for Winpic800.exe in the folder.

 5. Double click Winpic800.exe to start the program.

6. Select the proper PIC name in the top right combo box

7.   Open the .hex file which you want to download into PIC e.g. if your .c filename is ‘abc.c’,    suppose you need to download ‘abc.hex’ into PIC.

Analysis:

For this project there are two PIC need to be burn. Even they are different PIC, the way to download the program on it still the same. 

Conclusion:

The step of downloading the PIC program to PIC microcontroller must be follow, or it will lead to another problem such as PIC dysfunction or even broken PIC. So, it must be done with care.

Week 6 (Final Semester)

Title: Testing the components

Objective:

• To evaluate whether the component function or dysfunction
• To evade any major problem related to the component 

Content:

For this week certain component were tested whether it got problem or not. Not all the test are recorded but here one of the component is being test

This is the video where the lock mechanism is being test. By using 12 volt battery the lock mechanism work fine, there is no dysfunction from this component.

Analysis:

Not all the component can test directly like PIC, it need to be burn and see the PIC work fine or has the problem working. So all that can do is just hoping the component like PIC works fine after the burning.

Conclusion:

This part of task is important to evade any major problem afterwards. This is the safety precaution that need to be take. Finish with this task, the next week will begin to burning the PIC