Embedded Files
Purpose of Current Affair Project
The project is to solder electrical components such as resistors, LEDs, and capacitors, etc onto our own milled PCBs and make the electric flow in the wires. The purpose of this project is to let us understand what resistor is and what function it has. We need to learn the relationship between the resistors and the brightness of the LEDs as well. We also need to learn how to use the milling machine to mill PCBs and learn how to solder to make the electric flow and light up the LEDs.
Workflow of Othermill Milling Machine
Most of the workflow comes from ChatGPT. I added more details in the workflow to make it more specific.
Video of milling the Resistance PCB
IMG_0437.MOVFinal Product of Resistance PCB
The picture is the Resistance PCB board just after milling. My partner Sejal and I need to put on the resistors and LEDs on it.
The components we need are resistors, LEDs, a connector and a PCB board. There're 8 different resistors: 100Ohm, 120Ohm, 150Ohm, 220Ohm, 330Ohm, 470Ohm, 560Ohm, and 680Ohm. The eight LEDs need to be the same color.
Front side of the PCB Resistance Board
Back side of the PCB Resistance Board
The two pictures are the photos of PCB board after putting components on. The resistance is from lowest to highest.
Testing the Resistance PCB
When Sejal and I were testing the Resistance Board, we found out that our LEDs didn't light up.
We used the multimeter to test whether there's current in it. We found out that all of our lights actually worked. After testing all the currents, we found out that it was the connector's problem. We could not do any thing to it since we already put solder on.
Stoplight PCB Design
Stopligt PCB Design in KiCAD
Final Board Design
This is my final board design.
Final Schematic
This is the schematic diagram of my traffic light PCB board. It is used to describe the electron source, electron path ad components of a circuit, etc. It uses simple lines and symbols to make people easily understand how the circuit works.
3D Design View of Board
This is my 3D view of my board. It tells you the exact position of tracks, LEDs, resistors and connectors. It is a preview of the final product. However, because the components need to be soldered on the smooth side of the board, the actual product looks like the mirrored 3D view of the board.
Video of milling my traffic light PCB
IMG_0471.MOVFinal Product of Traffic light PCB
This is my Traffic Light PCB board just after milling.
This is my PCB board after soldering components on.
My traffic light Arduino code
This Arduino code is generated by ChatGPT. The purpose of the code is to make the lights interchange with each other like the real traffic light. For class, we used pins 11,12,13 and GND on an Arduino board. The pins of the connector on my PCB need to be in the right position so that the code can work correctly.
Video of my traffic light attached to the Arduino while code is running
IMG_0500.MOV
Image of red light being lit
Image of yellow light being lit
Image of green light being lit
Ohm's Law
Ohm's law describes the relationship between voltage (V), current (I) and resistance(R) in a circuit. The equation is I=V/R. From doing the resistance PCB board, I figured out that the LED is the brightest with the lowest resistance of the resistor. As the resistance increases, the brightness of the LEDs decreases. I concluded that the smaller the resistance is, the brighter the LED is.
Video of my traffic light PCB attached to Xiao Seeed RP2040 while the code is running
IMG_0577.MOVFusion 360 traffic light encasement design
Step1: I measured the dimensions of my PCB board and make a sketch of the case.
Step2: I used Create Sketch to create a rectangle.
Step3: Then I created a circle which is the hole for the LEDs and used Rectangular Pattern to copy the circles.
Step 4: I used Extrude to add thickness to the rectangle I first created.
Step5: After extrude, I use Shell feature to make the rectangular prism hollow inside. I made the thickness of the case as thin as possible.
Step6: I used Extrude feature to make the hole for LEDs.
Step7: Now it's time to create a place to fit the wires in. I created a rectangle on the front side of the case.
Step8: I use Extrude feature to turn the rectangle into a hole.
This is the final product of the case for Traffic Light PCB board. Now it's time to print it.
Images of 3D-printed enclosure for traffic light
This is the case for Traffic Light PCB just after 3D printing
This is a picture of the unlit PCB in the case
This is a picture of the lit PCB in the case
Final Video of my traffic light PCB inside the enclosure running its code
IMG_0580.MOVProblem Encountered
Pictures above are my first milled PCB board. After I finishing putting components onto the board, I started to test it. However, it was unsuccessful. Only the green light lit up . Ms. Morrow and I used multimeter to check the current in every single light and resistor and everything was working perfectly fine. But when we were checking the connector, we found out that one of the pins of the connector didn't work. It was the problem of the header itself. I got a broken one. So I had to remill my board again.
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