Lab1-Old new media

Functional Beauty -- by Grace & Arne

These...... you must feel very familiar with I think?

    PCBs (printed circuit board) are such common things that are in almost all electronic devices. It's a kind of neat, convenient, light-weighed media that conduct the information you wish to send. And it goes all the way along with all kinds of old and new electronic media (TV, radio, computer games... ... ...).

    This technology took thirty years to transform from the initial concept to today's print board, of which the realization still dates back to mid 1930s. At first it was used in radio, then until mid 1950s it  became commonplace in consumer electronics.

    PCBs are fairly flexible. You can cut them into any shape and size you like, and design them based on different kinds of circuit requirements. With this flexibility, we thought, instead of all those squiggly lines, why not make a painting out of it?

Preparation: draw the painting, design the circuit, get the necessary stuffs.

Making the board: you might be able to find detail steps about how to make your own pcb on Arne's page ;)

    Just want to mention that we found out this is really precise work and sometimes quite unpredictable. Especially at the beginning, printing, transporting the pattern to the board, a slight miss might cause the circuit failure. Of course a correct design is the first key to the success of the final circuit.

And always be careful. Things can get crazy and dangerous!

Connecting circuit: drilling, soldering.