Diy-CAD
We have been developing and testing the new workshop for GOSH2017, called diy-CAD (do-it-yourself Children Aided Design), specifically for the Gär Lämpli project (fermentation lamp). The core idea of the workshop-kit is tool for creative designs of printed circuit boards, introducing basic concepts of Open Hardware being something to re-design for your own use. Going from an open/shared schematic and bill of materials to a manufacturable board, using SMD (surface mount devices) components. The design tool is mostly pen and paper, where the footprint of the parts are scaled 400% and can be freely rearranged, and then a copper layer can be painted to draw the functional board design by hand. This was the first time the kit was tested and i am very thankful for feedback if this is useful at all, or other uses of it.
Contents
- 1 Experience from the first workshop at Dimension Plus LAB, TW
- 1.1 Prepare 400% scaled, printed, laminated and cut-out smd parts.
- 1.2 Discuss the difference between the "schematic" representation and "physical" implementation
- 1.3 Start layouting and drafting the correct connections with pencil
- 1.4 Overlay with a transparency sheet and draw the circuit traces and pads
- 1.5 Scan (or photo), scale it back down, print and etch the boards
- 1.6 Etch the boards or send it for manufacturing
- 2 Workshop at GOSH2017, Santiago de Chile
- 3 Workshop at Take-Space, Fablab Hamamatsu, Japan
- 4 Reflections
Experience from the first workshop at Dimension Plus LAB, TW
Prepare 400% scaled, printed, laminated and cut-out smd parts.
Download the files from the github.
Discuss the difference between the "schematic" representation and "physical" implementation
Start layouting and drafting the correct connections with pencil
we should add some sticky tape to fix them...
Overlay with a transparency sheet and draw the circuit traces and pads
Make sure you take some photo of your layout to refer to the part's position later.
Scan (or photo), scale it back down, print and etch the boards
Take a decent photo, check for reflections from lamps and stuff. Edit the photo in GIMP, to select all surrounding areas and invert the selection. Fill with FG (black), copy, create from clipboard -> new file. import in Inkscape, rescale to original size (some markings on the drawing would be great). Last edits can also be done in inkscape, like adding logos, version numbers, open source coconuts or defined drill holes, cut-layer etc...
Etch the boards or send it for manufacturing
Panel, Print and etch, or use pdf2gerber to send it for manufacturing. A version was imported to kiCAD and Gerber files produced. You can find it on kitnic.
Workshop at GOSH2017, Santiago de Chile
See discussion on GOSH Forum.
Workshop at Take-Space, Fablab Hamamatsu, Japan
Designing and making the boards
Impressions from the diy-CAD creative PCB design workshop in Take-Space / Fabalab Hamamatsu
(thx for the nice photos, Yuichi!)
Preparing the files for Manufacturing
Selected Take's Unagi Version of the GärLämpli (and thx to Nozomi for nice calligraphy!!) and prepared the file in Inkscape to get extra features and make Shenzhen Ready for manufacturing. See a how to here.
Uploaded the Gerber file and bom to another Github and shared in Kitnic.it
Making a Kit
See more about the Gär Lämpli and the Unagi.
... and even a nice little box.
Reflections
I hope more people are picking up the diy-CAD design tool, or also just the kits we developed using it. I think it can have it's special role in education (not as a starting point), fun for geeks/adults, aswell as complete newbies to open hardware & pcb design. The full process gives them an amazing experience from drawing and having first time a pcb made in their hands in one (long) day.
This educational workshop project, specifically with attiny85 audio prog bootloader, is maybe not the most suitable, if its just about creative pcb making, other sound toys, synths and blinke-shit might do the trick. But then on the other side, the audio programmable attiny, also called CocoNEO, is a very powerful low-cost µ-controller science/toy with much broader possible applications, similar to other data-loggers available by publiclab and many others.