✅ c4: electronics production

During this week, we had our first fab academy micro challenge, and a course on electronics production. We talked about PCBs, their purpose and the way they’re designed. We went through a brief history of electronics production. We focused mainly on the PCBs which are mainly circuit boards or badges that are soldered/manufactured in a way that reduces possible errors of the circuit functioning.

We then went through the different types of PCBs, when they’re preferred and then talked about the 2 main methods of PCB production which are etching and milling.

ETCHING:

• more accessible/affordable

• difficult to control the procedure

MILLING:

• more controllable

• higher quality

• less accessible

There are also other ways of making the PCBs, such as with laser and with vinyl cutters.

After talking about the different methods out there, we discussed soldering, and we were given tips on what how to solder efficiently. Then we were split into 2 big groups, where we alternated between soldering and milling digitally PCB badges. We got a quick demonstration in each of the two possible outputs and got to work first-hand in electronics production.