WEEK 10 : CHECK CIRCUIT

Actually this week I don't have much thing to do because I already done with all thing required for hardware part. So now I just have to wait till my partner Zaheerudin finish the software part. All I can do now is to check our project condition in order to make sure that there is no problem before we test our circuit. So by using multimeter and buzzer, i have checked all the connection based on the schematic diagram.

Figure 1 : Example of circuit checking

So after finish with all circuit checking, I have got no problem in term of circuit connection. So now we just wait till Zaheerudin finish programming the PIC16F877A. That's all for this week and please give your feedback for this project.

WEEK 9 : SOLDERING PROCESS

Assalamualaikum for all viewers. Last week i already update all the things that i have done for drilling process. Now for this week, i will talk about soldering process. First of all, before we start the work, we have to make sure that we have every tools that we need for this process. i will list down all the tools used in this process.

Figure 1 : Soldering iron

Figure 2 : Stand for Soldering Iron

Figure 3 : PCB Holder

Figure 4 : Solder lead

Figure 5 : Sucker Pump

Figure 6 : Solder Wick

Figure 7 : Cutter and Long Nose

Now we can start solder all the component. First put the component on the PCB and make sure that the components are in the correct position. Then switch on the soldering iron and wait for 5 minutes in order to make sure that the soldering iron is heat enough. Then put the PCB on the PCB holder so that we can easily doing the solder without having a difficulty during the process. Now we can start solder. During this work, make sure that we not put the soldering iron too long on the PCB because if too long we might give the burn to our PCB and it will damage our PCB. If we want to desolder, we have to use desolder pump to suck the lead. Then use the solder wick to clean the tip of soldering iron.

Figure 8 : Soldering Process 1

Figure 9 : Soldering Process 2

Figure 10 : Desolder Process

Now i have done with our soldering process. This time, my partner Zaheerudin still work on the programming for our PIC16F877A. All the update is on his blog http://fyp4bmi.blogspot.com.So that all for this week. Hope you enjoy reading this blog and please leave your comments that can help me  to find what is my mistake if any.

WEEK 8 : DRILLING PROCESS

For this particular week, what we're going to do is we are going to drilling our PCB in order to place the component on the board before we can go to the soldering process. We are using a cordless drill with drill point size 1.0 mm. For safety precaution we put a Styrofoam as a pad for our PCB. We have to do it with gentle and precise because the size of the components pin is to small. By using my own cordless drill I'll start drilling all the pin for every components.

Figure 1: Drilling Process 1

Figure 2 : Drilling Process 2

During the process, i have to make sure that every hole drilled is fit in size that we already set because if we don't do precisely, we might face a problem when we move to the next process of soldering all the component. During this process my partner zaheerudin zabidi already start working on the programming for this wind speed meter which is using IC PIC16F877A. As i know, he is using a MPLAB IDE v8.70 for program all the instruction need for this project using assembly language. For more detail you can go to Zaheerudin's blog. This is the link;http://fyp4bmi.blogspot.com.

So that's all for this week. So for the next week, I'll be move to soldering process of this project.

  

WEEK 7 : PCB DEVELOPMENT (CONT'D)

4. EMULSION PROCESS




Now we continue to the next process of PCB Development which is Emulsion process. In this process we are going to use 10 gram of sodium hydroxide pellets mixed with distilled water. Mixed them well till sodium hydroxide pellets completely dissolved. Then soak the PCB into the solution and gently pan the pcb untill the circuit can be visible. 

sodium hydroxide pellets

panning process

After finished this process, we now move to the next step

5.  ETCHING PROCESS

By using the Etching machine that we have in PCB Room, we just have to put the PCB that already being emulsion into the machine and set the temperature to range of 40 - 50 degree Celsius. We used 44 degree Celsius and then we wait for about 4 minutes until the process done. Then after etching process done, we scrub the PCB till we get the layer. 

now we move to the next process which last process of this PCB Development

6. TROUBLESHOOTING PROCESS

The above mentioned exposure timing should be determined experimentally. But even when the exposure timing is correct PCB etching failures could happen because of low quality or too old photosensitive PCB, the photosensitive layer has aged despite the protective plastic layer. Other possible causes are too high concentration of development solution causing the photosensitive part not exposed to light to be dissolved by the sodium hydroxide solution as well. When developing too short not all of the copper of the PCB will be etched. Developing might take some experimenting to get used to it and know what to expect.

That's all for this week. We will update next process on next week. Thank you.