The EE Capstone Design Lab houses a printed circuit board (PCB) milling
machine which is used to produce the boards that your group designs. Under the
skilled operation of the course technician, the machine offers reasonably
fast production time.
This course uses the EAGLE 4.0x Schematic Capture and PCB Layout software
as installed on all the computers in ETLC E3-001. Other formats
are not supported for two reasons:
- EAGLE produces files appropriate for use with the milling machine; and
- future students can benefit more directly with standard schematic and PCB formats.
Having the technician
look over the board design prior to submission is encouraged.
Except in special circumstances (as acknowledged and approved by the technician),
single-sided boards are manufactured. The milling process is best-suited for
use of through-hole (not surface-mount) component packages. Routing can be a
bit of a challenge due to the relatively large size of the traces. Soldering, too,
requires some patience and practice.
Additional PCB design guidelines, and other manufacturing options are discussed
during the lecture. |