★★ PCB Repetition 2: Cutting, Etching, Soaking ★★

dated September 30, 2011 (Fri) 

By morning, since our revised design was already approved, I proceeded with the cutting part of the unnecessary masking tape then with the etching, soaking and the smoothening of the PCB thru the sandpaper. That afternoon, I borrowed Jen’s photocopy of the diagram to be followed for the exact positioning of the components (i.e. diodes, capacitors, and resistor) on the PCB. Then later that evening, I attended our weekly campus mixer so I went home late again. And when at home again, I had to visit at my great-granny’s wake especially since it was already her last night and the following day would be her burial. So, Friday was fairly another unproductive day for our project. News again came to us that the following day, another typhoon would hit the country and the province would be badly affected since it was on Signal#3. üü

Traced design on masking tape

Soaking

PCB soaked
in Ferric Chloride

PCB soaked

in Ferric Chloride

PCB washed on
running water

PCB washed on
running water

PCB wiped for drying

PCB wiped for drying

PCB wiped for drying

Removing masking tapes

Removing masking tapes

Removing masking tapes

Removing masking tapes

PCB Revised Design

PCB set for Drilling

PCB set for Drilling

PCB set for Drilling

Photocopy I borrowed 

Served as the Basis for the
Component Side of the PCB

★★ Brought Home Power Supply ★★

dated September 29, 2011 (Thu)

Luckily, Thursday did have a fine day and we were able to go to school safely. Our instructor in English, subject prior to Tech class was out, so the whole class was busy roaming around, eating, chatting, etc. Some, including both Julius and I, were starting to think that we’re not gonna assemble our power supply on time because of some circumstances (i.e. intrams, typhoon, etc.) Minutes after, we figured that our Tech prof was already approving us, her students, to take our project-making home or out of the class/lab. It was due to lack of time, especially since our prof was a panelist on the graduating students’ final defenses. Moreover, we were told that the next day, Friday (Sept. 30), was scheduled for a fogging at the campus. No classes again, bwahaha!! Too bad, we got no chance to move on with our project.


Since Julius was still nowhere to be found that Thursday morning when we took our power supply set, I decided I’d take our project home after class. Later that day, when he showed up, he consulted Mam Arrianne regarding our revised design of the PCB. Good thing our professor approved of it. Unfortunately, I had to be somewhere else after class so I went home late. When at home, I was asked to visit our ancestral house nearby to show up at my great-grandmother’s wake. I just had to go, so I did. Then when I came back home, I remembered I have a cousin who has a thing for fixing electronic/electrical gadgets. I consulted him with our project; he offered to help so I didn’t refuse especially since both Julius and I have no idea on assembling a power supply. Since it was still early, he took a look at our project. He asked for a diagram to be followed for mounting the components on the PCB. I didn’t know what that was so I messaged our instructor. Mam Arrianne said it was on the other photocopy. I also messaged my classmates about the diagram. Lucky was I they had copies. So since we couldn’t get going with my project, we decided to postpone it until I already have the diagram. üü

★★Two Unproductive Days: Quiel ★★

dated September 27, 2011 (Tue)

*We all (whole class) thought the following week, after the lecture week, was goin’ to be a busy one considering that we we’re all kinda behind our time frame for our projects’ accomplishment. Then suddenly, by that same Monday evening, news came to us that there’d be a typhoon hitting the country – not to mention that it will cause much damage to Northern Luzon which is where our province La Union is situated. Tuesday (Sept. 27) came and text messages were instantly spread; information about class suspension on that day entire the province in all levels were disseminated.


dated September 28, 2011 (Wed)


*Tuesday passed then came Wednesday, weather was still bad so only few went to school. We were hoping that the following day, Thursday, (Sept. 29) would be a fine weather so we could carry on with our project. 


 üü

★★ PCB Repetition: Revised Design ★★

dated September 26, 2011 (Monday) – not a Tech day actually--

 Meanwhile with our PCB repetition, (to be honest, I thought) there seemed no time, so I chose to do it at home. I then smoothened the edges of the PCB using sandpaper, erased the unwanted dirt on the solder side, and when I was about to trace the design, my brother, who just got home from Manila to visit our great-granny’s wake, intervened. He told me I wasn’t doing it right so I asked him how to do it the right way. He took the diagram and the PCB and he just started drawing. I protested but he continued drawing. He revised the design and he also suggested that the groups (of 2) should have had different designs from each of the other groups. I insisted it’d be better if we had a standard design. But he went on drawing anyway so I had no choice but to watch. When he finished drawing, I thought the revised design was a mess considering what he did was a little more compressed. Later I realized it was actually better ‘coz there were no curves – that means cutting would be easy because the design is all on linear. So it wasn’t too bad after all. The only problem was, would it be ok with our Prof to have the design revised?

  üü


                 Comparison between the first design and the revised design

★★ Not So Unproductive Days: Lecture Week ★★

dated September 20, 22-23, 2011 (Tue, Thu-Fri)

*We were all hopeful that by the next meeting, which was September 20, we could continue our lab project. It turned out, the next week [meaning all three meetings (Sept. 20, 22-23)] after our Campus Olympics, were allocated for lecture on our Tech101 course.  We discussed about Boolean expressions, logic circuits and logic gates. After discussion, our prof gave exercises for the certain topic. üü

★★ Unproductive Days: Campus Olympics ★★

dated September 15-16, 2011 (Thu-Fri)

*September 14-16 was our Campus Olympics so that meant we were not able to go on with our project because there were no classes. Events during the intramurals included a street dancing competition, talent searches, singing contests, sports events (i.e. ball/board games) and the Search for Mr. and Ms. Chorva, whatsoever. Haha. üü

★★ Unproductive Day 1: No PCB, No Work ★★

4^th Day dated September 13, 2011 (Tue)

Last time, we agreed to repeat the whole process of preparing the PCB's design since Day 2. Unluckily, Julius had to attend a funeral of his close relative and it so happened that he didn’t leave me our spare PCB so I could have been able to start designing and probably could have finished etching by the same day. So.... there I was, watching my classmates drill their PCB’s, or cut some excess masking tapes, or trace designs from a photocopy. A few were texting, others were chatting, some were comparing how far they've gotten with their project and I was like "This feels like crap". I appeared so lax and sloppy doing nothing while the others were busying themselves with our project. For some reason, I felt so pathetic I had to stare at emptiness and just ponder whether we (Julius and I) could pass our subject or not. Time went still and I was beginning to get bored so I played my mobile’s games. Later on, our prof saw me. She didn’t ask me directly why I wasn’t doing anything subject-related, so I took the liberty to tell her and so I did tell her that Julius took our spare PCB with him that’s why I couldn’t start on doing something. She just nodded and flashed another lovely smile. She is indeed very understanding and considerate with her students. Although I must say that this was certainly a very unproductive day for our project (*sighs heavily). üü

★★ PCB Preparation 2: Cutting, Etching, Soaking ★★

3^rd Day dated September 9, 2011 (Fri)

D.     Cutting Out Excess Masking Tapes

Anyways, let’s proceed. Using a cutter, we cut out the excess masking tape on the PCB’s design. By excess, I mean the white parts which were unnecessary already. It wasn’t that easy for both of us to cut the traced outline on the masking tape especially since we’re both not pro’s in assembling a power supply. Fortunately, after cutting accurately and cutting carefully, we made it. (Clap,clap) .. The brown apparent thing will be dissolved when immersed on the Ferric Chloride and that is why the white parts traced are left untouched – to keep the necessary copper parts underneath them from being dissolved by the Ferric Chloride. How come? Well, I have no idea either.

E.  PCB Etching, Soaking or Whatever-You-Want-to-Call-It

After the cutting part, we prepared a container where the PCB will be immersed on Ferric Chloride- a chemical solution for specific purposes which are – I don’t know. We had to be extra careful on pouring the FC solution on the container so we used gloves instead of just bare hands. For more or less thirty minutes (30mins.), we left the container with the FC solution and the PCB on a warm place, but not directly under the sun, although our instructor already advised us that etching works best under warm temperature. So after 30 minutes of waiting, we cautiously took the PCB out from the FC solution. Then Julius immediately washed the PCB on running water so as to get rid of some FC solution which remained on the PCB, and wiped it with a clean, smooth cloth after which, I disposed the container with the FC to avoid hazardous effects on the environment and on my fellowmen – talk about being pro-Earth and patriotic – Haha… After drying the wet PCB, we detached the white parts – the masking tape ones left on the PCB before immersing it on FC. And there it was, our very own finished Printed Circuit Board design. To our disappointment, it didn’t turn out the way we expected it to be. The other part of the design was too close to the edge and too far from the other one – we both thought it’s goin’ to be a problem in the near future (i.e. drilling, soldering, etc.), so we agreed to repeat the process of preparing, designing, cutting excesses, etching, and soaking, all for the glory of our beloved project-to-be, a Professional Converter. However, we were not permitted to take home our project-making so we had no choice but to repeat the whole process on the next meeting come Tuesday a week after. üü

Cutting

Cutting

                                             

Cutting

                                                                 

Traced design on masking tape;
Set for soaking




Soaking

PCB Design after excess
masking tapes are removed

★★ PCB Preparation: Designing ★★

2^nd Day dated September 8, 2011 (Thu)

A. Tools and Things Needed (In Order of Appearance – apay movie? Haha)

Ø  PCB (2"x3")

Ø  sand paper

Ø  eraser

Ø  carbon paper

Ø  masking tape

Ø  Scotch tape

Ø  pen/pencil    

Ø  cutter

Ø  gloves

Ø  container/basin (for soaking)

Ø  ferric chloride

Ø  hand drill

B. Preparatory for Preparing (Redundant) the PCB for Designing and Etching

Using a sand paper (liha in tagalog), we smoothened the edges of the printed circuit board then we erased – using an eraser of course – unwanted marks and spots on the solder side of the PCB. Erasing wasn’t just about erasing the unnecessary spots on the solder side, erasing was also about revealing the shining, shimmering ★★ white-gold-ish part of the solder side (sounds so maarte, right?). ;P

C.  PCB Designing

Ma’am Arrianne gave us a design to PATTERNIZE (Is there even a word?) our PCB’s design with. The design was a photocopy from a certain book or whatever. The problem was how to transfer the design from the paper to the PCB. Easy as pie. Of course with our instructor’s instructions, it wasn’t a big problem. What we did was, I first covered the whole part of the solder side of the PCB. We both had to make sure there were no airspaces or gaps between the masking tape and the PCB ‘coz there could have been a problem if there were, and that could have been about the ferric chloride eating (as in literally eating!) some parts of the copper side which was not supposed to be that way. Then, Julius made another layer on top of the masking tape thru the use of the carbon paper this time, and of course the photocopied design was put on top of the carbon paper. We taped the carbon paper then, the design, on the PCB so it would stay on place and undoubtedly, it would be very inconvenient not to do so. He traced the outline of the design using a pencil, he said he didn’t want to miss anything, so he traced carefully, he traced and traced and traced and then pooofff – the outline was there on the masking tape when we removed the carbon paper and the design. It was awesome, it was like, …urrgh!! üü

Smoothening

                                                       

Erasing Dirts

Putting Masking Tape

 

Carbon paper was sandwiched bet. the
photocopied design and the PCB

Tracing

Tracing

Traced design on masking
tape on top of PCB

★★ Prologue ★★

1^st Day dated September 6, 2011 (Tue)

Earlier this month, Mam Arrianne Michelle Florendo, our much-loved instructor, ordered from a friend of hers sets (plural) of professional converters to be assembled. This was the day we first had the chance to touch our very precious projects-to-be.. Ow, btw – I forgot to mention earlier that I actually have a lab partner with this project, Julius is the name.

Soon after we checked whether the set was complete or not, we listened to our professor as she discussed to us the tools and things to be used for our projects’ completion. We consumed most of the time because she also identified tips, procedures and precautionary measures we ought to follow to assemble our power supply successfully and safely. üü

★★ Introduction ★★

Yeeha!! (Clap, clap, clap) ;p

I’m gunna be honest, I really didn't know why I had to face the screen and type so I can start a blog.. I don’t even know how it’s like to have a blog. All I know is that a blog is an electronic counterpart of a diary. I’m not even so sure about that. I don't know where and how to do this but it'll take me much time if I don't start over now. To begin with, I'll give details about this blog.

By the way, Hello there viewer -oo ikaw nga!- !! This blog is specially created for our documentation in our final lab project in Tech 101 entitled Fundamentals of Electronics and Digital Circuits which was about assembling - NOT making - like there’s a big difference naman noh? Yes, actually there is - a power supply or a professional converter as labeled on that thing.

If you have no idea what a power supply is, read this one right here taken from Wikipedia:

A power supply is a device that supplies electrical energy to one or more electric loads. The term is most commonly applied to devices that convert one form of electrical energy to another, though it may also refer to devices that convert another form of energy (e.g., mechanical, chemical, solar) to electrical energy. A regulated power supply is one that controls the output voltage or current to a specific value; the controlled value is held nearly constant despite variations in either load current or the voltage supplied by the power supply's energy source.

(You may skip this part below)
Every power supply must obtain the energy it supplies to its load, as well as any energy it consumes while performing that task, from an energy source. Depending on its design, a power supply may obtain energy from:

• Electrical energy transmission systems. Common examples of this include power supplies that convert   AC line voltage to DC voltage.
• Energy storage devices such as batteries and fuel cells.
• Electromechanical systems such as generators and alternators.
• Solar power.

A power supply may be implemented as a discrete, stand-alone device or as an integral device that is hardwired to its load. In the latter case, for example, low voltage DC power supplies are commonly integrated with their loads in devices such as computers and household electronics.

Commonly specified power supply attributes include:
• The amount of voltage and current it can supply to its load.
• How stable its output voltage or current is under varying line and load conditions.
• How long it can supply energy without refueling or recharging (applies to power supplies that employ portable energy sources).

Since you already have something in your mind about power supplies, LET’S GET IT ON. üü