Make an Arduino Daughterboard

  • Cut the circuit board
    • Place the double sided tape on the back of a circuit board (the yellow side).
    • Peel off the backing on the tape and stick it down on the board in the milling machine.
    • Press firmly to ensure that the board doesn’t move while milling.
    • Use the instructions typed up on the computer by the milling machine.
    • After the machine has stopped completely, press the view button (located on the right side of the front of the milling machine).
      • After the machine has stopped completely, use the chisel to remove the board.
  • Get the parts you will need:
    • 5 LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). 5 colors to choose from.
    • 5 Resistors – The resistor values will be based upon the color of LED selected.
      • Red 100 ohm
      • Blue 1 ohm
      • Green 100 ohm
      • Yellow/Orange 50 ohm
      • White/Yellow 1 ohm
    • 1 6-pin Angled Header
  • Solder the circuit board.
    • The LEDs MUST be installed so that the green line faces away from the header pins.
    • Solder by melting a small amount of solder onto the pad of the trace, pick up the part with the tweezers, place on top of the solder, re-melt the solder while pressing the component down. Make sure the connection is solid. 
    • Do not solder by touching the wire solder to the tip of the iron. This will result in poor connections and will make an unreliable board. Instead, heat the parts that you are connecting and melt the solder to those parts.
  • Connect to an Arduino board with the test code to test.
    • Make sure the header pin on the left is in GND.
    • If the board is not working:
    • Check all soldering connections
    • Check LED direction
  • Plug in an Arduino into your computer and plug the daughter board into it.
  • Open the program Arduino by clicking on the icon on the desktop.
  • Go to Tools>Port. You should be able to see a port that says COM and then some number and then (Arduino/Genuino Uno). Make sure the port that shows that board is the one that is selected.
    • If no ports seem to show the board, you may need to try a different port (plug the cord in somewhere else) or try a different cord.
  • Go to File>Examples>Firmata>StandardFirmata. A new window may appear that says StandardFirmata at the top. Hit the arrow to upload the file to your board.
    • A progress bar should appear at the bottom of the window.
  • Open the program Snap4Arduino.
  • Find the Arduino section on the top left organizer. Hit “Connect Arduino” and select the port number that you used when checking in the other Arduino program. If done correctly, you should get a message saying “An Arduino Board has been connected. Happy prototyping!”
  • As a final check, pull one of the scripts that says “set digital pin” into the middle grey area of the screen.
  • Change the pull down menu to say 13 and change the check mark to be green.
  • When you click on this script, the led on the Arduino board should turn on and stay on. Change the check mark to red on the script. The led should turn off and stay off. If all this works you are ready to begin the assignment.
  • Use the Snap4Arduino program to make a blinking LED, make your daughter board light up, use a light sensor, control servos, and finally, do something cool with the Arduino board and Snap4Arduino.

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