Prepare & program the pick, place the machine with all the components and their location on the Hardsploit PCB board, set up all the parameters… That’s a lot of things to plan !

We begin with the solder past dispensing via the use of stencils and our homemade dispensing desk !

The process consist on :

• Securely block the PCB on the desk

• Cover the PCB with the stencil (precision task)

• Dispense solder paste on PCB through the hole of the stencil

• Remove the stencil and thus the solder paste is on each pin of each component to solder on the PCB (see the grey paste)

Welcome inside our own private Hackerspace !

Our (modest but efficient) industrial lab is composed of :

• Dedicated machines room
• 1 pick & Place machine (Mechatronika M10)

You can find more info on its features on http://www.mechatronika.com.pl/content/view/21/4/lang/en/

• 1 homemade reflow oven

At the beginning of our project we check if a professional reflow oven could be a good solution; however 8000 $ for small series and prototyping is a little bit expensive, so we decide to create our own DIY reflow oven for less than 100 $ 😉

The power of the oven (thus the temperature inside it) is controlled by an electronic board that “switch on” or “switch off” the 220V power line. Our goal is to be able to adjust the temperature according to a consign via a classical PID system. All this stuff  is located in the black magic box (DIY also)

We created a dedicated tool and GUI to control the temperature inside the oven to follow precisely the temperature ramp associated with soldering SMT components

• Bunch of chemical products
• Plenty of SMT component
• Air compressors (for the pick an place and for solder past)
• In short, common tools you need in a decent lab

Thanks to PCB Beta Layout, we received the stencil very quickly

And of course the PCB

Go to Pick and place Machine to create the First Hardsploit prototype 😉 Exciting !

After the placement of main components on the board, the Eagle automatic router module get the job done ! It was very efficient to find around 90 % of all routes that are necessary to connect all our component … automatically. Obviously, automation is not everything and we like to think that if the process was a success it was also because of the smart initial placement 😉 +1 for human brain

A little video to see how it works

You like wires ?

Routing mor than 64 leds, one TQFP FGPA integrated circuit and one microcontroller (STM) on a double face PCB is a challenging task ! Trust us ! Not surprising that finding a way to create all the interconnection on a PCB is a complete job.