Week 7 : Ultiboard Test & Circuit Arrangement

Assalamualaikum & Salam Sejahtera.

Salve omnes. Do y'all know what it means? It's a latin word which means hello everyone. Forget to ask how are you all today? In good health? I hope so cause if not, you may not feel 100% enjoy when reading my latest blog ^^ .

Well then, let's cut to the chase. To tell you the truth, this week in Electronic System class is quite a chaos. I was barely manage to snap several pictures for this week blog. Luckily I manage to complete the ultiboard test 20 minutes before class ended.

Lets's start from the beginning. As in the schedule, this week we have an ultiboard test. After learning how to use it, of course a test is needed to examine how far all of us understand ultiboard. After taking the attendance, Dr Redzuan distributed to us the question sheet. Y'all can see the question below :

Then Dr Redzuan explain about the question. He want to make several changes in the question such as components R5, L1 & L2 is put at the bottom of the circuit, components R3 & R4 use a surface mount device(SMD) footprint, the thrace size change to 25 millimeter instead of 10 millimeter as usual, and make sure that our board shape is not in SQUARE shape. Before we start the test, Dr Redzuan remind us to make sure that all components use are real.

Then, the test begin. To make the circuit appear in the ultiboard, first of all, we need to start with multisim. Take out all the component that we want in the multisim. You can see my components in the multisim before it's been arranged below:

Here the picture after it's been arranged :

After the circuit is done in the multisim, the next step is to transfer it to the ultiboard. Here you can see my circuit in the ultiboard before adjust anything :

Alright then. Next step, let's switch the board shape, and....... here's the result :

Now, with this hands(and mouse), I shall drag the components onto the board. After finished dragging & arranged the componets on the board, I need to click the autoroute function so that the ultiboard software will design the thraces on my circuit board. Here I put the final adjustment picture. You can see all changes in it :

Here is the explanation :
i) The wire-look that connected all the components is what we called thraces.
ii) The green thraces shows that the thrace is positioned at the top of the circuit board.
iii) The red thraces shows that the thrace is positioned at the bottom of the circuit board.
iv) The components that blue in colour shows that it is positioned at the top of the cicuit board.
v) The components that purple in colour shows that it is positioned at the top of the cicuit board.

Finally, the last step that need to be done before submit the ultiboard is to write our name on our circuit board so that when Dr Redzuan print out our circuit board, our name is written on it.

Like I told y'all in the last blog, the entice thing of the ultiboard is that we can view our circuit board in 3D!
I show to y'all the 3D view of my circuit board:

i) Top view :

ii) Bottow view:

iii) Middle view:

From the middle view, y'all can see the components that was put at the top & at the bottom. But when I see it carefully while writing this blog, I just realized that I've made a mistake in the test. Supposely it should been three component that was put at the bottom but I just put two component; L1 & L2. I missed the R5. Now my mark will absolutely be deducted. It's too late to realized now. What's done is done. It can't be taken back. The only thing I can do about it is remember & learn from the mistake so that I will not repeat it again in the future.

After I submit my test, I still got 20 minutes left. So, I use this free time to take several pictures of my friends' ultiboard. You can see it below: 

i) Designing the board :

ii) After arranged & 3D view :

iii) Still struggling to complete the test :

For y'all information, the thing that made this test difficult is to avoid or/and remove the Design Rules Check(DRC) error. After we autoroute the circuit for the first time, it has no problem. But after we change the size of the thrace, the DRC error start to appear. The DRC error appear when the space between the thraces is too near. We need to adjust the thrace position so that the DRC error will vanished but sometimes, the DRC error still not gone even after we adjust the thrace position for multiple times.

Well then, that's all we done in this week class. Quite a chaos but it's still fun. Starting next week, we will enter new chapter in this course. I can't wait to see how's the next chapter will be. That's all for this week. Stay tuned for next blog. Hope y'all enjoy your holiday this weekend & I wish y'all Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha. Te revidere.

Week 4 : Electronic Workshop & Explore Multisim

Assalamualaikum & Salam Sejahtera.

Bonjour everyone. I'm so sorry because I'm not update my blog for last week. No need to tell the reason because it can't change the fact that I'm not updating my blog. But no worries because this week's blog gonna be much more entertaining to read.

Let's start with this. This week, we are entering the dragon's den. Oops, my bad. Hahaha. Actually we are entering the Electric Workshop, the place where we gonna do our electronic system project. When I heard that we gonna enter electric workshop this week, some imagination appear in my mind such as are we gonna make an electric circuit? Are we gonna joint the wire to the circuit board by melting the solder wire because trust me, it's been about almost 4 years I didn't play with the solder wire.

When we enter the elctric workshop, Dr Redzuan & Dr Kamal was in there. After we sit in front of the computer, Dr Kamal distributed to us some papers about :

i) Overall Assesment Criteria

ii) SMJE 1032 Schedule

iii) Rubric for Affective Domain

iv) Reflective Journal Rubric

v) Reflective Journal Writing's Guideline

After all of us has received the papers, like the first week, Dr Kamal brief us again about from where we will be given marks, our schedule,  how our marks will be evaluate, our reflective journal's marks, & the guideline to write the reflective journal. But this time, all of us understand it more clearer because we have all the stuff that he was talking about in our hands. But the most important thing in the briefing is about writing the reflective journal. Dr Kamal emphasize the important of writing a great quality of reflective journal because it gives a lot of marks in our assessment. Thank you Dr Kamal because really concern about us.

I forgot to tell y'all that while Dr Kamal give briefing about the reflective journal, I managed to snap some pictures of the electronic workshop. Here are the pictures :

After Dr Kamal has finished his briefing, now it is Dr Redzuan turn to take charge. Now our real objective why we enter the electronic workshop begin now, to learn how to make Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Design & Simulation by using Multisim & Ultiboard. For this week, we are learning about the function of multisim & how to use it. Dr Redzuan told us before we create a real electric circuit, we need to design it first. That's the main function of multisim, to design an electric circuit. Like every living creature in this earth whom has its partner, multisim software also has its own partner : ultiboard software. After we had done design the elctric circuit in multisim, we save the file & transfer it to ultiboard. In ultiboard, we can arrange the materials in our electric circuit in any way we like & transform it to 3D form. From the 3D form then we can create the real electric circuit. 

Alright then, after Dr Redzuan done give us a little explanation about the function of multisim & ultiboard, it's time to turn the theory into practical. Before that, Dr Redzuan has distributed to us the task that we gonna do  in the workshop. Here's the task for multisim :

The task.

The circuit that we do is the above one.

Then we start doing the task. It's so fun you know dragging the components such as resistors, capacitors, etc in any place we want on the virtual circuit board but finally we need to arrange it exactly same like in the task.

Here the picture of my materials before it been arranged : 

Such a mess right? 

Here's the picture after I arranged it into a complete circuit.

 If you noticed, there is a different before arranged & after arranged. 

The first different is the shape of  capacitors. Before I arranged the materials, I was so enjoy doing this stuff and I was careless that I used normal capacitor. Then after finished arranging the circuit, Dr Redzuan told me that I used a wrong capacitor.  

I was blur & wondering what's my mistake? Then one of my friend told me that I need to use electrolytic capacitor, not the normal one.

The second different is the number of blue & black components. Dr Redzuan told us that if the component is black colour, it means the component is virtual. Vice versa, if the component is blue colour, it is a real component. 

Dr Redzuan ask us to change the virtual component to real component because virtual component will not appear when we transfer this circuit to the ultiboard software. The trick to change the virtual component to real is simple : double-click the component & setting it footprint. 

After we've finished the multisim, before the class dismissed, Dr Redzuan show to us a little way how to transfer the circuit in multisim to ultiboard. It's so awesome when the 2D circuit turn to 3D form.

Well then, I guess this week's blog need to end here.  That's all we do in the electronic workshop. I must admit it is a fun & exciting experience. So many things that I've learn in this course until this week. Really can't what's more waiting for me ahead. That's all for this week blog. I hope y'all enjoy reading my blog. Stay tuned for more. Ja mata ne.