This is the first of several blog posts written by the high school interns that have been working with us this summer. Stay tuned for more!

Hi, my name is Anusha and I started working as an intern for Let’s Build Rockets about two weeks ago. We are designing a kit that will teach individuals how to solder using a robot-shaped pin and step-by-step instructions. I’ve been learning how to design PCBs using Eagle.

Through Eagle, I was able to make a schematic for the circuit board. The schematic included the parts such as the LEDs and resistors and showed how they would be connected. Eagle helped us design the board layout based on the schematic we drew earlier. All I had to was make the outline for the shape of the robot the position the LEDs inside it. I routed the traces from each LED to the battery in order to ensure that the LEDs were connected and would light up. After this, I worked on making the PCB look more like a robot by adding lines for the mouth and the individual parts of the robot.

Also, I worked on making a parts list and looked on various websites to find the most affordable and durable parts for the PCB robot. The parts, such as LEDS, batteries, and the battery holder, had to fit inside the cost constraint for the entire learn to solder project. While finding materials for the project, I also learned about more reliable websites such as aliexpress where I can find materials in bulk which are cheap but have a decent quality, all of which will contribute to the success of this project.

This week I will be working on planning for the level 3 PCB of the learn to solder project. This will involve an astable multibrator circuit which I will learn about and use in order for there to be alternating flashing lights.

See Anusha's work on GitHub