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pcb

A component made up of layers of copper and fiberglass; the surface of a PCB features a pattern of copper lines, or “traces,” that provide electrical connections for chips and other components that mount on the surface of the PCB. A term used in the electronics industry to denote a RAW (non-populated) Printed Circuit Board.

PCB is short for “Printed Circuit Board”. One way to think of them is as a stencil or blueprint for a circuit or device. When a PCB is made, the task of putting together a circuit is much easier, since all the connections are premade– it's just a matter of mounting individual parts.

One issue to note for those new to soldering(at least, one issue that I had): It's possible for the etching on a PCB to come up if heat from the soldering iron is misapplied or applied too much. While this is a real hassle, it should be possible to solve by bridging either with insulated wire(soldering one end to each side of the formerly-closed circuit path) or by some other means.

One way to avoid this is to get a good desoldering tool. RadioShack has a couple, one of which is a simple trigger-operated vacuum, and the other is a combination soldering-iron-and-vacuum with a squeezebulb for intake. This seemed a bit strangely designed to me, plus it was 45 watts which would probably toast something.

In short, it's best to get practice soldering before one messes up a MIDIBox CoreModule!

PCBs for MIDIBox modules can be found at SmashTV's website http://mbhp.avishowtech.com as well as at a German site I can't remember the URL for.

pcb.txt · Last modified: 2006/10/15 09:35 (external edit)