I was putting together an order of PCB's to be made when my youngest, CharlieMac, became interested in the lay-out software I was using. I have to admit, it does look very cool when making a board --all those traces and pads, color coded... At any rate, I gave him a shot and he quickly (within 20 min) had figured out how the software worked. Being curious, I drew up a schematic on paper and gave it to him. Pretty simple, just a coin-flip circuit on a 08m. Ten minutes later, he had actually drawn it up... well! He got every connection correct.
I gave Phoenix (Phee) a shot at it and again, I was amazed. I decided to go ahead and add these boards to my order and voila. I should mention, that I did really nothing here. I did take the liberty of "straightening out" the components on the board itself just for appearance. I didn't change a single trace or pad. Oh yeah, the boys did all the soldering as well.
… Im really impressed since Im 16 years old and I have never designed a pcb (because I dont know how designing programms works).
Learning to design pc boards would be great for me.
Is there any guide on for this one.
In this case, the kids were following my schematic. I showed them where to find the components they needed (in Diptrace) and between them, they decided where everything should go on the board. It all had to fit on a 1x1 board. The boys came up with what you see in the video. From there, it is really just connect-the-dots. The schematic I drew for them used pictures for all the parts, i.e. the resistors looked like resistors (not the zig-zaggy symbol) and they already knew how to count the pins on an IC. Really, the only confusing part was the button, it simply wasn’t wired the way we thought it should be --we caught it with a measure-thingie check when we were designing. Again, connect-the-dots… they followed the schematic and drew traces from pin to pin, crossing off what they had done (on the schematic).
Skillz 4 life dude! Can’t think of many other hobbies a 6yo could get into that are as applicable in the real world. Charlie’s got good soldering technique too, properly heating the pads instead of ‘painting’ the solder on like most newbies try to.
I appreciate the kind words. I hope to resolve this (real life) work/no work/ need to work/ don’t need to work, Kari can work thing and get back to posting some more stuff around here. I have actually been getting a lot done on Walter… Hope to have something up soon.
great video. Makes me want to teach my own kids.;But since my eldest is only three and the twins are not yet two years old, they are more likely to eat any tool or, god forbid, soldering equipment I hand them rather then to wield it. Anyway: good show.
