Today was day one of hands-on PCB population training with Tom Rice-Bladykas. Gathering together in the Herbie lab, we commandeered the electronics bench and got to working. After checking and sorting the 97+ components on an adjacent 33 square foot bench, we threw the schematics for our main ROCCstart board onto the “Big” screen for reference and began populating: Kayla took charge over placing components, Jack sourced them from the table’s spread, and Quinton sat in the corner preparing the program. Nearly two hours of tedious tweezer work later, all components were placed and ready to reflow.

Despite the crossed fingers and silent prayers, our board met the fate of every first-born: stumble, fall, crash, and burn. Not literally though. Nothing actually fried or burst into flames. Fortunately, Tom was able to locate the issue and pull off the faulty pieces. We’re still testing the main board and have three sub-modules to make, but that’s for next week.