Hey Everyone what's up!

You guys remember Obito Uchiha right? from Naruto Shippuden!

well, I made a PCB Badge of Him.

So this is my Obito Uchiha Badge which is made from an FR4 PCB Board, cool right?

Obito Uchiha had Sharingan in one eye and Rinnegan in another eye.

But in this PCB edition, Sharingan is imitated by three Blue LEDs which are constantly blinking in a chaser sequence, and a Purple LED which will imitate the Rinnegan.

But wait, Sharingan is Red Right?

Well yes, its color is RED but I currently don't have RED LEDs so let's just say it's Blue for now.

Also, this whole Badge is powered by the all-mighty Attiny13A Microcontroller!

Prologue

So recently I've been making these cool-looking badges of nerdy stuff from movies and anime!

one easy way of making these Badges is 3D Printing but you see, it's more convenient to make these badges from PCB.

Let me tell you why!

Badge shape can be made in PCB Cad software, we can add our character's drawing on the PCB Silkscreen, then place components like LEDs around the drawing. In the end, we generate Gerber data and send it to a PCB manufacturer.

That PCB Manufacturer will produce the Badge professionally and we don't have to do anything except for the unboxing and the assembly process.

By the way, I used PCBWay Service for this PCB Badge this time!

BASICS of making a Badge

So you're a newbie who just got into PCB Designing and but you don't know how to make this kind of art-ish project with your current PCB Cad software?

Well, don't worry!

Let me show you how you can make this kind of project in few easy ways.

• Now, in order to get started with any Badge PCB Project, you first need an electronic setup that you will put on your badge. you could also not add this stuff and make a completely empty PCB Badge with only art stuff on it but adding LEDs or to a badge make it better as lighting can improve its overall impact.

In easy words, add at least a few LEDs to make your badge look cool.

got it?

• Next after finalizing the schematic, we search for our drawing or illustration that we can add to our PCB.
• In this Badge of Mine, I first search for a Back and white image.

Why Black and white, why not use the color images?

You see, most of the PCB Manufactures uses Black and white Silkscreen, coloring the whole PCB is possible but it's very expensive as it will require a lot of silkscreen color and a whole another process so that is one reason why most PCB manufacturers do not have this Multi-Color Silkscreen Process.

Because it would cost more, so we have to design our board in such a way that we can use a black and white image and use the Black or white color to our advantage.

• After getting an Image, I first remove its background and make it white.
• Next, we convert this image into a BMP image as my software only imports logos in BMP format which is a standard format for importing image but other software include adding PNG so you can skip this converting process and import your image into the PCB Cad software. (how to do that? well in my OrCAD software, I have to make a logo file first and then add the image into this logo file, later then I can import the logo file into my PCB design. this process is long and your software probably can directly import the image so search around for any imported image option or just google how you can do that in your PCB cad software)
• Next, we place all the components around the logo or on the logo like in my case, LEDs are this character's eyes so I have to put them on his eyes.
• then we connect tracks and do the general thing which is required in a PCB Designing process. which is to connect tracks one by one.
• In the end, we make an outline around the image and make a hole for the id card strap.
• then we have to import the Gerber data and our PCB-making Process is complete!
• But before sending the PCB File to the manufacturer, open the Gerber data in any PCB Rendering software, your software already has this feature so just see how your PCB will look after getting manufactured.

after making sure that everything is fine, we send it to any PCB Mabvate that we like. In my case, I send the Gerber data to PCBWay for samples!

Getting PCBs ready from PCBWAY

Because I'm making this badge from a Black image, I choose a white solder mask and black silkscreen for this project.

I received PCBs in a week and the PCBs were nice as expected.

I really like the quality of the white solder mask, also it was a tough job as the silkscreen that I have laid out o this board was not completely symmetrical but PCBWAY did an excellent job of manufacturing this PCB with no error whatsoever.

PCBWay you guys rock, check out PCBWay service for getting great PCB service at less cost.

Assembly Process

The Assembly process of this badge includes four different processes, which are-

• Solder paste Dispensing
• Pick and Place Process
• Hotplate Reflow
• Adding THT Components

Let's start with the first process which is the solder paste Dispensing process.

#1 Solderpaste Dispensing

This process is an easy one, we first add solder paste to the pads of each component manually one by one, solder paste, if you don't know, is a mixture of tiny solder balls and flux, because solder balls are tiny, this mixture looks and feels like a paste.

We apply solder paste with a solder paste dispenser syringe or the proper method is to use stencil here which I don't have. but anyway, after this, we can now move on to the next process, which is to add components to each pad.

#2 Pick and Place Process

Next, we carefully pick all the components with an ESD tweezer and place them in their assigned place one by one.

#3 hotplate reflow process

Then after doing the pick and place process, we carefully lifted the whole PCB and place it on the hotplate. I’m using my good old DIY hotplate which I made a few months ago.

Basically, in this hotplate reflow process, the surface heats up to the solder paste melting temp and it slowly melts.

after few mins when the solder paste completely melts, we remove the PCB and let it cool down for a moment.

#4 Adding THT component

In the end, we add THT Components to the PCB which are Attiny13A Microcontroller, USB Port, Switch, and header pins.

After doing this, Our Badge is completed! but it still doesn't do anything?

that's because we need to add code to the Attiny13.

Attiny13A Programming

This is the code that I have used in this project, it's a simple Chaser sketch which toggles each Mosfet in a chaser sequence. (Pretty simple stuff)

int pinsCount=3;                        // declaring the integer variable pinsCount
int pins[] = {0,1,2};          // declaring the array pins[]


void setup() {
  pinMode(0, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(3, OUTPUT);
                  
}

 
void loop() {
  for (int i=0; i<pinsCount; i=i+1){    // chasing right
    digitalWrite(pins[i], HIGH);         // switching the LED at index i on
    delay(70);                          // stopping the program for 100 milliseconds
    digitalWrite(pins[i], LOW);          // switching the LED at index i off
  }
  for (int i=pinsCount-1; i>0; i=i-1){   // chasing left (except the outer leds)
    digitalWrite(pins[i], HIGH);         // switching the LED at index i on
    delay(70);                          // stopping the program for 100 milliseconds
    digitalWrite(pins[i], LOW);          // switching the LED at index i off
  }
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
delay(1000);
  

}

As for the Flashing Process, we cannot directly program ATTINY13 through any USB, I mean there's a method for programming the Attiny straight from the USB port but I'm not doing that.

Instead, I'll be using the ISP flashing method which will utilize the SPI Pins of attiny13A to burn the bootloader in it and then Flash.

Getting Attiny13 Core Installed on Arduino IDE

Before starting the Flashing process, we first need to download and install the Attiny13 Core files in Arduino IDE.

https://github.com/MCUdude/MicroCore

• Open the Arduino IDE.
• Open the File > Preferences menu item.
• Enter the following URL in Additional Boards Manager URLs: https://mcudude.github.io/MicroCore/package_MCUdude_MicroCore_index.json
• Open the Tools > Board > Boards Manager... menu item.
• Wait for the platform indexes to finish downloading.
• Scroll down until you see the MicroCore entry and click on it.
• Click Install.
• After installation is complete close the Boards Manager window.

Preparing the Arduino as ISP setup

AVRs chips usually come blank, they need to be set up to be Arduino IDE compatible but to do that you need an AVR programmer do to that, for example, a USBASP.

Fun Fact, you could make your own AVR Programer with an Arduino Uno or a Nano board in a very easy step.

• Connect your Arduino board with com port and select the following sketch
• Example>ArduinoISP upload this sketch onto your board
• After uploading, go to the tools menu and choose the Arduino as ISP option in the programmer section.
• Now for flashing Attiny13A, we can select the Attiny13A in the Board section.

The programming process uses VCC, GND, and four data pins. Three pins connect MISO, MOSI, and SCK between the programming micro and the target micro, the fourth pin from the programming micro goes to the reset pin of the target.

Wire the Attiny13 with Arduino in the above way. (also right after uploading ISP Sketch to your Arduino, do not forget to add a 10uf Cap between Reset and GND pins of your Arduino board)

Instead of using an Arduino UNO and a breadboard for this job, I will use my DIY Attiny Programmer which I made for flashing the Attiny or Atmega MCUs.

which you can check out from here- https://www.hackster.io/Arnov_Sharma_makes/multiple-attiny85-13a-programmer-84adf8

• connect the Board to the Arduino as ISP Setup in the above wiring config
• choose the right port, right programmer (Arduino as ISP), and hit Burn Bootloader
• wait for few seconds, you will get done burning the bootloader message.
• Now Open the sketch that you want to upload to this Attiny
• Go to the Sketch menu and select Upload using the programmer.
• and your Sketch will get uploaded onto the attiny13.

Result

And as you can see here, LEDs are working nicely and they look pretty cool.

Well, I'm currently working on yet another PCB Badges that I will post soon.

I'll see you guys with the next project!