Design and Implementation of Printed Circuit Board Computer Numerical Control Machine with Path Planning Algorithm

Abstract

A Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Mill is a device that etches out a pattern on a copper clad board such that it makes a PCB. PCBs are used everywhere in the field of electrical engineering to connect electrical components to one another. This research presents the design and implementation of low-cost mini PCB commuter numerical control machine based on microcontroller. A stepper motors were used to compile the movement of the three axes coordinates. Moreover, the generated Gerber file was analyzed using MATLAB platform where the analyzed file is converted to C-code and transmitted to the milling and drilling machine through the serial communication port using RS232 protocol. In addition, a path planning technique based on sorting drilling algorithm was also proposed. The simulated and implemented results were coincided.