PCB programming and testing
The pile of components we now have is quite impressive. The PCB boards I described in the previous post are now with CorinTech's Design Manager Tim Waterman (pictured) and his colleague David Ing - the unsung heros on our project. David has been working for some time translating our schematic for the SleepBreeze fan controller into software that will reside within the PCB's chip. Now that we have the keypad membrane, the PCB, power brick and sample fans David can start testing the product in it's final form.
I won't bore you with all the safety aspects that we've built into the product - but there are layers of electrical and software protection, along with physical barriers to prevent contact with moving parts. David will be testing these out before we send samples away for independent testing.
Meanwhile Tim has been working closely with us ironing out design and sourcing issues. The two issues are closely related. Take for example the selection of the fan we use. We had to establish which fans were actually identical to the nearest fraction of a millimeter to ensure that they would line up with fixing points in the fan housing. Why's that important? Well, imagine if you'd spent thousands on tooling up and suddenly the manufacturer went out of business, changed the spec... you'd be left with an expensive pile of scrap metal.
Early on we found that our first choice of fan was actually quite rare. This meant that the supply might be vulnerable and lead to the exact problem described above. Sadly this meant a lot of redesign work. For starters, Emma Blaken at CorinTech had to do another layout for the PCB, and our fan housing design had to be changed significantly. Well done, Tim for helping us get back on track.