Laura
Though the main directive of students in the MFA program is to pursue an individual studio practice, I was glad to work with Ed on this ATS special project. During my one year as a graduate student at SAIC, I invested a lot of time clarifying and documenting our use of Surface Mount Technology so that it could be integrated into the School's curriculum, offering two SMT workshops for students, staff, and faculty in 2008. As well, I assembled and programmed ArtBus boards and FTDI adapters which were distributed to the SAIC community for 'beta testing', and provided technical assistance in the Electronics/Kinetics lab.
Although I have chosen to continue my studies elsewhere, this website may benefit users inside and outside of the SAIC.
Ed, Ji-Hyun and I have developed a surface-mount method using a hacked toaster to bake the boards according to factory-specified temperature profiles. There are two ways of applying solder paste: a hypo needle is effective for single parts; for multiples it's more efficient to use a custom-made stencil. This saves a few minutes of assembly time per board- which makes a difference if you already spend hundreds of hours soldering and programming. Here I will explain the process, from tools and components to oven profiles and troubleshooting.
My bio and information on a current show can be found here: http://faketure.wikispaces.com/Laura+Emelianoff
Laura Emelianoff
