The Green Board
Cutting
and arranging the electrode wires
-
Open the box only touching the spool, never the
wire itself.
o The
tip of the wire is usually taped to the top of the spool, remove the tape
carefully so you don’t stretch the wire and cut off the bent part.
-
Lay the wire on a sheet of white paper (so you
can actually see it) while unraveling the spool, without touching the wire
itself. (Slide
1, Figure b)
o Be
very gentle, do not tug on the wire, rather rotate the spool and let the wire
come off on its own.
o If
the wire doesn’t continue to unravel you can gently pull the tip so it starts
to unroll again.
-
Cut 18 wires 7-8 cm in length. (Slide 1, Figure c)
o This
is for two boards/bundles which will have 9 wires on each board. They will also be mirror images of each
other.
o Each
bundle will have 8 channels, and one reference wire (and later on you will add
a ground wire)
-
Once finished with the spool, tape the loose end
back to the top, then place it back in the box making sure the edge of the box
doesn't touch the wire.
-
Use fine forceps to line up the ends of the
wires on one corner of the paper. (Slide 1, Figure
e)
o Only
touch the very end of the wires with the forceps.
-
Pick up the matched ends of the wires carefully
with your hands and arrange them in a bundle in the crease of your palm. (Slide 1, Figure f)
-
Twist the wires together still only touching the
very tips.
-
Place the twisted end of the bundle onto double
sided adhesive tape that is on a mobile stand/altoid box.
o Make
sure the wires are adhering to the tape well, and that all the wires are
together.
o It
helps to put another piece of double stick tape over top of the twisted pieces
to make sure they all stay together
-
Dip a needle into liquid Zap glue and place a
drop of the glue starting where the wires leave the double sided adhesive tape.
Make sure the wires are glued together by gently touching them with glue on a
needle.
o Not
a lot of glue is needed, and too much can be bad- you don’t want too much glue
all over the wires, just at the tip where they attach to the double sided tape.
-
Cut all the microwires to the length of the
shortest one making them even. Use very sharp scissors.
-
Wait until the glue is dry before proceeding.
Scraping off the insulation
-
Set up
the wires so that the tips of the wires are on resting on a glass slide (Slide 2, Figure a)
-
Open a
NEW razor blade, and gently scrape along the wires.
o
When you
scrape with the correct amount of force you will be able to see flakes of gold
coming off the wire, and you will be able to feel/hear the insulation being
scraped off. (Slide 2, Figure c-e)
o
If you
push too hard on the wires, the tip of the wire will curl which will make it
harder when threading through the green board later, so be careful.
-
It helps
to place the palm of your left hand on the altoids box with the double sided
tape to keep it stable, then to use your index to hold the wires against the
glass slide. (Slide 2, Figure b)
o
Holding
the wires down will help keep them from moving around too much while you are
scraping, though they will move a little.
-
Only
scrape 4-6mm of the tip of the wires. (Slide 2, Figure c)
-
Once you
have scraped enough on the first side, flip it over.
-
On the
reverse side, scrape the insulation off on that side too.
-
If the
wires are now completely bare, they should look more silver than they did
before, and they will also look thinner than the rest of the wire.
o
This is
sometimes hard to spot so don’t worry if you don’t see it. As long as you saw the insulation scraping
off then that is fine.
-
You
don’t have to scrape all the insulation off, though it helps to get as much off
as you can.
Threading
microwires
-
Get a green board, and tape it onto an altoids
box so that the two ‘arms’ are attached to the box, and the rest is hanging off
the edge.
o Make
sure all the holes are visible, not covered with tape, or that there is
anything else in the holes. You might
have to punch something out if you need too.
o It
should be taped in a way that is stable, but not too difficult to remove.
-
Now that you have the electrode wires taped onto
one Altoids box, and the green board taped onto another Altoids box, you can
arrange the two boxes in a way convenient for threading the wires through the
holes on the green board. (Slide 3, Figure a-c)
o Make
sure the two boxes are not too close to one another, but still close enough
that there is enough wire length to go through the holes. Somewhere between 5
and 8 mm of wire should go through each hole.
-
Setting up the right microscope magnification is
very important. You want all of the holes to be visible at the same time, but
still be close enough to see the tips of the wires.
-
Set up the wires so that the wires are 3-5mm over
the holes on the green board. This is a
good distance so that you can easily see the holes, and see the tips of the
wires. (Slide 3, Figure c)
-
Cut a 10 cm long piece of ground wire using
clippers (ground wire is too thick for the scissors, it will damage them).
-
Make a little hook on one of the ends of the
ground wire. (Slide 3, Figure f)
-
Thread the bent end trough the furthest/biggest
hole on the green board.
o You
might need to figure out how to make it stay, because it tends to want to pop
out.
-
Now that you have all of that set up, you can start
threading the electrode wires into the holes on the green board. This should be
done using forceps, picking up the wires just 1-2 mm away from the tip and
gently putting them into the holes.
o You
won’t need to force the wire into the hole.
You just need to guide it into the hole it will go the rest of the way
on its own.
o If
this doesn't happen, make sure the tip is not stuck or hitting something or
bent, and gently push the wire down using the side of the forceps.
o You
also might need to use the side of the forceps to move the wires left or right.
o Don’t
squeeze the wires to move them, but simply hold them gently and move them.
-
Make sure there is only one wire in each hole.
-
Make sure that all the wires are the same length,
by using a tooth pick to make sure there is a nice curve of the wires as they
go from the taped box into the holes.
-
Get a large-ish bead of gel glue on a needle
tip, and spread it over the holes, making sure all of the holes are
covered. (Slide
3, Figure d-e)
o You
will need to have a lot more glue around the ground wire.
o The
glue should be relatively thick around the wires.
o Move
the needle around to the underside of the wires to make sure there is glue all
the way around the wires.
-
Put ZipKicker on the glue, making sure all of
the glue is covered by it.
o I
use the microscope to see how much zip kicker I am putting on the board.
-
Remove the excess ZipKicker by absorbing it with
a Kim wipe.
-
Make sure there is no bubble in the glue. If there a bubble, just add more glue.
-
After checking under the microscope that all the
microwires and the ground wire are firmly glued to the green board, cut them
free at the point where they meet the tape.
Finishing the Green board
-
Free up the green board very carefully, making
sure not to touch the wires. Turn it around and tape it back onto the Altoids
box. The side with the glue should now be facing down towards the table. (Slide 4, Figure
a)
-
Use a toothpick to gently bend the microwires so
that they are pointing towards you. (Slide 4, Figure b)
-
Use clippers and clip the wires to the final
length you will want them to be at. This
should only be 2-3 mm or less (it should stay within the boundary of the gold
plate). (Slide
4, Figure e)
-
Using scalpel or forceps scrape the excess
insulation off the wire.
o Scrape
the wires while they are point at you, and then gently push them so they are
pointing away from you. This should be
the only movement you make with the wires.
If you bend them too much they will break off.
o You
should have already scraped most of the insulation off, but this is to be
absolutely sure there is none left.
o The
wire is very delicate, so all of this should be done extremely gently and
carefully.
-
It is very important that the wires are confined
to the plates.
-
Bend the ground wire so it is against the metal
plate of the board. Clip off excess ground wire so that it is also confined to
the plate. (Slide
4, Figure figure c-d)
-
You have two boards that are mirror images of
each other, each with 9 microwires, and a ground wire. (Slide 4, Figure
f-g)
Soldering Omnetics connector
-
Turn on solder iron, and get the solder plus
from the refrigerator (Slide 5, Figure a)
-
Turn on whatever air or gas system you have
hooked up to the soldering iron.
-
With the green board positioned such that the
scraped wires are facing up, fit the black omnetics board so one prong/foot is
over top each wire and covering the hole in the middle of the gold part. (Slide 5, Figure b)
o The
black board will move while you are working with it, so don’t worry about it
being exact right now.
-
Put some solder on the needle and spread the solder
on the tops of the wires and feet from the black omnetics board. (Slide 5, Figure c)
-
When solder iron is hot, press the button to
make hot air come out.
-
Completely melt all of the solder. (Slide 5, Figure e)
-
While pointing the air gun at one side of the
board (Slide
5, Figure h-i) (so that the other side is still solid which will keep
the black board in place) use needle to separate solder so that it is on only
the metal parts.
o This
is a very important step so make sure there are only humps of solder over each
plate and that these humps are not touching
-
There should be a bigger hump over the ground
wire to cover the whole plate (including the small hole on the gold plate that
the ground wires hole is on.)
-
Common issues:
o Sometimes the ground wire is that it isn’t completely
covered by the solder. Make sure that
the ground wire is completely covered. (Slide 5, Figure j)
o Sometimes
the ‘feet’ of the black board are sometimes
lifted above the green board. When you
are finished soldering and separating each channel, you can melt the whole
thing, and push gently on the end of the black board using the needle to push
the ‘feet’ down. (Slide 5, Figure k)
o If the microwires you have are too long, they may move
around too much, and poke out from under the ‘feet’ and you will have to push
them gently back under the feet. This is
why making the wires short is helpful.
-
When it is
finished, you shouldn’t be able to see the outline of the ‘feet’. They should be covered with a hump of
solder.
-
When you are
finished you might need to ‘squeeze’ off some of the extra solder. This is harder than you think because you
need the ground wire to be completely covered.
-
Turn off soldering iron and return soldering
paste to the refrigerator, and turn off the air or gas.
-
The finished product should have each channel is
separate from the others, with each wire completely covered and not visible.
Making and preparing microdrives
Pouring the microdrive molds
-
Reset the chambers in the microdrive mold by pushing
back the pin in the back of each individual mold so it is flush with the back
-
Wipe off the screw to make sure nothing is stuck
in the threads, and screw it back into the mold so that it ends at the middle
(right over the pin). (Slide 6, Figure a)
-
Place the smooth side of the canula into the
mold, pushing it all the way in so it touches the end of the screw and have the
rough/flattened side sticking out. (Slide 6, Figure b)
-
Make absolutely sure the screw and pin meet at
the middle. (Slide
6, Figure c)
-
Pour some powder dental acrylic into the rubber
bowl, and add the solvent.
o I
usually fill up the rubber half full with dental acrylic (Slide 6, Figure d)
-
When you make the dental acrylic, you want it to
be pretty liquidy that it doesn’t form bubbles in the mold.
-
For the first go through, fill the mold so that
the liquidy solution flows to the bottom of the mold and just covers the screw
shaft and the cannula shaft. Fill all
the molds with this liquidy solution before you finish the mold. (Slide 6, Figure
e)
-
Once you have the liquidy part in all 10 molds,
go back to the first one and continue to fill the molds with the solution now
that it is hardening a little more.
-
You don’t have to fill the mold all the way just
yet, but keep filling the mold with the solution as it continues to
harden.
-
You will need to heap the solution on top of the
mold because as it solidifies it shrinks, so you need to have the extra on top
so the mold is whole when you take it out.
(Slide 6, Figure f-g)
-
Leave microdrive mold on horizontal plane and
let it dry/harden for 24 hours.
-
To take out the molds, use pliers to turn the
screws. The pliers that work best for
this are the blue handle ones.
o Use
the small hole in the pliars to turn the screw.
(There is only one groove on the pillars that fits the small screw
head.)
-
Make the first turn sharp and fast, and then
continue unscrewing normally.
o You
can tell you have successfully turned the first turn if the shaft becomes white,
as well as a ‘crack’ sound it makes when you turn it. (Slide 8, Figure
a)
o Be
absolutely sure you are not bending the screw while you take it out, or are hitting
the other screws, with the pliers, nearby when you turn the screw.
-
Pull out the canula using a sharp first turn
like you did with the screw, and then pull the canula the rest of the way out. (Slide 8, Figure d)
-
Bang on back pin to push the mold out (Slide 8, Figure e)
-
Break off excess dental acrylic. (Slide 8, Figure f-g)
-
Look at the microdrive you just took out of the
mold under the microscope.
-
Make sure it has no bubbles touching or around
the screw shaft or the canula shaft, no big bubbles, and that there is no
separation between two shafts. (Slide 9)
o If
it has any of these thing, it is a bad Microdrive and cannot be used and should
be thrown out.
Preparing
canula
-
Use the sharper more saw like blade on the
Dremmel.
-
Mark off 1.7cm on the 21gauge metal tube (Slide 7, Figure b)
o Use
ruler and sharpie to mark the sizes
-
Use sharp saw to cut the pieces
o Hold
canula on an angle so it is being cut by the point of the blade (Slide 7, Figure c)
-
Warning: the canula may become very hot from the
friction of the saw, so if it does become hot, just wait for a few seconds then
you can start again.
-
Rotate around the marked place until it is cut
-
You can smooth out the cut part now by holding
the cannula perpendicular to the saw with the sharper blade though it may not
be necessary. You can also start
beveling the edges using the sharper blade. (Slide
7, Figure d)
-
Change the blade to the smoother blade to
completely smooth both ends, and continue to bevel the ends. (Slide 7, Figure
e)
-
Using the microscope, the exacto blade to scrape
out the excess metal in the inside. (Slide 7,
Figure f-g)
o Place
the tip of the exacto inside the tube with the sharp end to the outside,
holding the exacto at an angle (a right angle works best) to the tube so that
the sharp edge cuts the metal.
o Scrape out the extra metal from the tube and
smooth out the edges.
-
Use black flat nosed pliars to flatten one end
about 4mm. You might cut it later, to the
exact size you will want it, but this is good enough for now. (Slide 7, Figure
h)
Microdrive
-
Pick out a microdrive
-
Place the tiny screw set on screw driver and
shave the end using the sharp dremmel blade so that it is flat. (Slide 10, Figure
b)
-
Coat the screw with release compound (Slide 10, Figure d)
-
Check to make sure the screw goes all the way in
(or as far as the screw driver will allow). (Slide
10, Figure e-f)
o Be
sure it goes in straight- if it starts to go in crooked, unscrew a
little and reposition it, then continue to screw it in. You might need to make a few little
tweaks.
-
Make sure you can screw it all the way to the
bottom, and then unscrew the screw so the top of the screw is flush with the
top of the microdrive. (Slide 10, Figure g)
-
There should be some resistance, but not enough
to keep you from turning the screw. You
will know if there is too much resistance if it squeaks when you turn the
screw.
o If
it’s wonky/if the screw strips/if there is too much resistance, remove the
screw (if you can) it is a bad microdrive and just throw it away.
-
Add release compound to the cannula and make
sure the cannula goes into the microdrive with some, but little resistance. You may need to use the pliars to push it all
the way down. (Slide
10, Figure h-j)
o If
you push too hard the cannula will bend, then you will have to throw away that
cannula.
-
Lower the microdrive screw all the way watching
the cannula, to make sure the cannula does not twist too much. (Slide 10, Figure
k-l)
o A
little twist in the cannula (about a ¼ turn) is normal.
-
Unscrew the screw so that it is once again flush
with the top of the microdrive and push the cannula back in so that it is
against the screw.
o If
the screw is flush with the top and the cannula doesn’t touch, you can screw
the screw in enough so that it touches the cannula.
o You
can make sure they are touching by seeing if the cannula moves down a little
while you are screwing down the screw.
Don’t move the cannula down too much though.
Connecting
the boards and microdrive
-
Take two boards that are mirror images of each
other and place them on the connector mount.
(Slide 11, Figure a)
o The
glued portion should be facing away from each other, and the soldered parts
should be facing each other.
o The
ground wires should be connected with the ground wire threads on the connector
block
-
Use wire cutter pliers to cut the green board:
o Cut
the two connecting sides around the big central hole. Cut so that the line you end up with is
straight and parallel to the black boards. (Slide
11, Figure b-c)
§ Also
make sure there are no jagged edges.
o Cut
the ‘arm’ that is away from the
ground wire so that it is flush with the black board. Don’t just cut the arm halfway, but cut it so
that the clipper is parallel to the black board. (Slide 11, Figure
d)
§ Careful
with this step that you don’t cut the glue.
If you cut the glue the glue will come off taking the wires with it then
you have to start over again.
§ Cut
off only the bottom/lower arm (the side the microdrive is going to be glued
too, which is typically opposite the ground wires) so that you can still clip
it to your stand.
-
Make sure the black connectors are as closely
aligned as possible.
-
Make the ground wires are on the bottom and that
the side the microdrive is going to be glued to is facing up.
-
Use the gel glue: place it in between the two black boards, so
that it is completely through the opening between the two. (Slide 12, Figure
a)
o You
want to seal off the open area between the black boards so that once it is
implanted nothing can leak through.
-
Place another glob of the glue on the top where
the microdrive will be. (Slide 12, Figure b)
o It
doesn’t matter which side of the microdrive you glue to the black boards
-
Hold the microdrive against the black boards so
that the spatula is sticking out the end where you just cut away the green
board. (Slide 12, Figure e)
o Be
sure the microdrive is straight/parallel to the black boards and not
crooked.
-
Using your other hand add ZipKicker everywhere:
Add to where the microdrive is, and where ever else you put glue. (Slide 12, Figure d)
o Only
remove your hand from the microdrive when you are sure the microdrive is
stable.
o Don’t
glue your finger to the microdrive.
-
Soak up the excess ZipKicker with a twisted kim
wipe.
-
Add more glue to the sides of the microdrive
just to make sure the microdrive won’t come off. (Slide 12, Figure
d)
Grooved Board:
Preparing the board
-
Cut a 2mm long piece from the grooved board
using a razor blade (Slide 13, Figure a-b)
o Make
sure your cut is parallel to the other side, and perpendicular to the grooves
o It
helps to use the middle of the razor.
You will need to push hard, but make sure the cut piece doesn’t fly
away.
-
Cut metal sheet so that it is a little wider than
the board and about 3mm long. (Slide 13, Figure
c-d)
-
Using only a very small amount of the gel glue,
glue the two south corners of the metal sheet to the glass slide. (Slide 13, Figure
e)
o Glue
the corner, not the straight edge.
-
Use zip kicker to dry the glue, and use a rolled
kim wipe to soak the excess kicker
-
Use tweezers to figure out which way the grooves
are up.
o One
side will be completely flat and smooth and the other you will feel bumps.
-
Place the grooves on the metal sheet so that the
thicker side with no groove is to the right and so that there is a little part
hanging off the end of the metal sheet. (Slide 13, Figure f)
-
Using the liquidy glue, carefully glue the
grooved board onto the metal sheet (Slide 13,
Figure g)
o When
gluing be careful not to put too much glue so that it goes into the grooves.
o When
the glue is done correctly, you will be able to see the glue move under the
board.
-
Let it completely dry before you continue.
o It
is best not to use the ZipKicker because that tends to shrink the glue, which
would make it more likely that the grooved board would come off.
-
Use razor to flip the metal piece over by
cutting away the glue on the corner. It
should come up pretty fast.
-
Place metal sheet with the grooved board side
down, and place glue in the crease between the grooved board and the metal
sheet. (Slide
13, Figure h)
o You
can glue the corners again if you want to, though it is not necessary.
-
Make sure it doesn’t glue itself to the slide
while you are gluing the back.
Placing the wires
-
Take one of the grooved board/metal sheets and
glue the two south corners to the slide. (Slide 14,
Figure a)
-
Use zip kicker to make sure the glued corners
are solid
-
Use twisted kimwhipe to soak up the excess zip
kicker. Make sure to get the excess zip
Kicker off the grooved board as well.
-
Make sure all the wires are separated and that
they aren’t glued together
o You
can cut the glued part off, but it would be better if the wires were long.
-
Finagle the black board such that one of the
bundles of microwires is straight over the grooved board. (Slide 14, Figure
b)
o I
usually have the microdrive on top, and tape the green arms to the slide (with
the ground wires being taped down too).
-
Set up one of the Helping Hands soldering tools
so that it will be able to hold the wires you are not working with to the side.
(Slide 14, Figure c)
-
Look at the arrangement of the wires on the
green board and choose the first one (this will either be the one closer to the
microdrive or near the ground wire.
o Figure
it out so that the reference wires (which are the closest to the ground wires)
will be in the center.
-
Use modified wooden sticks/needles/whatever
works for you to place the wire into the groove. (Slide 14, Figure
d)
o Modified
so that the tip is sharp and will be able to be placed over one groove at once
without spreading the glue into the other grooves.
-
Use liquid glue to glue the wire into
place.
o The
trick is to use as little glue as possible, but to use enough so that the wires
will be firmly glued into the grooves so that they won’t pop out.
-
Be sure you are not getting any glue in the
other grooves
o Glue
in the other grooves makes it a lot harder to put the rest of the wires in
later.
o If
this does happen, you can take a disposable exacto and scrape out the
glue. This takes a lot of careful
movements, because if you push too hard the board will cut.
-
Since there are 18 wires, and only 17 grooves
one of the wires will have to be glued to the top where the thicker part
is. (Slide
14, Figure g)
o Use
the gel glue and place just a small line on the area, then finagle the wire so
that it is straight.
o The
glue will dry fast, so you have to be fast about putting the wire in the
correct place.
o The
part that matters the most for this wire is that the wire is straight and
parallel to the other wires when it come out of the grooved board. Where it comes into the grooved board doesn’t
matter as much.
-
Look at the arrangement of the order of the
wires and get the next wire. Be sure you
are not pulling on the wires you just glued.
-
Place the other wires back behind the helping
hands.
-
Continue until you have finished all the wires
for that bundle. (Slide 14, Figure d-j)
-
Place excess glue on the 9 wires you have just
glued, and wait until that glue is dry.
o Be
sure none of this glue gets into the next grooves that have no wires yet.
-
Carefully turn the electrode so that the second
bundle is now across the grooved board.
-
You want the wires that you have already glued
into the grooved board to have some slack so they are not tight and so that
they won’t pop out of the grooves.
-
Continue until all wires have been placed into
the grooves.
-
Continue to place glue onto the grooves, so that
a mound of glue forms on the top.
-
You can also place more gel glue on the left
side to make sure the wire on the let doesn’t come out (because that is the
most likely wire to come out).
-
Once there is a big mound of glue on the wires,
you can use the razor to remove the metal sheet from the glass slide. Make sure you don’t separate the grooved
board from the metal sheet.
-
Let the glue dry for 24 hours before going onto
the next step.
Attaching grooves to
spatula:
-
Set up the electrode on the connector mount such
that the microdrive is on the bottom.
-
It helps to twist the wires a few times so that
the wires are all in the same general area.
(Slide 15, Figure b-c))
o I
use forceps to twist the wires, and my fingers to hold the metal sheet. If you do this just make sure you are not
bending any of the wires.
-
Place a glob of glue on the spatula (while
holding the metal sheet with your fingers), and using the forceps carefully
lower the metal plate onto the glue. (Slide 14,
Figure d)
o I
use the forceps to hold the metal plate against the spatula, just be careful
you don’t glue the forceps between the metal plate and the spatula.
-
Use Zip Kicker to solidify the glue. (Slide 14, Figure
f)
-
Use a twisted kim wipe to soak up the excess zip
kicker.
-
Turn the electrode around, and put more glue
around the spatula where it touches the metal sheet. (Slide 14, Figure
e)
Finishing touches
-
Get down the voltmeter and make sure it is
working by putting the two prongs together- you know it is working when you
hear a sound.
-
Test each channel with all the others by holding
the black prong against the channel to test, and moving the red to the other
channels.
-
It should only beep when it is the same channel
on both prongs. Otherwise there is crosstalk between those channels and that
they are bad.
-
To test the ground wire, hold the red prong
against the ground wire itself, and the black against the single screw on the
connector block
-
Move the ground wire around while keeping
contact with the red prong. If it beeps
it is good.
-
Turn around the block around and do the same
thing for the other set of bundles.