Being doing some computer aided design (CAD) at work today. Designed a circuit board to make a piece of equipment safer to use. It hasn't been usable because of the potential risk of electric shock from some partially exposed terminals. The circuit will provide an effective layer of isolation between the users and those terminals.

They'd have had to be a bit daft to touch them, and that could only have been done with a narrow screwdriver. But from my experience of some Students (...and Staff), the precautions are necessary!

The top part of the photo shows the design on a monitor, with different colours used to represent different layers. At the bottom we have two boards produced from the design. The  board on the left shows the underside, and this has copper tracks that provide the interconnections between the individual electronic components. On the right is a board that has had its components fitted, and soldered (the solder is on the copper/underside).

The design may look complicated, but in electronics terms it's simple, and there's a fair bit of repetition contained within it. Wish they were all this easy. Tomorrow, between  other work, it will be time for: testing; fitting it all in a case and wiring up various other parts; and more testing for both correct operation, and safety. All some of the stuff I really enjoy about my job... well, when it works...