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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Adapter PCB Idea
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Dinosaur Guru  Joined: 12/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 311 |
Hi All I'm a bit neurotic about blowing of the micro chip with strange voltages - hate to try to desolder & resolder it.
That is why I only use opto's. Although sometimes it is hard to find one that has a switching time fast enough for the purpose. Regards Regards Hervey Bay Qld. |
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| Dinosaur Guru Joined: 12/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 311 |
Hi All I have downloaded and tested the ease of use and complexity of KiCad and concluded that for simple add-on boards it is way to complex. I followed the included tutorial and half way through concluded that the number of settings and steps to remember is just over the top. (if you are a Dinosaur) I agree with Bryan1 that the Sprint Layout is quick and easy to come to grips with. Remember I am only making an addon board with opto's. I suspect that whatever boards you guys come up with, the likely hood of it suiting my needs will be remote. So, I decided that designing an I/O board with opto's (and opto bypasses for interconnections) is the best way to go. Of course at this stage I have no idea which pic board to design this for, as there appears to be activity from a number of directions. VK6MRG & DuinoMite or MM v 2. Additionally I would prefer the pic board to have as many i/o available as possible. But some of the pins I want to reserve for Hi-speed counter inputs or Stepper Clocking outputs. I currently have a zero-crossing power control image on the UBW32 which I would like to convert to the MM or Duinomite or whatever. The reserved pins for vga etc are left untouched. The rest will be assigned as gpio in the ratio of 70% o/p and 30% i/p. Board size would be identical to the motherboard and connection may be by ribbons or pin headers. That's the plan, would love to hear what others have planned. Regards PS.Where does one get small quantities of boards made in oz ? I have used Cadlink in Perth in the past, but that was for 25+ in qty. Regards Hervey Bay Qld. |
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VK6MRG Guru Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 347 |
I have just got a batch of PCB's made up from Futurlec. It's maybe based in NSW, but the PCB's were made in Taiwan, and they stuffed up the order. Now I’m waiting to hear back to see if they will make good the original order. I also would be happy to hear from others who only get small numbers of PCB's made up to a professional quality. I thought Futurlec would be a good choice, but i have been proven wrong! Also very slow service, 4 weeks and counting!  
Its easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission! ............VK6MRG.............VK3MGR............ |
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Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3194 |
I mostly use BatchPCB and they are great (they did the Maximite prototype PCBs). For one off prototypes they are very cheap and I love their shipping charges (typically $1.80). The only issue is that they are slow, about 4 weeks from ordering to delivery to my door (via snail mail). BTW the Maximite boards were designed in Eagle. Not the most intuitive of software packages but it works. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| Ray B Senior Member  Joined: 16/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 219 |
Geoff without stretching the bonds of friendship on the forum is the Eagle Schematic & PCB artwork freely available ? I've been trying DesignSparkPCB over the last weekend & found the following problems: * It can't link into the RS Components catalog of parts * Can't open the installed picaxe components nor even find the equivalent of the MMBasic IDC 26 pin header which was going to start me off with an I/O board. * Can't import the Eagle Tutorial file when following the documented procedure. I'm no longer that impressed by DesignSparkPCB except for its 3d graphics. Has a lot of further development UI believe. With Eagle being the subject of a Silicon Chip article carried over to October I see Eagle may be the PCB software of choice for a while even outdoing DIPTrace. Understand Eagle is now owned by Farnell Components so maybe it links into their catalog. Regards RayB from Perth WA |
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| Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3194 |
Sure. I will PM it to you if I can because the schematic part is not something I am proud of. I just use the schematic as a method of generating the net list so it is a veritable "dog's breakfast". Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
If your board does not exceed the 10x8 cm size then Eagle is ok. It can be paired up to a point with the better DipTrace (make your schematic in Eagle, chose you components with the desired footprint, then import it in DipTrace). For KiCAD, there is a large set of Eagle components already adapted. But maybe you can work better in FreePCB or gedaPCB(a little weird UI and operating mode but you have total freedom - you can make an ad-hoc component on the board with vias and silkscreen then select it and save it in the buffer), both free and open-source. For gedaPCB you have here a tutorial from DJ Delorie. If you chose this one and want to work in Windows, it have a little trick, and without it you can't see the working area and your design: - put your mouse pointer inside working area and press "Z" button on your keyboard. That will zoom the working area to a viewable size. For some reason, the board is "un-zoomed" at a zero size when you start the program for the first time. The components are selected from an independent window (if is not shown, it can be selected from the "Window" menu). All these designers can make production files for BatchPCB. Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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