Etch Resist pens and such were how many people started out.
A VAST improvement after messing about with Veroboard :-)
Have you ever tried REAL PCB layout, Lightboxes, Mylar sheets, stick-down
"dots" for pads and vias, thin rolls of crepe tape to form the tracks.
I did a short course on this once, quite relaxing really, then did all
the photography involved.. Then the company bought one of the Early Racal
Kadet PCB layout systems, and us engineers were not allowed near it. (I
think they thought we would take it to bits) So the PCB techs did all the
layout for us, so I never did get to try out a hand taped design.
The dorkbotpdx service is rather nice, but I'm sorry to read that there
may be problems with it in terms of lack of use. In any case it's not too
much use in the UK, as we would get stung for a handling charge if the
board went through customs. The duty is not too bad, but the blasted post
office stuffs on a whopping big "handling charge"
My neighbour bought a webcontrol board a few days ago, cost was about 47
pounds. the duty was about 7 pounds, but the handling charge was almost
14, so an additional 20+ pounds to the costs.
Sometimes things slip through and you don't get the charges, but you can't
rely on that.
I'm also getting a bit confused... I popped onto your site, and the links
section did not mention anything about web pages making schematic
libraries. All I can see is "Design Reference Links" which point to the
OpenEEG project, monilith, and EXG-2 projects.
Am I missing something obvious?
Andy
On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:10:37 -0000
"josh_eeg" <josheeg@...> wrote:
Well I did one pcb that way in college.
But I was very impressed with the little 1 inch by 1 inch ADS1298 biopotential mesurement chip carrier. Carriers are great they let you prototipe with the breadboards TQFP packages for newer chips this one came out at TI.com only last april as a sample item.
.8 mill wire thicknesses by batch pcb or dorkbotpdx both come out great. I got 3 for 7.50 or somewhere around there from dorkbotpdx it was fun gold plated with purple soldermask and silkscreen sm805 surface mount resistors and caps. It could be hard to get the parts to do it in the DIY manufacturing way also your kicad design can be coppied for a sheet and run as a pannel and run throuhgh a pick n place then a hot oven like a pizza cooker and there are 100s of your design.
Here are my kicad files
Take a look notice the herarchal design it allows you to first make modules using connectors like making a dual inline package then remove the connector add herarchal labels or better yet have the connectors on the top level so you can embed that schematic in different places. Also dont forget to make your shcematic symbol libraries .lib don't send through google mail so I use google sites to zip my kicad files and store.
there is a airea in the links airea that let you use a web page to make the schematic libraries. I coppy the chips footprint it lets the schematic look like the board and layout nice n easy.
their is a java footprint maker and the autoroute is quite good. I use 8.3 mills set for all.
--- In kicad-users@..., Andy Eskelson <andyyahoo@...> wrote:
That brings back a memory or two :-)
I started in much the same way 35+ years ago. I made loads of boards
using the etch resist pen. Denco "Dalo" I might still have one around
somewhere... I must admit that I never had any problems with it, in fact
it was hard to remove the ink after etching!
Once you learnt the trick of making a small puddle of the ink then just
dipping the point in it rather than trying to get the ink to flow they
worked fine.
When people started to use the permanent lumocolour type marker type pens,
then they were a bit problematic.
What really made me grin was your comment about aluminium poking sticks.
I also kept the ferric in the shed, and as I had not used it for some
time the water had evaporated, and the ferric formed a hard lump in the
bottom of the container. So a few quick thumps broke some of it up, and a
good helping of hot water to dissolve it was added. Of course I was
getting impatient, so an old antenna element rod was used to break up the
ferric into smaller lumps. all was going well until the rod started to
fizz and everything got rather hot very quickly. Later I came across
thermite and the penny dropped...
I still use ferric, and to be honest I don't find any real problems with
it, just keep it away from stainless steel and mop up any spills quickly,
better yet don't spill it :-)
I only do hobby type projects at home, but I've gone over to the photo
resist process now. Old flatbed scanner converted into a UV box, and
I'm thinking about building a bubble etch tank to make things easier.
Andy
On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:28:08 +0000
Robert <birmingham_spider@...> wrote:
As Andy said, it is a big question. I started by reading about how to
make my own PCBs in books and magazines, but that was back in the days
when you drew circuits on to a copper-clad board with a pen and then
watched as some of the unwanted copper and most of your circuit
dissolved very slowly in a disgusting vat of ferric chloride. It was a
painful learning curve, but many of those boards did turn out
sufficiently OK and 30 years on some are still in use. I think ferric
chloride is still used by hobbyists, so I will warn you of two things.
The irremovable brown stains turn up absolutely everywhere (I ended up
working in the garden shed, no matter how cold it was), and it dissolves
aluminium poking sticks much faster than it dissolves the copper. In
fact it seems to damage or destroy anything and everything (including
personal relationships). Using kicad will at least eliminate the
misery of using the so-called etch-resistant pen.
In addition to the tutorial Andy mentioned, before starting on kicad you
should at least skim through the documentation in the kicad directory so
you know where to look when you get stuck. You may also want to read
through the documents here:
Don't worry about committing it all to memory, but it should help to
keep you on track.
Good luck, and don't be afraid to ask newbie questions on this list.
Regards,
Robert.
On 26/01/2011 04:40, analognoise@... wrote:
Hi, I recently got KiCad and am looking to become proficient in it.
The tutorials seem very short and cursory.
I have never designed a PCB but would like to learn.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
------------------------------------
Please read the Kicad FAQ in the group files section before posting your question.
Please post your bug reports here. They will be picked up by the creator of Kicad.
Please visit for details of how to contribute your symbols/modules to the kicad library.
For building Kicad from source and other development questions visit the kicad-devel group at ! Groups Links
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------------------------------------
Please read the Kicad FAQ in the group files section before posting your question.
Please post your bug reports here. They will be picked up by the creator of Kicad.
Please visit for details of how to contribute your symbols/modules to the kicad library.
For building Kicad from source and other development questions visit the kicad-devel group at ! Groups Links
------------------------------------
Please read the Kicad FAQ in the group files section before posting your question.
Please post your bug reports here. They will be picked up by the creator of Kicad.
Please visit for details of how to contribute your symbols/modules to the kicad library.
For building Kicad from source and other development questions visit the kicad-devel group at ! Groups Links
