| PCB Design-A-Thon | | Print | |
| Written by Akiba | |
| Thursday, 25 June 2009 | |
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Whew! Just finished my PCB design marathon. Six boards total in about a week and a half including schematic, layout, and checking. I've become quite pro at making my own PCB footprints, which are still a major pain in the ass. Anyways, I just sent out the gerbers to the PCB fab for prototyping. I'm trying out Barebones PCB this time to see how they are. It's actually a division of Advanced Circuits, but Barebones does really cheap two-layer PCBs with a 1-day turn. The only problem is that they don't include the solder mask and silkscreen, but I figured that for protos, it's not really required. I just want to see if everything functions properly and the mechanicals are okay (ie: the JTAG ICE won't plug in because a card is blocking it). The drawback to using Barebones is that the shipping to Japan is painfully high. I made a 7x9 panel that includes 4 different designs with two of each. For two panels, it cost me about $100 which is very good. But the shipping was $90 which nearly gave me a heart attack. I think my next protos will be fabbed in China. As much as I want to support US industry, for PCBs it just makes more sense to do it locally in Asia. However I'm still a big fan of DigiKey :) One of the four boards is going to be the main MCU board for the FreakZ development platform. It has an AVR USB with 128 kB flash, hardware bootload (still need to write it tho), and modular connectors for extension boards like radios and sensors. Two of the boards are for Tokyo Hackerspace. Once the software is finished for them, they'll be able to sell them in the hackerspace shop and generate funds to build the group. And the fourth board is just a test board for the TI TPS61202 since I had some extra space on the panel. Normally, you would do stuff like venting and thieving to balance the copper if you had unused space. But I hate wasting good PCB space. For those that don't know about the TPS61202, it's a nice DC/DC converter that can boost a 0.5V supply to 5V. I'm going to be throwing some small solar cells and supercaps at it to see how it performs. As for the radio boards, I have two of them designed already, the AT86RF230 and the AT86RF212 but I'll proto them on my CNC milling machine. You usually need to tweak the RF a bit and since I don't have an RF simulator, I figure there's going to be some trial and error to get things right. If you're wondering why I'm using a lot of Atmel parts, it's a mixture of having the drivers already available (AT90USB128 and the AT86RF230), and the fact that the Atmel disti is the only one that will sell to me. I still haven't heard back from the other radio distis yet. Anyhoo, here's a pic of the panel...
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Comments (4)
  written by Jon Smirl, June 27, 2009
Check this power monitor out:
http://www.brultech.com/ It would be interesting to add power monitoring capability to your design. report abuse
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 written by Akiba, June 27, 2009
I've had good results with goldphoenix. Just make sure to get the electrical testing option since I've had experienced boards with internal shorts when I didn't choose this option.
For the power monitor, I'm doing part-time consulting for a company that makes current sensors so it should be no problem to add a peripheral board for that. report abuse
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 written by pcb manufacture, August 20, 2009
Interesting stuff thanks
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| ericwertz |
PCB Design-A-Thon
Jul 02 2009 04:28:09 This thread discusses the Content article: PCB Design-A-Thon
You may also want to look at Futurlec, as well as Seeed Studio and BatchPCB. Futurelec is in Thailand, Seeed in China, and BatchPCB batches in the USA to GoldPhoenix in China. --- Futurelec --- I've heard through other forums that theirCustomer Service can be the shits, but that everyone that's used them has liked what they eventually got back. I've only ever ordered components and small manufactured mini-board products from them, and I've never had a problem. Shipping has been very reasonable to the US and everything that I've ever gotten from them has been packaged very, very well. The problem with their customer service is that you only ever hear from them twice, once that they've gotten your order, and once when everything's shipped. It's very difficult to get intermediate status from them. You can't tell if a parts order is stuck because something's out-of-stock, or exactly what the timetable is for boards that you've sent them designs for. I've used them twice for items from stock, but never personally for boards. However, I'd put them on my shortlist for boards, esp. if cost is an issue. --- Seeed Studio --- These guys are relative newcomers. They don't manufacture themselves, but vet local companies to do the manufacturing. They have a very open-source bent, and some of their pricing for board manufacture reflects this. They seem to be pretty easy to work with, but I can only say that that's from appearances. They really seem to be making an effort. Very, very good pricing. Futurlec can be cheaper if you forego the mask and silkscreen. I've asked them questions about their service via email and they've gotten back to me promptly. I'll probably try these guys first when I do my first board. --- BatchPCB --- These guys are the manufacturing service of SparkFun, and they batch to GoldPhoenix. They seem to be the cheapest in many circumstances if you want a single board. After that, their prices don't fare as well as most. They're slow (3-4 weeks), and you'll probably have to eat extra shipping back to the center of the rising sun (if they'll even do it, I don't know). Low setup & domestic shipping, but kinda pricey per square inch, but with mask & silkscreen. good luck, -e |
#968 |
| ericwertz |
Re:PCB Design-A-Thon
Jul 02 2009 05:33:50 Ugh, just realized I was sloppy/inconsistent in my spelling of "Futurlec", http://www.futurlec.com.
Braindamage from being at Future Electronics too recently, I suppose. -e PS: This probably should have been a "Comment" rather than a "Discuss". User fail. |
#969 |
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Re:PCB Design-A-Thon
Jul 02 2009 11:16:49 Ha ha ha. No problem on FuturLec. I'm familiar with them and their products.
Since I panelize the boards myself, I'm not too keen on BatchPCB. I think it's okay for hobbyists, but the wait time doesn't match up well with my needs. I haven't tried Futurlec before. I always pictured Seeed Studio as a webshop, not a design house, but I guess I was mistaken. Anyways, I think I'll probably stick with GoldPhoenix and PCBCart for now. They have competitive prices, decent turnaround times, and reasonable shipping to Japan. Thanks for the advice, tho! |
#970 |
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http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/
We need a cost effective way to get BGAs soldered to the board. Assembly in the US is totally not cost effective. We tried soldering BGAs ourself but we couldn't do it reliably.