On 19/07/16 17:57, Gordon Henderson
wrote:
On Tue, 19 Jul 2016, Tom wrote:
I think this is quite interesting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLQajSRnELc
I've seen CNC routers make PCBs before - they mostly work out OK.
Registration for double-sided is hard though, and of-course you
get the board in the same state as if you had etched it yourself -
no solder mask, silkscreen, etc.
But as others have said, there is a plethora of small companies
who'll make your board now - and most are more professional than
you can imagine. I did my little ladder board for the Pi 4 years
ago now as a bit of an experiment to see how far the technology
had come - it had been 25 years since I last made a PCB using a
drawing package on the Apple II and printing then photocopying
onto acetate then using photo resist...
I used Fritzing for the layout and a UK prototyping company for
the first boards, then a UK company who did all the Chinese
interfacing when I wanted 600 of them made.
I used http://www.pcbpanel.co.uk/Home.html for the prototypes -
actually quite expensive, but I got 6 Pi sized PCBs for under Â100
with a 5-day turnaround, then used:
http://www.quick-teck.co.uk/index.php when I wanted batches of 300
boards made.
So there are plenty of options these days.
The setup costs are the biggest part - so for small runs you're
going to pay almost as much for larger runs unless you use a
service that batches up lots of small designs them runs them all
at once... (I think pcb train does this), but they can take a few
weeks.
I know a few people using Ragworm http://ragworm.eu/ now - might
use them myself for my next project too...
I do think it's very worth it now to get your own PCB made for you
- even if it's just a one-off project - if nothing else to impress
:-)
Cheers,
Gordon
I was really considering this for a teaching exercise - with all
this RaspberryPi and micro:bit etc going on as an ex microchip
designer I'd like to help teach IT and electronics. It looks like
there is a bootstrapping possibility here - OK solder doesn't
smell right anymore but you can probably go from RaspberryPi and a
small bath of etchant to a full blown PCB production on a
bootstrapped cnc plotter/cutter. The learning process would result
in seriously useful tangible things! Ragworm are Â40 (+pp) for a
one off that should be around Â3 or Â4 if you have a school/club
with a reasonable stock order of PCB blanks,
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