First prototype PCB ordered in 20 years - good experience! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 25, 2017, 04:14:36 pm
content: Big and very pleasant surprise for me. I haven't designed a product or board for 20 years due to a career change into the IT industry. Last time I hit this it was a world of pain.Decided to jump back into the EE side of things to work on a hybrid hardware-software product idea (not IoT or any of that crap before anyone says anything). So big learning curve, or so I thought. I completed the analogue board prototype design yesterday which was designed in LTspice in chunks then dropped onto matrix board with TH parts for integration testing. I even wrote a verification suite which talks to my DDS+scope+DMMs and does performance checks using a virtual SNA setup, all computer controlled via LXI/SCPI and python.Last week I had no idea what schematic and CAD packages there were out there (I used OrCAD in the distant past), picked KiCAD because it's free and looked popular. After about 6 hours of learning and work I have just ordered my first prototype board from OSHpark who were picked based on nothing more than kicad upload, gold, purple. SMD parts ordered. Just waiting for board.Whole process was surprisingly painless and I expended a budget of just £35 to get this out (excluding test gear + computer etc)Hopefully I haven't screwed up the board designWhole thing was done on a Mac with native software as well.What a wonderful world we live in!

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 25, 2017, 09:16:37 pm
content: Being a belt-and-braces pessimist, I usually use multiple independent Gerber viewers as a sanity check before pushing the "buy" button.Have a look at the dirt cheap manufacturers such as dirytpcbs.com etc. 10 off 5cmx5cm double-sided PTH solder resist silk screen for ~£10 is remarkably good value.

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 25, 2017, 10:03:04 pm
content: As an equally large pessimist, I put the oshpark design rules in then stretched them a bit further then fixed a couple of warnings on the DRC as I worry about registration etc. Kept the traces at 0.5mm too. I didn’t bother with Gerbers as they support KiCad PCB format. I like the previews which were carefully checked.That’s not bad for a tenner. Might look there as well. Bet that’s HASL though, not that it’s the end of the world.Edit: I remember seeing £100+ for a single 100x160 double layer board back in the past. Smaller and cheaper now!

author: soubitos
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 25, 2017, 10:08:09 pm
content: Similar here... career change took me to a planet far far away from electronics for some 20 odd years...I expect to get the pcbs ordered from easyeda for 4 of my designs and then wait a month or two for all the components to arrive but what is a couple months wait after 20 years? Well... oh... ok.. i admit i wish i had all the stuff here today! LOLNow, my designs are very simple yet, and nothing to do with software (NOT my thing).. but still i have a similar feeling about checking everything tens times before hitting the "buy" button and still, feel anxiety about the resultGood luck to us then!

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 25, 2017, 10:17:52 pm
content: The waiting kills me. I ordered the parts for the boards which will be here on Tuesday (from RS). Got to wait 3 weeks for the boards!Good luck to us indeed. Fingers crossed for you.

author: phil from seattle
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2017, 08:07:49 am
content: Congrats. I use OSHPark a fair amount. In my experience, the board comes back pretty much the way they display it.I don't know about Kicad but with Eagle, I always paper check all IC footprints. I've been burned on that - footprint from the actual IC maker was wrong - so I always verify now.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2017, 09:28:46 am
content: Quote from: bd139 on November 25, 2017, 10:17:52 pmHave two projects, in antiphase. Oftentimes they will arrive faster, but Christmas and Chinese New year can throw a spanner in the works.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2017, 09:35:26 am
content: It can get much faster with DHL shipping, generally I can expect a pcb batch 3 days after dispatch from the manufacturer, e.g. order friday, recieve next friday,the slow boat from china is very slow.

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2017, 09:36:51 am
content: Quote from: tggzzz on November 26, 2017, 09:28:46 amDoing that now. Working on digital board. This one is a lot more complicated though. Got a PSoC on board.

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2017, 06:22:34 pm
content: Got boards earlier this week. However the day after I confidently ordered them I got scared of screwing them up during assembly as I haven't done a lot of SMD assembly before, mainly rework. Plenty of TH however!This resulted in me designing and ordering a simple "555 oscillator" design, the "hello world" of electronics, so I could practice assembly before I fuck up the more expensive ones. Design was dumb. This is mainly to make something functional and practice soldering on parts so the LDO is entirely unnecessary but gives me a SOT23 to work. BOM including parts, boards and delivery for these was under £6 the most expensive bits being CMOS 555's and the header pins.Schematic:Board design:I didn't notice until I'd ordered them that I got the power pins the wrong way round (ground should be consistently placed).Final items with my drunk ass hand soldering job:Simple design so all three boards worked first time. No respin required. I'm now experimenting with cleaning boards. Two of the ones pictured are drenched in no clean flux. Once I've nailed this I will assemble my first significantly more complicated analogue board. Fingers crossed. I won't post photos of that as it's part of a marketable product design I'm working on.I will post sweary things if it goes wrongEdit: also it's nice to make something rather than just collect test gear