Best way to make pads for 2mm through hole toggle in Eagle

Thread Starter

Mrdouble

Joined Aug 13, 2012
107
Man, eagle has got me stumped. I have successfully used eagle to make several homebrew (toner transfer) boards but this i has got me whooped.

I need to mount couple of miniature toggles with blade dimensions of 1mm x 2mm (height is irrelevant).

I have been been doing some serious googling and come up with all kinds of answeres as to how to make slotted pads but none of them work. Some of the answers suggest that its impossible to do due to the fact board houses dont mill slots. I find this very hard to believe as tons of components have slots (switches, plugs, displays)

I have already played around and drilled out slots by hand and it worked out great but I need need a pattern to keep all 10 strait and aligned. If I can just get an idea on the direction to go would be great

thanks I advance
Micheal
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
Can you post a link to the device or better yet, a dimensioned drawing of what you need. It might be easier to just do it instead of explain it. That is not to say I have ever done exactly what you want to do.

As for board houses, yes, they can mill slots, but they may not be able to plate through. To solve that, if I needed both sides, I would either solder both sides, use a small piece of wire to connect the sides, or place vias close to the device, but far enough from the slot to meet DRC for the board house. Also, you need to confirm what the minimum milled slot width is for whoever you are getting to make the board. I suspect that will not be a limitation, but it might be expensive.

A simple approach, assuming you cannot find a place to plate the slot, is to use the polygon tool and connect the large pad area to a regular trace (i.e., assign it to the same net).

Or, make 2 or 3 pads with large plated holes close together and file the slot.

John
 

SLK001

Joined Nov 29, 2011
1,549
Or, you can make a 2MM hole and be done with it. Bend the blades over then fill the hole with solder. That's what I do for things like this. You can get a PCB house to rout the slots, but since it is an internal slot, it requires extra steps in the manufacturing process, so it will be a cost adder. Getting a slot plated is no problem - if it's to be plated, routing will be done right after drilling - if it is NOT to be plated, then routing will be done after plating.
 

Thread Starter

Mrdouble

Joined Aug 13, 2012
107
image.jpeg
Can you post a link to the device or better yet, a dimensioned drawing of what you need. It might be easier to just do it instead of explain it. That is not to say I have ever done exactly what you want to do.

As for board houses, yes, they can mill slots, but they may not be able to plate through. To solve that, if I needed both sides, I would either solder both sides, use a small piece of wire to connect the sides, or place vias close to the device, but far enough from the slot to meet DRC for the board house. Also, you need to confirm what the minimum milled slot width is for whoever you are getting to make the board. I suspect that will not be a limitation, but it might be expensive.

A simple approach, assuming you cannot find a place to plate the slot, is to use the polygon tool and connect the large pad area to a regular trace (i.e., assign it to the same net).

Or, make 2 or 3 pads with large plated holes close together and file the slot.

John
 

Thread Starter

Mrdouble

Joined Aug 13, 2012
107
Or, you can make a 2MM hole and be done with it. Bend the blades over then fill the hole with solder. That's what I do for things like this. You can get a PCB house to rout the slots, but since it is an internal slot, it requires extra steps in the manufacturing process, so it will be a cost adder. Getting a slot plated is no problem - if it's to be plated, routing will be done right after drilling - if it is NOT to be plated, then routing will be done after plating.
I use toner transfer for board
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
1) If you are using toner transfer, just use one of the geometric drawing tools and make what you want-- if you are uneasy with the polygon tool. It really is a very useful tool. You do not need to worry about it being connected to a signal layer (i.e., net). My comments were directed toward sending the board to a manufacturer. With Eagle 7.3, you cannot label/make a geometric design as a signal layer. You can do that with something drawn with the polygon tool. I have not played with 7.5 enough to be sure, but I suspect the same applies to it as well.

2) I was thinking something like an automotive relay with 1/4" blade contacts. For that little switch, I would do what SKL001 suggested and just specify a hole that is a little larger. A 2-mm hole is really not that big (5/64").

John
 
Last edited:

SLK001

Joined Nov 29, 2011
1,549
I use toner transfer for board
I guess that I don't understand the problem. What was all the talk about PCB houses? As jpanhalt says, you can use the polygon tool to make any pad shape that you want. Here is a single pad that I made years ago for a shield.

shield.jpg
 

Thread Starter

Mrdouble

Joined Aug 13, 2012
107
I guess that I don't understand the problem. What was all the talk about PCB houses? As jpanhalt says, you can use the polygon tool to make any pad shape that you want. Here is a single pad that I made years ago for a shield.

View attachment 104147
EXACTLY, how did you convert to pad? I have googled "eagle covert polygon to pad" and found nothing
 

SLK001

Joined Nov 29, 2011
1,549
No convert needed. The geometry has one SMD pad in the top center. The pad is named GND. It is highlighted in the image below:

shield2.jpg

For the schematic, I created a symbol with one pin named GND as shown below. Of course, a DEVICE is created and GND on the package is connected to GND on the symbol.

shield_sch.jpg

When I place the shield in the schematic, the pads are placed as a part. Somewhere in the Eagle documentation, it says that when a geometry touches a pad, the entire geometry becomes the pad. Since the pad, and thus the geometry is called "GND", a ground copper pour will automatically include this ground into a GND fill.
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
EXACTLY, how did you convert to pad? I have googled "eagle covert polygon to pad" and found nothing
I convert the polygon to a signal. You can right click on it and select name or use the name icon. Let's say it is connected to Vcc. Then that is likely your name for the whole polygon and signal.

John
 

Thread Starter

Mrdouble

Joined Aug 13, 2012
107
I convert the polygon to a signal. You can right click on it and select name or use the name icon. Let's say it is connected to Vcc. Then that is likely your name for the whole polygon and signal.

John
I pretty much got what I wanted. I just put pad on top of polygon. I think it'll work. image.jpeg
 
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