The learning was like nothing I ever imagined.
I'll show you what I got so far.

 

Mounting holes do not need plating hardly ever, so don't waste your money on that

But yet most boards from a manufactured items do. They have both a copper ring around them and plating, some if needed, are even connected to the rest of the ground plane.

 

The learning was like nothing I ever imagined.
I'll show you what I got so far.

Pretty good. Only one trace that makes a 90° bend. You want to avoid those, because etchant can get trapped in the corner easily, resulting in a trace that’s too thin.

 

But yet most boards from a manufactured items do. They have both a copper ring around them and plating, some if needed, are even connected to the rest of the ground plane.

Which is likely called for by the function of the board. Circuits that are highly susceptible to interference might have this feature. A simple circuit, not so much. On s practical level, since the rest of the board requires through hole playing, it more of a hassle to exclude it on mounting holes.

 

shortbus!! How are you doing? I was also hoping you would post. Hope everything on your side has been going great. Didn't need them hooked to the ground plate shortbus or so I think.
Don't know what "etchant" is djsfantasi I've seen 90 degree bends on the original but that doesn't mean much.

 

But yet most boards from a manufactured items do. They have both a copper ring around them and plating, some if needed, are even connected to the rest of the ground plane.

The copper ring is to locate the drill hole.

 

The copper ring is to locate the drill hole.

Only on home made boards. Machine made professional boards are done in a CNC type machine. They don't need any copper ring to put a hole where ever they want or need.

 

The copper ring is to locate the drill hole.

So is there something wrong in my PCB
If so I still have time to change it. I haven't talked to them since Friday and their closed over the weekend.

 

Had a problem in my gerber files . They said there was no drill n/c file and no top silk . I'm looking at them in the zip file I sent.
Is there a good gerber file viewer to do it outside of Diptrace ? They might not use Diptrace and their viewer could not be pulling it up correctly, I don't know I've seen gerbv, viewmate, McCad and a few others. If you had to use one or have used one let me know which one you used.

Thanks

My mistake on the top silk. In my first package I sent only the bottom silk and when I reviewed and placed the order I added it back in. I guess they got confused. It doesn't change the price so I don't see a problem.

I think it's very unlikely that they're using DipTrace to view your files, unless you're ordering PCBs through the board house that DipTrace has partnered with to allow ordering through their program. There are a few file formats that capture all the relevant data for a board (including information about parts and their orientation, pick-and-place, etc.) in a single file, but in my experience so far, Gerbers and separate drill files are still dominant. Package-specific file formats like those in Eagle, DipTrace, etc. are rarely used for manufacturing, only during the design stage.

As for viewing your files, I highly recommend previewing all of your files before sending them to anyone. So far, DipTrace hasn't done anything weird to me, but it's always a good idea to double check. It's possible to accidentally generate file sets where the drill file uses a different origin and/or scale than the board layers, so nothing lines up. Also, if you add graphics to your silkscreen layer, it may be converted to art on a Gerber layer in ways you don't expect (lumpy, low resolution, etc.) So, although you may never find a problem, I still recommend always checking with a viewer outside of whatever program you did the design work in.

As for viewer options, I switched to Viewmate (from Pentalogix) a year or so ago, and I absolutely love it! I highly recommend it. It's very powerful, and fairly intuitive and easy to work with. The free version should be all that you need, although I have been tempted a few times to upgrade to a paid version so that I could save file sets after adding markup notes, dimensions, etc. I can live without those extra features for now, but someday I may upgrade.

 

Thanks ebeowulf and thanks for posting. Don't know how I didn't include you in my names I remembered a few posts back. I'll download viewmate this morning. I re-sent another drill file yesterday. I think my problem was I didn't hit the auto button to name and add them all. Meaning I was checking and I might have had only one that I had been clicking on and previewing selected when I hit export all. I'm not real sure what happened. I will be on this as soon as they open tomorrow. It's a5 day turn around once in queue, then two to three days to ship.

 

You asked earlier

Thanks ebeowulf and thanks for posting. Don't know how I didn't include you in my names I remembered a few posts back. I'll download viewmate this morning. I re-sent another drill file yesterday. I think my problem was I didn't hit the auto button to name and add them all. Meaning I was checking and I might have had only one that I had been clicking on and previewing selected when I hit export all. I'm not real sure what happened. I will be on this as soon as they open tomorrow. It's a5 day turn around once in queue, then two to three days to ship.

Did your board house list preferred drill formats? What kind of drill file are you sending?

From your description of the workflow, it sounds like you're describing a Gerber file with drill information on it. All the places I've seen or worked with want drill information in a separate format, either NC Drill or Excellon. The Gerber drill file is better for human viewing, but the other two drill files have all the information packaged neatly for automated manufacturing.

I'm rambling at this point, as usual. My point is just that you should double check and make sure you're sending the type of drill file they want.

 

Did your board house list preferred drill formats? What kind of drill file are you sending?

From your description of the workflow, it sounds like you're describing a Gerber file with drill information on it. All the places I've seen or worked with want drill information in a separate format, either NC Drill or Excellon. The Gerber drill file is better for human viewing, but the other two drill files have all the information packaged neatly for automated manufacturing.

I'm rambling at this point, as usual. My point is just that you should double check and make sure you're sending the type of drill file they want.

I used the Diptrace Export / N/C Drill command to make the drill files. And I still think my previewing the files lead to my mistake. I went back made sure both top and bottom were highlighted and hit {auto} to label them and hit Export All generating a separate file called {Through.drl} in a DRL format and added this file to my gerber files. I hope this was right

 

I used the Diptrace Export / N/C Drill command to make the drill files. And I still think my previewing the files lead to my mistake. I went back made sure both top and bottom were highlighted and hit {auto} to label them and hit Export All generating a separate file called {Through.drl} in a DRL format and added this file to my gerber files. I hope this was right

Cool - "Export N/C Drill" should be perfect!

Did you try opening your Gerber and NC Drill files in Viewmate? That will eliminate any guesswork on whether or not you've gotten the export process right (although it certainly sounds like you've got it all sorted anyway.)

 

Cool - "Export N/C Drill" should be perfect!

Did you try opening your Gerber and NC Drill files in Viewmate? That will eliminate any guesswork on whether or not you've gotten the export process right (although it certainly sounds like you've got it all sorted anyway.)

I'm Having a problem with Viewmate. it didn't register right in my computers registry and every time I try to open it my antivirus doesn't like it and throws an error at me. It will open but I would like to correct the problem before using it.

Report

 

Hello,

Perhaps the opensource GerberView will work for you:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gerberview/

Bertus

 

I'm Having a problem with Viewmate. it didn't register right in my computers registry and every time I try to open it my antivirus doesn't like it and throws an error at me. It will open but I would like to correct the problem before using it.

Report

Weird, sorry to hear that.

 

Hello,

Perhaps the opensource GerberView will work for you:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gerberview/

Bertus

Yea I started to do it online but I'm going to wait till tomorrow and contact them and see if what I sent the second time worked. Still think it was a mistake on my part.
Edit: Oh by the way Hi again bertus.

Weird, sorry to hear that.

Yea me too! I can use it like I said but it does open up after clicking a couple of error notifications. Didn't place an icon on my desktop and it's only recognized in my control panel not in my registry.

 

Update: My order is off hold and is being processed. Delivery date is around 5/13/2019.
So I guess I was right about what I did wrong.
I'm like a kid in a candy store, Can't wait to see what happens!
Just hope I'm not disappointed and it blows up when I hook everything up.

 

Update: My order is off hold and is being processed. Delivery date is around 5/13/2019.
So I guess I was right about what I did wrong.
I'm like a kid in a candy store, Can't wait to see what happens!
Just hope I'm not disappointed and it blows up when I hook everything up.

Good luck! I look forward to hearing how it works out.

 

Good luck! I look forward to hearing how it works out.

Thanks. Of course I'm going to post pics and notes on my thoughts about the assembly of the project.
Still somewhere in my mind I know somewhere on a shelf here or in China there are those transformers I need to make the original.

In the future if all goes well I am thinking about adding that switch to allow the radio to bypass the amp and go straight to the speakers when no power is supplied to the amp.