small, 2 sided, surface mount PCB with plated holes in ground plane

[the_digital_dentist]

I haven't done this in a while, so I'm not up to date on the tools/vendors.  What's the easiest to learn PCB layout software, and which PCB company is a quick way to get a few copies of a small PCB (maybe 50x50 mm or so) made with plated through holes without spending a fortune?

While we're on the subject, do any of the autorouters for PCBs use multiple cores and/or direct graphics card calculations to speed complex board layout up, or is it all still done in a single CPU thread?

[Tom Gralewicz]

Royce and I use Diptrace, free, multi layer and no restirctions on exporting files to manufacturers.

http://www.diptrace.com/

Eagle has been improved in recent years and has a good following as well.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/overview

For a few small boards Oshpark seems to be the best path.

https://oshpark.com/

For small boards I haven't seen more than a few seconds for an auto router to run.  Keep in mind, these are basic software packages and the auto routers aren't great, they usually need some manual tuning.

Tom

Tom Gralewicz

Chronic Maker

(414) 380-1716

milwaukeemakerspace.org

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 9:26 AM, the_digital_dentist <mark.r...@gmail.com> wrote:

I haven't done this in a while, so I'm not up to date on the tools/vendors.  What's the easiest to learn PCB layout software, and which PCB company is a quick way to get a few copies of a small PCB (maybe 50x50 mm or so) made with plated through holes without spending a fortune?

While we're on the subject, do any of the autorouters for PCBs use multiple cores and/or direct graphics card calculations to speed complex board layout up, or is it all still done in a single CPU thread?

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[Pete Prodoehl]

I tend to do through hole, but I use Fritzing and OSH Park. Easy and cheap. I've usually got some OSH Park discount codes if you need one.

Pete

On Jun 23, 2017, at 9:26 AM, the_digital_dentist <mark.r...@gmail.com> wrote:

I haven't done this in a while, so I'm not up to date on the tools/vendors.  What's the easiest to learn PCB layout software, and which PCB company is a quick way to get a few copies of a small PCB (maybe 50x50 mm or so) made with plated through holes without spending a fortune?

While we're on the subject, do any of the autorouters for PCBs use multiple cores and/or direct graphics card calculations to speed complex board layout up, or is it all still done in a single CPU thread?

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[Jim Rawson]

Easy enough for me

http://kicad-pcb.org/

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[Royce Pipkins]

OSHPark is the cheapest and fastest for very small boards. However, once you start going over a certain size, Chinese vendors begin to win out on price but at the cost of a 3-4 wk delivery time and a larger minimum order

Certainly by the time you get to 10cm x 10cm, Chinese vendors are substantially less expensive. https://pcbshopper.com/ is a way to find such vendors. I use Elecrow all the time and am quite happy with the quality. 

[Royce Pipkins]

For a small board the implementation details of the auto-router is unlikely to matter. It will take a minute or two at most.

Over time I have drifted away from the auto-router. The rat's nest concept (all the programs use it) saves a lot of tedious book-keeping thought about the process of converting each schematic net to a physical layout. If you see a rat line, you still have a net to route. The rat line already starts and ends at the correct destination per the schematic. 

Routing manually will give you a lot familiarity with your board and allow you to troubleshoot it that much easier. It has also evolved into a bit of a Zen like experience for me. I always look forward to that part of a project.

[Ray Scheufler]

+1 for the zen of manually routing.  I have lost entire evenings to routing.

Ray Scheufler

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 11:14 AM, Royce Pipkins <royce....@gmail.com> wrote:

For a small board the implementation details of the auto-router is unlikely to matter. It will take a minute or two at most.

Over time I have drifted away from the auto-router. The rat's nest concept (all the programs use it) saves a lot of tedious book-keeping thought about the process of converting each schematic net to a physical layout. If you see a rat line, you still have a net to route. The rat line already starts and ends at the correct destination per the schematic. 

Routing manually will give you a lot familiarity with your board and allow you to troubleshoot it that much easier. It has also evolved into a bit of a Zen like experience for me. I always look forward to that part of a project.

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 10:58 AM Royce Pipkins <royce....@gmail.com> wrote:

OSHPark is the cheapest and fastest for very small boards. However, once you start going over a certain size, Chinese vendors begin to win out on price but at the cost of a 3-4 wk delivery time and a larger minimum order

Certainly by the time you get to 10cm x 10cm, Chinese vendors are substantially less expensive. https://pcbshopper.com/ is a way to find such vendors. I use Elecrow all the time and am quite happy with the quality. 

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 10:46 AM Pete Prodoehl <ras...@gmail.com> wrote:

I tend to do through hole, but I use Fritzing and OSH Park. Easy and cheap. I've usually got some OSH Park discount codes if you need one.

Pete

On Jun 23, 2017, at 9:26 AM, the_digital_dentist <mark.r...@gmail.com> wrote:

I haven't done this in a while, so I'm not up to date on the tools/vendors.  What's the easiest to learn PCB layout software, and which PCB company is a quick way to get a few copies of a small PCB (maybe 50x50 mm or so) made with plated through holes without spending a fortune?

While we're on the subject, do any of the autorouters for PCBs use multiple cores and/or direct graphics card calculations to speed complex board layout up, or is it all still done in a single CPU thread?

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[Pete Prodoehl]

I just ordered another batch of boards from Seeed Studio. Good price, but shipping can take a while...

    http://rasterweb.net/raster/2016/12/04/seeed-studio-fusion-pcb-service/


Pete

[Tony]

Given Autodesk's uncertain future for Eagle I try to use other tools:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-965-the-(autodesk)-eagle-has-crashed/

KiCad seems like a worthy open source alternative and CERN's support has significantly advanced development.  Lately, there has been active development almost every day.  Here are some nice video tutorials put together by Chris Gammell:
https://www.youtube.com/user/contextualelectronic/playlists
Here are some other tutorials:
http://kicad-pcb.org/help/tutorials/
If you use it, contributing to the development effort at CERN would be most appreciated:
https://giving.web.cern.ch/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=6


For low-cost small runs with a ~2-4 week turn-around, you can't beat OSH Park's purple boards:
https://oshpark.com/
They have a completely hands-off tool that will validate your board design, estimate costs, and submit it to manufacturing.

If you need more boards cheaper, the guys at Seeed Studio created a service called Fusion PCB:
https://www.seeedstudio.com/fusion.html
Their system is also fully automated and you can get a quote instantly.
They optionally assemble boards if you don't want to do the part sourcing and soldering.
If you are willing to pay extra, you can have your boards delivered in about a week.
I met some of their team a few years ago and they seemed committed to providing high quality short-run manufacturing to the open hardware community.

Oh yeah, friends don't let friends use the auto-router.

 - Tony

On 06/23/2017 09:26 AM, the_digital_dentist wrote:

I haven't done this in a while, so I'm not up to date on the tools/vendors.  What's the easiest to learn PCB layout software, and which PCB company is a quick way to get a few copies of a small PCB (maybe 50x50 mm or so) made with plated through holes without spending a fortune?

While we're on the subject, do any of the autorouters for PCBs use multiple cores and/or direct graphics card calculations to speed complex board layout up, or is it all still done in a single CPU thread?