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Needing more than a spark test?
- Thread starter graham-xrf
- Start date
"Who is providing 4 layer boards with resist and silkscreen for $7 in low volume? I assume there was a separate setup charge, right?"
Nope, NO setup charge. Shipping cost more than the boards. From EasyEDA.com. I have no association with them other than as a customer.
The web site offers schematic capture, simulation, a large library and a PCB design suite (including DRC and a fairly lame auto router). Free, if you're OK with allowing other users the ability to view your designs. If you pay 'em money, you can keep your designs all to yourself.
Nope, NO setup charge. Shipping cost more than the boards. From EasyEDA.com. I have no association with them other than as a customer.
The web site offers schematic capture, simulation, a large library and a PCB design suite (including DRC and a fairly lame auto router). Free, if you're OK with allowing other users the ability to view your designs. If you pay 'em money, you can keep your designs all to yourself.
Will do. BTW, you have a choice of different resist and silk screen colors so you can customize your boards somewhat. I just went with the default colors.
Yeah, just sending them Gerbers will protect your IP. I haven't worried too much about that yet. Maybe at some point.
I see that Cedar Park is a suburb in Austin. I visited Austin quite a few Novembers back for a conference and liked it. Maybe because it was dryer and sunnier than Oregon in November
.SparkFun have been operating their site remotely, no live chat, no answer to emails, etc. After messing with my browser anti-tracking and anti-canvas fingerprinting protections, I finally purchased the little board with the X100-7 sensor. I had to navigate a load of questions about export restrictions. We shall see if it makes it to chez moi sometime soon.
I had wondered if you might run into export restrictions. The X100-7 itself is manufactured in Europe (their HQ is in Berlin). Go figure....
I haven't done any assembly on my PCB yet. I decided I needed to get some stainless steel flat-tipped tweezers to make it easier to handle (and solder) chip resistors and caps. Our engineering tech at work let me try hers when I was assembling a test board and that style was much better than the pointy-tipped ones. I've got a couple of different types on order and they should arrive next week.
SMT tweezers aren't cheap, though; one of them was about $15 and the other was about $21 (USD). Hakko and Excelta make 'em -- I got one Hakko CHP 105-A and an Excelta 103-SA from Amazon. IIRC, we pretty much used Excelta tweezers at work. Their fine-tipped tweezers were small enough to pluck individual wirebonds off of IC's. But if you dropped them and the tip hit the floor, it was all over with. I never could re-bend the tips well enough to make them usable again. You'd think it would be possible to get the tips parallel again by using fine sandpaper on them but they always came out too curved so they didn't grip the bond wires.
I haven't done any assembly on my PCB yet. I decided I needed to get some stainless steel flat-tipped tweezers to make it easier to handle (and solder) chip resistors and caps. Our engineering tech at work let me try hers when I was assembling a test board and that style was much better than the pointy-tipped ones. I've got a couple of different types on order and they should arrive next week.
SMT tweezers aren't cheap, though; one of them was about $15 and the other was about $21 (USD). Hakko and Excelta make 'em -- I got one Hakko CHP 105-A and an Excelta 103-SA from Amazon. IIRC, we pretty much used Excelta tweezers at work. Their fine-tipped tweezers were small enough to pluck individual wirebonds off of IC's. But if you dropped them and the tip hit the floor, it was all over with. I never could re-bend the tips well enough to make them usable again. You'd think it would be possible to get the tips parallel again by using fine sandpaper on them but they always came out too curved so they didn't grip the bond wires.
I have seen a black, non-metallic tweezer with special ends shaped to fit over 0603 and 0402 that fit more or less over the SMD, gripping from the sides. Turned through 90°, it almost had possibilities of hanging onto a SOT23, but not quite!
I have also seen a trick where a guy adapted the tube from a foot-switch operated solder suck thing onto something he extracted from a ball-pen. He puts the resistor, which is suck onto the end of the tube by vacuum, into place, then stops with the vacuum. I don't think it would be all that successful for most, but he had developed the skill.
He taught me the "Polish Coil Wire trick" to remove IC's when you need selective removal, and cannot heat up the whole board. For small outline ICs and quad packs. It requires the quite fine enameled magnet wire, I guess about 30 or 36 AWG. You first use a wick to remove the top excess of solder. Then thread the wire through under the pins in the gap between the IC body, and the pin pads. Secure one end somwhere. Wrap it around a component or something. Then tug on the other end sideways, while applying heat to the top of the pin, to spring them one by one, pulling on the coil wire. It works well as a controlled, no-damage removal, until you get to the last two pins. Here, I found. it pays to heat the last two pins simultaneously, and lift off the IC.
I have also seen a trick where a guy adapted the tube from a foot-switch operated solder suck thing onto something he extracted from a ball-pen. He puts the resistor, which is suck onto the end of the tube by vacuum, into place, then stops with the vacuum. I don't think it would be all that successful for most, but he had developed the skill.
He taught me the "Polish Coil Wire trick" to remove IC's when you need selective removal, and cannot heat up the whole board. For small outline ICs and quad packs. It requires the quite fine enameled magnet wire, I guess about 30 or 36 AWG. You first use a wick to remove the top excess of solder. Then thread the wire through under the pins in the gap between the IC body, and the pin pads. Secure one end somwhere. Wrap it around a component or something. Then tug on the other end sideways, while applying heat to the top of the pin, to spring them one by one, pulling on the coil wire. It works well as a controlled, no-damage removal, until you get to the last two pins. Here, I found. it pays to heat the last two pins simultaneously, and lift off the IC.
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I had read about the "Polish coil wire trick" but, lacking any further explanation, thought it was a cheap replacement for solder-wick. Thanks for the explanation, it's a neat trick.
Non-metallic carbon fiber (or plastic) tweezers would work OK if you're placing components onto solder paste (although I wonder about solder paste sticking to the tweezers and getting into places you don't want). I use fine solder and a fine-tipped soldering iron and hold the SMTs in place as I solder one side down, so the tweezer tips have to withstand soldering temperatures. Ceramic-tipped tweezers are available but I haven't seen any with suitably shaped tips for SMT work.
Non-metallic carbon fiber (or plastic) tweezers would work OK if you're placing components onto solder paste (although I wonder about solder paste sticking to the tweezers and getting into places you don't want). I use fine solder and a fine-tipped soldering iron and hold the SMTs in place as I solder one side down, so the tweezer tips have to withstand soldering temperatures. Ceramic-tipped tweezers are available but I haven't seen any with suitably shaped tips for SMT work.