Re: Isolation Routing PCBs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Doddy
That's all you need.
(though Eagle IS better :nevreness: )
You're proba bubbly right, and if I were starting from scratch I might go there. My next venture is to look at KiCAD ('cos I need to do some Arduino based circuits) when I have the mind space, but I am up to my neck in minor problems to sort out, including why my limits switches have just decided to stop fecking working and why the downstairs toilet light doesn't come on...........
Back to topic:- I have looked at Design Spark and Circuit Maker and both are difficult to use. CM is especially Nerd! So KiCAD next.
Re: Isolation Routing PCBs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cropwell
I used to etch boards and find the chemical etching dirty and dangerous and you have the spent chemicals to dispose of.
It was great fun though! I remember building my UVA light box (pre-internet search engines) with a home brewed electronic timer and ink jet printing circuits on transparency. All info had to come from books, magazines and parts and consumable suppliers :D
Re: Isolation Routing PCBs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cropwell
but I am up to my neck in minor problems to sort out, including why my limits switches have just decided to stop fecking working and why the downstairs toilet light doesn't come on...........
Limit switches?, had same with my home switches recently - turned out the supply to the NPN proximity switches was disconnected and the system failed silent. Bad design that I need to get around to fixing (nothing more fun than stalling your Z axis and bending the limit switch out of the way).
Downstairs toilet light... also had this fairly recently and ignored the fused spur plate above head height in the bathroom and rewired around it in the cavity. Then saw the plate and did the Homer ("Doh!"),
Re: Isolation Routing PCBs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
magicniner
It was great fun though! I remember building my UVA light box (pre-internet search engines) with a home brewed electronic timer and ink jet printing circuits on transparency. All info had to come from books, magazines and parts and consumable suppliers :D
The good old days when you could just pop to Maplins for a resistor and couldn't wait for Practical Electronics or Elektor to drop through the letterbox. Before that it was red spot and white spot transistors, just can't remember which was PNP and which NPN.
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Isolation Routing PCBs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Doddy
Limit switches?, had same with my home switches recently - turned out the supply to the NPN proximity switches was disconnected and the system failed silent. Bad design that I need to get around to fixing (nothing more fun than stalling your Z axis and bending the limit switch out of the way).
Attachment 26061
I think I may have found the Limits switch problem, when I put a larger cable chain I did not route the Z axis homes and limits cable properly and it was being pulled along the X axis. .
I am going to remake the bracketry when I get my 3D printer working again (waiting for X axis motor cable). It just seems that disconnects in moving cables are blighting my life at the moment).
I need to get back onto PCB cutting !!!
Re: Isolation Routing PCBs
Re: Isolation Routing PCBs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
magicniner
It was great fun though! I remember building my UVA light box (pre-internet search engines) with a home brewed electronic timer and ink jet printing circuits on transparency. All info had to come from books, magazines and parts and consumable suppliers :D
Eeeeee lad, I remember those days! The Maplin catalogue and sending off hand filled in order forms by post, Practical Wireless, The Radio Constructor and Veroboard. In those days I drew brain-designed PCB layouts on 0.1 inch graph paper and then transferred the holes to copper board with a pin and drew in the traces using what Maplin sold as a special PCB resist pen but was actually a bog standard permanent marker, just three times the price. I even had my own personalised call sign, G0KIT. Nostalgia's not what it used to be!
More seriously, I've recently changed from using Eagle, where I never quite mastered the libraries and creating new footprints for the PCB, to DipTrace which is a bit easier to use and does have a free-for-non-commercial-use version if you look carefully enough at the website. I've only made one board with it so far but I like it so far.
As for etching, you can use remarkably little fluid by wiping it over the board with a sponge or cloth. A bit tedious but it doesn't take that long and I don't make enough boards to worry about the time.
I'm not sure my current CNC router is precise enough for milling a decent PCB. There's only one way to find out though and it would be a good test of my design and build skills. Off down another rabbit hole!
Kit
Re: Isolation Routing PCBs
And how about the XFG1 gas filled triode valve that was used in radio control receivers and mighty midget motors. :yahoo:
Re: Isolation Routing PCBs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Clive S
And how about the XFG1 gas filled triode valve that was used in radio control receivers and mighty midget motors. :yahoo:
I never got into valves until I turned from a radio amateur to a radio professional. Then I had BY1144 water cooled triodes to play with!
Re: Isolation Routing PCBs
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kitwn
I'm not sure my current CNC router is precise enough for milling a decent PCB. There's only one way to find out though and it would be a good test of my design and build skills. Off down another rabbit hole!
Kit
One of my biggest problems was getting the machine bed level. It is fairly good now as one side is hoiked up with brass sheet and aluminium foil to shim it level. Before that I used to cut the outline of the board and then put the board in a board-shaped pocket with some thin double sided tape. I still mill out a pocket (in the spoil board of course!) this levels up enough to get a consistent depth of cut.
Never been into radio, and the nearest to valves I have been was when I built a 15W(?) amp from a kit. It had EL84's as output stage an ECC83 phase splitter and I think ECC83's for preamp, but that was nearly 60 years ago and I haven't touched a valve since.
Rob-T
