Submitted by modern_messiah on Tue, 08/10/2010 - 10:24
Posted in
Hi all,
Just a quick question regarding the MX2 Dolly Controller interface board.
If I were to say have a crack at building the MX2 myself, are the included Gerber files good enough to just send off to someone like http://batchpcb.com/ for manufacture? I have absolutely no experience with PCB design, so I'd be totally reliant on the files being correct because there is no way in hell I could fix any errors! I won't have a problem putting it all together (done that plenty of times).
Secondly, I went through the parts list provided with the PCB design and was able to identify and price all but the 4 parts listed as U$1, U$2, U$3 and U$4. What are these parts and where can I obtain them from? I'm assuming that all the parts listed are to be used on the MX2 interface board. I have a feeling that they are the pins to plug into the Arduino board?
Any insight or help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
- Matt.
Matt, I can make no promises
Matt,
I can make no promises about batchpcb, as I don't use them. It's worth saying, that doing it yourself will likely take some work - as I designed the board for a service with better tolerances, but largely DRC out with 8mil traces - this doesn't imply that batchpcb's bot will take it as-is, it's never run through their bot. There are three silkscreen errors I've noticed on that board that I will be correcting soon.
The un-named parts are just break-away male headers, available from sparkfun or any of the big suppliers.
!c
Thanks again for another
Thanks again for another reply lol.
I went to university with a friend who used batchpcb extensively for his post grad work and recommended them highly. At least for one off prototyping jobs anyway.
As I have no idea what "DRC out with 8mil traces" means I'll again wait and see. At this stage I feel the biggest cost to me will be the rails so if I can get the MX2 pre-built direct from you guys then I'll be happy as a pig in mud.
September can't come soon enough!
Oh, that's Design Rule Check,
Oh, that's Design Rule Check, and 8mil traces being that BatchPCB has a minimum trace width of 8 mils (0.008") - they are a good service, but when I'm running deadlines, I like paying for overnight service =) I also try to source services locally when possible, but the pricing is very attractive from China!
Trust me, it can't come soon enough for me and Jay either =) Ready to start shipping kits! (Of course, the suppliers aren't yet, and the website isn't either, but these things take some time to get sorted out.)
!c
I have used BatchPCB in the
I have used BatchPCB in the past for some stuff and it has always been great price and quality.
It can how ever be kind of slow...