PCB Fabrication

[Rev. Rob]

Hi all,

 

I am getting ready to publish my first homebrew. I have designed the PCB, but I have no experience in actual fabrication. So, anyone have any resources? (Programs, companies, etc.)

 

Anyone wanna get involved.

 

Thanks!

[Pixelboy]

It may help if you told the world more about your homebrew... For what system is it?

[Bruce Tomlin]

First of all, what program have you designed the board in? They don't take MS Paint files you know.

 

Real production places (the ones who can make 500+ boards cheap) need Gerber files, which are a line-art description of the whole board. Places that specialize in hobbyists and prototyping will usually take more formats. Some of them offer you "free" PCB software that you can only use with their service, but the problem with that is what do you do when you want someone else to make the board?

 

There is also PCB software that has a "free" mode, like Cadsoft Eagle, which is limited to two layers and a small board. The good news is that their idea of "small" is plenty big for cartridge boards, unless you want to make some kind of 8-ROM monster board for the Genesis or SNES. Eagle also happens to have a version with runs in X Windows under OS X, which is why I use it.

 

Good PCB software (like Eagle) will also have a schematic editor, then you can route the board without making stupid mistakes. Don't bother to use the autorouter feature; most of them suck completely, and it'll just make your board look ugly.

 

As for where to get it done, I went with pcbpool.com because they take Eagle files.

[Rev. Rob]

First of all, what program have you designed the board in? They don't take MS Paint files you know.

 

I used a program called PCB Express, and the output is a .PCB file. Is there a way to convert that to gerber?

 

 

There is also PCB software that has a "free" mode, like Cadsoft Eagle, which is limited to two layers and a small board. The good news is that their idea of "small" is plenty big for cartridge boards, unless you want to make some kind of 8-ROM monster board for the Genesis or SNES. Eagle also happens to have a version with runs in X Windows under OS X, which is why I use it.

 

Good PCB software (like Eagle) will also have a schematic editor, then you can route the board without making stupid mistakes. Don't bother to use the autorouter feature; most of them suck completely, and it'll just make your board look ugly.

 

As for where to get it done, I went with pcbpool.com because they take Eagle files.

 

Perfect. Every place I've checked so far doesn't take Eagle files.

 

When I am done designing it in Eagle, would you mind taking a look at it before I send it off?

 

Thanks!

[Rev. Rob]

It may help if you told the world more about your homebrew... For what system is it?

 

Odyssey.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Perfect. Every place I've checked so far doesn't take Eagle files.

But Eagle can generate Gerbers. Check to see if PCB Express does so as well. And pcbpool also takes the files from many different programs, not just Eagle.

 

When I am done designing it in Eagle, would you mind taking a look at it before I send it off?

I don't see why not. The only problem is that I might feel an urge to start the whole thing from scratch.

 

You might want to spend some time learning how to edit library files in Eagle first. It was quite a while before I figured out how to take an existing edge card connector library object, copy it, and make multiple equivalent versions that had different edge lines (long vs short carts vs open edges) included.

 

It's a lot of work to get the right dimensions, and you probably won't get them right on your first board run, but once you figure out how to make library objects that include the dimensions, its pretty nice.

 

Here's my 2600 Eagle library file. If you can play with that until you figure out how to make an O^2 library, everything else is easy.

 

atari_2600.lbr.zip

Edited June 27, 2007 by Bruce Tomlin

[+5-11under]

I realize your board is done, but there may be others interested...

 

I've only designed one board with it, but FreePCB seemed to work fairly well. For me, it was a lot easier to learn than Eagle. Gerber and drill file outputs are included.

 

http://www.freepcb.com/

 

Thanks,

5-11under

[Rev. Rob]

Perfect. Every place I've checked so far doesn't take Eagle files.

But Eagle can generate Gerbers. Check to see if PCB Express does so as well. And pcbpool also takes the files from many different programs, not just Eagle.

 

When I am done designing it in Eagle, would you mind taking a look at it before I send it off?

I don't see why not. The only problem is that I might feel an urge to start the whole thing from scratch.

 

You might want to spend some time learning how to edit library files in Eagle first. It was quite a while before I figured out how to take an existing edge card connector library object, copy it, and make multiple equivalent versions that had different edge lines (long vs short carts vs open edges) included.

 

It's a lot of work to get the right dimensions, and you probably won't get them right on your first board run, but once you figure out how to make library objects that include the dimensions, its pretty nice.

 

Here's my 2600 Eagle library file. If you can play with that until you figure out how to make an O^2 library, everything else is easy.

 

atari_2600.lbr.zip

 

Thanks for all of your help. Hey, I wouldn't mind if you decided to redo it if I was wrong. That's a good way to get into the credits in the manual! Also, it's an "Odyssey" game, not Odyssey^2.

[Rev. Rob]

I realize your board is done, but there may be others interested...

 

I've only designed one board with it, but FreePCB seemed to work fairly well. For me, it was a lot easier to learn than Eagle. Gerber and drill file outputs are included.

 

http://www.freepcb.com/

 

Thanks,

5-11under

 

Awesome, I will check this out too!

[a8isa1]

Hi all,

 

I am getting ready to publish my first homebrew. I have designed the PCB, but I have no experience in actual fabrication. So, anyone have any resources? (Programs, companies, etc.)

 

Anyone wanna get involved.

 

Thanks!

I know absolute nothing about PCB design or manufacture but I was curious if it would be cost effective to put some of the documented projects on a single PCB and just cut them out myself. Never got any further than just the idea but I did discover the following PCB service:

 

http://www.futurlec.com/PCBService.shtml

http://www.futurlec.com/PCB_faq.shtml

 

Single board order is allowed.

 

-A8ISA1

 

p.s. They accept Eagle files.

Edited June 29, 2007 by a8isa1

[Bruce Tomlin]

Thanks for all of your help. Hey, I wouldn't mind if you decided to redo it if I was wrong. That's a good way to get into the credits in the manual! Also, it's an "Odyssey" game, not Odyssey^2.

Ouch. I sure can't help too much there, since I have nothing from the original Odyssey to compare it with.

 

At least you won't have to do much work soldering parts onto the board.

 

Also, doesn't it use .156" pin spacing instead of .1"? In that case, the library I uploaded won't help you much.

[Rev. Rob]

Thanks for all of your help. Hey, I wouldn't mind if you decided to redo it if I was wrong. That's a good way to get into the credits in the manual! Also, it's an "Odyssey" game, not Odyssey^2.

Ouch. I sure can't help too much there, since I have nothing from the original Odyssey to compare it with.

 

At least you won't have to do much work soldering parts onto the board.

 

Also, doesn't it use .156" pin spacing instead of .1"? In that case, the library I uploaded won't help you much.

 

Umm... I dunno. Lools like 1mm on my ruler. Anyone have any tech documentation?