Printed Circuit Boards

[Anonymous]

Anyone know of easy and inexpensive PCB manufactures? Do most vendors accept a schematic, then desgin and produce boards? Don't want to spend much, but have custom circuits needing PCB and don't want to make my own.

[orsonroy]

There are two types of board manufacturers: those that will engineer a PCB for you, and those that won't. Fortunately, many modern PCB design packages will automatically lay out a board for the designers, based on a schematic. As long as you've got a correct schematic to provide, a board house will be able to lay out the board for you and quote a short run.

There are PCB houses all over the country (I'm in Chicagoland, and there are at least eight here), as well as small-batch OEM manufacturers, who will do a faster, neater and better job of stuffing the boards than you (no offence meant; automation is always neater than hand crafted). Check the Yellow Pages for electronics/manufacturing, or call Digikey's customer service line and ask for leads in your area.

[rrinker]

A lot of people seem to use ExpressPCB.com. They have their own free software for laying out the boards. You have to do the board layout, so it helps to have some idea of what you're doing. They'll make whatever you send them - if it ends up being wrong, you have to eat the cost. Price is fairly reasonable, too.

--Randy

[cwclark]

Radio Shack 276-159A "dual general purpose IC PC board" is a good board to use..you can use excess wire from resistors or small pieces of telephone wire to connect the circuit components together using this board..i've build 8 train detection circuits on them (it uses 2 boards per circuit which includes the nand gates for LED type lighting) and they work great and are really cheap to purchase...custom boards are fairly expensive...they also beat the heck out of acid etching your own custom boards...Chuck

[orsonroy]

ExpressPCB is a fairly new company that specializes in short batch, quick turn proto boards. I forgot about them in my original post (thanks Randy!). We use them here at work for odd proto designs, and they're good to work with.

[Anonymous]

I wish I had known about this when I designed a calculator for a scirence project. I used a program called ClarisDraw to draw the board and then sent it to a company who made the board for about $70. Granted that was a few years ago, but still, it would have saved me a lot of time.
Reed

[challenger3802]

If the circuit is not too complicated why not try using strip board. (A vastly cheaper alternative than PCBs). The design can be mapped out on squared paper (or graph paper) then transferred onto the strip board. No need for knowledge of computer programs just a good old fashioned pencil and paper!

[Bob Hayes]

There is a program I got from Jameco a few years ago now call EdwinXP. It will let you develop a schematic and do the layout work for a pcb, and then print the photo mask on transparency film. It can also perform simulations on your design. The program comes with a library of electronic parts showing both the schematic and pcb layout for each part, and the program lets you modify the layout if needed. Their Tech support will even design new layouts for parts not in the library. The price two years ago was $300, but it is really a good program. Even includes an autorouter. After I had designed my boards, I purchased a pcb etching kit made by MG Chemicals in Canada which included pre-sensitized single and double sided boards, the developer, etchant, and tray to process in, and instructions from Fry's. Making a board is really very simple and you can do one in about an hour after you make the photo mask, and that might take a couple of hours fiddling around on the computer. No waiting for UPS , or having to leave the house to go to the pcb house. You can have your pc board ready to go in a weekend, rather than having to wait a couple of weeks.
Bob Hayes
Chiloquin, OR

[rrinker]

If you want to go that route, and you don;t need to build very large boards (typical Model RR applications like block detectors and turnout controllers are generally very small), then take a look at the free version of Eagle. Sounds a lot like Edwin, you can draw a schematic and then load it into the board program and it has an autorouter. You can then generate the Gerber files to send to a board house to have your pc boards made, or print them on the special iron-on paper to etch your own board, or whatever.
For a one-off design, etching your own is a practical way to go. But if you need 20-30 of the same board, it will likely be cheaper to have one of the various companies that specializes in small runs handle it.

--Randy

[SP4449]

I just Googled "EAGLE" and got this URL on page three. Is this the Eagle you were referring to rrinker?

<http://www.cadsoft.de/freeware.htm>

It is freeware from an outfit in Germany.

[rrinker]

Yup, that's the one.

[Bob Hayes]

Randy,
Eagle does look a lot like Edwin without all the simulation capabilites. I'll have to try it to see. Also, your comment about making 20-30 boards is right on if they are complicated. Simple, single sided bds with 5 or 6 parts on them isn't worth sending out. I was able to make a dozen circular boards for use in outdoor signals in a day, but they were simple 1.125' dia. things, with Molex pin connectors and 3 leds on them. And if I had made an error, it was a simple matter to fix and try again. If someone is going to make 20-30 boards, they should make a couple to make sure their design is correct and working first. Adding jumpers to correct a design flaw to that many boards is a real pain.
Bob Hayes