On Sunday 08 April 2018 02:00:59 Lawrence Glaister wrote: > Hi Chris, > > For the PCB milling, I used to use eagle and the pcbgcode plugin for > the longest time. Eagle got kind of funky after autocad bought them > and is now mostly a subscription service. > > I now use kicad for the schematic and pcb design and an open source > program called pcb2gcode to convert gerbers to gcode files for > linuxcnc. I just completed a board I sent off to > https://www.seeedstudio.com/fusion.html for production. Smooth as silk > and unbeatable prices. (10 boards 3.8x2.5" for $4.41(March Sale) + > shipping). > Post pix when you get them back please.
> I then designed and milled a small board for a calibration jig and > used the pcb2gcode to convert the bottom copper gerber to linuxcnc > gcode files. Again, pretty smooth once one gets the isolation and > offset parameters figured out. > > I think kicad is a much superior package to eagle and has no > restrictions on boards size or schematic size. As with learning a new > cad system, it took a couple of youtube videos and a couple of days of > practice, but it really only took a few days to go from nothing to > ordering pcbs. Well worth the investment in time. The current kicad V4 > release worked the best for me.... I tried V5 from git, but it wasnt > quite workable yet. The advantage of V5 is that it will be able to > import eagle project schematic and PCB files. > > I have done quite a few PCBs by milling, and there are a few tricks > like using wider traces and trying to keep most surface mount parts > and traces on the bottom layer and use the top layer for jumpers and > through hole parts to avoid 2 sided milling. One sided pcbs are much > less critical to mill as they are milled, drilled and cutout without > changing the mounting. This avoids a lot of headaches of trying to get > top and bottom layers aligned. > > cheers > Lawrence Glaister VE7IT > Nanoose Bay BC, Canada > > On 2018-04-07 10:05 PM, Chris Albertson wrote: > > Is anyone using a CNC mill to make PCBs? The video linked below > > shows someone doing this on a small mill with Mach 3. The PCB is > > certainly not high tech. The parts are all through hole with 0.1 > > inch lead pitch and it is one side only. Right out of the 1970's > > but it is exactly what I want to make. More complex PCBs can go to > > oshpark > > > > Is there a Linux based tool chain? The part I don't see is how to > > convert Gerber files to g-code files. > > > > Then what tools work best? I think three are needed tiny end mill > > to route copper, Tiny spiral mill for cutting the PCB all the way > > through and a few micro side drill bits for the through holes. > > > > BTW it seems like the guy in the video could have saved a lot of > > time by using a (fake) ground plane that flooded all the empty > > space. No need to mill all that copper away. > > > > https://youtu.be/xM8sTEw3OLQ?t=5m41s > I too have seen eagle fall apart recently. I'll see about kicad for my next board. Thanks Lawrence for the heads up, I thought it was me. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >-------- Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's > most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users -- Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
