PCB etching
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Not sure if you know but expresspcb is great and simple for making your own pcb's . My three goto programs are express pcb ,Target3001 and eagle for production boards .
I've been playing with Designspark for a couple of months now and it's growing on me. The newest version supposedly has integral spice simulation. All in all, it's not a bad place to start.
Havent tried CR5000 .Gotta check it out . I use eagle only for boards that i sent out to be made since i can make the cam files . Target3001 is very similar (IMO a little better than eagle) to eagle but the greatest part is the autoplacer and circular boards with component rotation which is a must have when doing special LED arrays . ExpressPCB i use exclusivly for simple boards since its so easy it takes a couple min to design and print a board and it has a very simple library .
For boards i send out i use Seedstudio and iteadstudio exclusively . Cant beat 10 professional boards with all the bells and whistles for 10.00 .Thats 1.00 a board . Nobody comes close to that price as far as i know .
http://iteadstudio.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=19&zenid=npjp9qo56cgutjv1g8envrsk71
Heres a board i had made by them
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Seedstudio which offers the same thing and i think uses the same boardhouse is a little easier to navagate the site . I have ordered from both places .
Fusion PCB Service [PCB08511P] - $9.90 : Seeed Studio Bazaar, Boost ideas, extend the reach
The only even slight issue is they dont always trim the silkscreen so just make sure you trim it yourself and make it as clear as possible . Other than that my boards have been pretty much perfect everytime . They even etest a few for free .
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Wow, that is a good price.
I make simple PCBs myself and send out for complex ones.
Too bad that provider doesn't do 4 layer service. My latest project uses a 4 layer board around 5 square inches. DorkbotPDX did three of them for a little over $15 each which is the best price I've found for 4 layer boards, excellent quality too. The other link has 4 layer service, but it only goes up to 10cm, my board would be too long, it's 10.6cm x 3.4cm. Plus, minimum quantity is 10 which is too many. If I could use that service, it would get the price down to $10 a board, but then I'd have ten of them which is too many, especially if I need to change something.
Pricing options are much wider for 2 layer boards. DorkbotPDX does 2 layer boards for $1.70 a square inch with a minimum quantity of three which is a better number, but if you get 8 or 10 of them and still pay less, that's better. Looks like those guys are doing 2 layer boards in prototype quantities for about 25 cents a square inch which is amazingly cheap. Though, the pricing is weird. Usually, it's charged by the square inch, but they do it in tiers. You're paying for board space you may or may not use, but at that price, it's only going to matter if there's a lot of unused space.
For software, I mainly use Eagle. I've also used ExpressPCB before. I will second the comment stating the ExpressPCB software is amazingly easy to learn and use, but there's a couple major things it can't do, like export plot files and mirror output for printing. Eagle does just about everything you'd want, but takes a time investment to learn. You can master ExpressPCB in about 5 minutes.
I make simple PCBs myself and send out for complex ones.
Too bad that provider doesn't do 4 layer service. My latest project uses a 4 layer board around 5 square inches. DorkbotPDX did three of them for a little over $15 each which is the best price I've found for 4 layer boards, excellent quality too. The other link has 4 layer service, but it only goes up to 10cm, my board would be too long, it's 10.6cm x 3.4cm. Plus, minimum quantity is 10 which is too many. If I could use that service, it would get the price down to $10 a board, but then I'd have ten of them which is too many, especially if I need to change something.
Pricing options are much wider for 2 layer boards. DorkbotPDX does 2 layer boards for $1.70 a square inch with a minimum quantity of three which is a better number, but if you get 8 or 10 of them and still pay less, that's better. Looks like those guys are doing 2 layer boards in prototype quantities for about 25 cents a square inch which is amazingly cheap. Though, the pricing is weird. Usually, it's charged by the square inch, but they do it in tiers. You're paying for board space you may or may not use, but at that price, it's only going to matter if there's a lot of unused space.
For software, I mainly use Eagle. I've also used ExpressPCB before. I will second the comment stating the ExpressPCB software is amazingly easy to learn and use, but there's a couple major things it can't do, like export plot files and mirror output for printing. Eagle does just about everything you'd want, but takes a time investment to learn. You can master ExpressPCB in about 5 minutes.
Exactly my thoughts . You can mirror expresspcb . They use to have a mirror button on the older versions of expresspcb but did away with it . Now you have to print to file to mirror it or use the snipping tool in windows7 . There are a lot of things expresspcb cant do but for simple boards i still find it the best and fastest . Going through eagle libraries can be a royal pain sometimes .
If im etching my own boards and cant do it in express i always use target3001 . Its a awesome program . Even better than eagle i feel .
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