How do you design these days?
in [Design]
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From: markp on 31 Dec 2009 09:01 "RogerN" <regor(a)midwest.net> wrote in message news:ROudnXLvg9-Tm6HWnZ2dnUVZ_oidnZ2d(a)earthlink.com... > > When I was in school components fit on solderless breadboards and we made > circuits using breadboards, power supplies, meters and oscilloscopes. > Many of today's components don't appear to be breadboard friendly, so how > is it done today? > > Is circuit design software and simulation good enough to go straight to a > PC board? Or do you use surface mount to breadboard adapters? Do you > still use a soldering Iron to solder or paste solder and an oven? > > I'm wanting to tinker with some circuits but some chips I'm interested in > only comes in MSOP or other packages that look intimidating to attempt to > solder. > > Thanks! > > RogerN > > I tend to design a PCB with CAD software then have prototype PCBs made. There are several companies out there who do 'pooling', i.e. they amalgamate many designs onto one PCB, that way you end up only paying a small fraction of the tooling cost of the PCB. Some companies can handle 6 layer boards with this process. Example in the UK is PCB Snap from Spirit Circuits (www.spiritcircuits.com). This can be quite cost effectve for producing protptypes that are as close to the final product as practicable. Another way is to design with CAD but make your own PCBs. One way that works reasonably well is to produce gerbers and print them in mirrored form on a laser printer with high contrast (i.e. lines are as black as possible) onto glossy paper, then use an clothes iron to transfer the image directly to a sheet of copper laminate, and then etch. The reason this works is the ink is somewhat resistant to the etching chemicals. There is a product that is specifically designed for this (can't remember its name, it uses blue paper to ease the transfer process), do some Googling for homemade PCBs. As for soldering, with a fine tip soldering iron and a little practice it's not that difficult to solder a MSOP or TQFP to a PCB. Get yourself a good magnifying glass on a stand, lots of no-clean flux, some silver laden solder, and the most important part small thin solder braid for tidying up the inevitable shorts between pins and your away. Mark.
From: MooseFET on 31 Dec 2009 09:25 On Dec 30, 6:01 pm, "RogerN" <re...(a)midwest.net> wrote: > When I was in school components fit on solderless breadboards and we made > circuits using breadboards, power supplies, meters and oscilloscopes. Many > of today's components don't appear to be breadboard friendly, so how is it > done today? > > Is circuit design software and simulation good enough to go straight to a PC > board? Or do you use surface mount to breadboard adapters? Do you still > use a soldering Iron to solder or paste solder and an oven? > > I'm wanting to tinker with some circuits but some chips I'm interested in > only comes in MSOP or other packages that look intimidating to attempt to > solder. I use ExpressPCB to make boards for parts of the design. Things like power supplies are made as a PCB with connectors that are wired to the other boards. I use 1206 parts and put in some extra parts and layout such that cuts and jumps are easy(ish) to do. > > Thanks! > > RogerN
From: Raveninghorde on 31 Dec 2009 09:43 On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:25:56 -0800 (PST), MooseFET <kensmith(a)rahul.net> wrote: >On Dec 30, 6:01�pm, "RogerN" <re...(a)midwest.net> wrote: >> When I was in school components fit on solderless breadboards and we made >> circuits using breadboards, power supplies, meters and oscilloscopes. �Many >> of today's components don't appear to be breadboard friendly, so how is it >> done today? >> >> Is circuit design software and simulation good enough to go straight to a PC >> board? �Or do you use surface mount to breadboard adapters? �Do you still >> use a soldering Iron to solder or paste solder and an oven? >> >> I'm wanting to tinker with some circuits but some chips I'm interested in >> only comes in MSOP or other packages that look intimidating to attempt to >> solder. > >I use ExpressPCB to make boards for parts of the design. Things like >power supplies are made as a PCB with connectors that are wired to the >other boards. I use 1206 parts and put in some extra parts and layout >such that cuts and jumps are easy(ish) to do. > >> >> Thanks! >> >> RogerN Think. Read data sheets. Think. CAD. Make on production line. Pcb design rarely takes longer than a lash up on strip board or whatever and always works better. Very occasionally I have lashed up a small part of a design but I almost always regret the waste of time. I like to get things to production as soon as possible. As many issues get highlighted in production that alter the design as get found during debugging. The new reflow oven gets commissioned on Monday which I hope will reduce some of these production snags. Like LEDs die but inductors don't solder.
From: John Larkin on 31 Dec 2009 11:01 On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:01:44 -0000, "markp" <map.nospam(a)f2s.com> wrote: > >"RogerN" <regor(a)midwest.net> wrote in message >news:ROudnXLvg9-Tm6HWnZ2dnUVZ_oidnZ2d(a)earthlink.com... >> >> When I was in school components fit on solderless breadboards and we made >> circuits using breadboards, power supplies, meters and oscilloscopes. >> Many of today's components don't appear to be breadboard friendly, so how >> is it done today? >> >> Is circuit design software and simulation good enough to go straight to a >> PC board? Or do you use surface mount to breadboard adapters? Do you >> still use a soldering Iron to solder or paste solder and an oven? >> >> I'm wanting to tinker with some circuits but some chips I'm interested in >> only comes in MSOP or other packages that look intimidating to attempt to >> solder. >> >> Thanks! >> >> RogerN >> >> > >I tend to design a PCB with CAD software then have prototype PCBs made. >There are several companies out there who do 'pooling', i.e. they amalgamate >many designs onto one PCB, that way you end up only paying a small fraction >of the tooling cost of the PCB. Some companies can handle 6 layer boards >with this process. Example in the UK is PCB Snap from Spirit Circuits >(www.spiritcircuits.com). > >This can be quite cost effectve for producing protptypes that are as close >to the final product as practicable. Why not go for the real thing, first time? If you get it right, you can sell it. John
From: Don Lancaster on 31 Dec 2009 11:10
John Larkin wrote: > On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:01:44 -0000, "markp" <map.nospam(a)f2s.com> > wrote: > >> "RogerN" <regor(a)midwest.net> wrote in message >> news:ROudnXLvg9-Tm6HWnZ2dnUVZ_oidnZ2d(a)earthlink.com... >>> When I was in school components fit on solderless breadboards and we made >>> circuits using breadboards, power supplies, meters and oscilloscopes. >>> Many of today's components don't appear to be breadboard friendly, so how >>> is it done today? >>> >>> Is circuit design software and simulation good enough to go straight to a >>> PC board? Or do you use surface mount to breadboard adapters? Do you >>> still use a soldering Iron to solder or paste solder and an oven? >>> >>> I'm wanting to tinker with some circuits but some chips I'm interested in >>> only comes in MSOP or other packages that look intimidating to attempt to >>> solder. >>> >>> Thanks! >>> >>> RogerN >>> >>> >> I tend to design a PCB with CAD software then have prototype PCBs made. >> There are several companies out there who do 'pooling', i.e. they amalgamate >> many designs onto one PCB, that way you end up only paying a small fraction >> of the tooling cost of the PCB. Some companies can handle 6 layer boards >> with this process. Example in the UK is PCB Snap from Spirit Circuits >> (www.spiritcircuits.com). >> >> This can be quite cost effectve for producing protptypes that are as close >> to the final product as practicable. > > Why not go for the real thing, first time? If you get it right, you > can sell it. > > John > It is NEVER right the first time. -- Many thanks, Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073 Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552 rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email: don(a)tinaja.com Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com |