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Thanks to all

Thanks for all of your replies. As David showed me, there's more than one online provider of pcb's. Guess I jumped the gun by getting enthralled by the first one I discovered. I downloaded the layout tools from all of them and they all look and work very much alike. But as I discovered with a little xperimenting they don't recognise each others output files. So the warning about getting locked in to just one suppliers proprietary tool is a good point. Also downloaded the free version of Cadsofts Eagle pcb software. Don't find it anywhere near as user-friendly or intuitive as the little freebies but if it has industry-standard output I guess I could learn it eventually. Can make no sense of the really old DOS version of Protel so I hope I can find a later version to test drive. I am interested in multiple boards and I'd be happy to use a local maker if I can generate the right sort of files. For one off projects, if it can't be done on veroboard it doesn't get done. This is all to do with the soldering iron timer I've been on about for weeks. In its fourth incarnation it is down to one 4000 series IC and a big MOSFET. (I don't have enough years left to learn how to do it with a PIC) Anyway, my employer is looking at it but I fear I'll have to do all the work of figuring out the production details if the design is adopted.

PH

Reply to
Peter Howard
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The verbiage below was meant to refer to Pad2Pad topic

Reply to
Peter Howard

I'm a bit surprised that you found Protel's (presumably) EasyTrax/AutoTrax to be hard to understand. Every piece of pcb layout software I've tried has been riddled with arcane approaches, some more than others. I certainly wouldn't describe the Protel DOS ones as anything worse than the rest.

The reason I comment is that for the ability to ship a file to a manufacturer, especially in Oz or Asia, the Protel formats are about the most widely accepted. Many of the others - as you noted - lock you in to their parent fabricator.

FWIW I still use Protel AutoTrax and have had boards made in Oz, Malaysia, mainland China and Thailand.

Reply to
budgie

be

accepted.

Gotta second that one - and IMHO, as Protel evolved, the bloating just matched the increase in performance of machines, hence the later all bells and whistles humdreds of megabytes WinProtels are just about as good as Autotrax for DOS (fits on a floppy). That's progress for you !. BTW had boards done in Oz (BEC,IMP,Entech),Malaysia (Custom) and China (Gold Phoenix, my current favourite) but Thailand ??? What is the URL for a boardhouse there ?. M

Reply to
moby

be

accepted.

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There's a web calculator there. I use them now and again, the quality's not bad at all.

I fell out of favour with CustomPCB because I dared to ask why an order for 32 boards gave me 30, 2 of which were totally unusable. A vitriolic emailed response was their last communication to me. They failed to ack a subsequent order, so I crossed them off my list.

Do you have the URL for Gold Phoenix, to save me googling?

Reply to
budgie

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But the best deal is to go through ebay (search on "layer pcb") where you get 200 sq inch DSPTH for about $100 inc freight wheras if you go to the URL, you get 100 or 150 sq inch depending on which pricing links you follow. The quality leaves Custom in the dust (not difficult) AND they do hot air levelling real solder (unlike that ghastly silver process that Custom do). Custom does definately have its place however as they are cheap and don't have any silly "no multiple designs on one panel" rules. I have had some a few unusable boards from Custom as well - Gary simply ignored my complaint. All of them lick the pants off the US boardhouses that advertise cheap prices then royally rodger you on things like freight (and don't seem to have heard of Protel). Gold Phoenix also take paypal (handy!). M

Reply to
moby

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