Anybody using pcb2gcode?

You send your Gerbers to a PCB manufacturer. They also make plated through-holes, silkscreen and soldermask. You're welcome.

Agree. Milling boards is too much hassle.

John

Too much work. Outcome sucks.

Let me rephrase my question.

If you've milled PCBs, what package did you use to generate the necessary G-code from your Gerbers and Excellon files? How did the process go, overall?

I've been delighted with the quality of my manufactured PCBs and astonished at the great performance of my milled PCBs, while being concerned about the cost and lead time of the manufactured PCBs and the amount of time it took me to generate the proper G-code from my CAD files for my milled PCBs.

Thanks!

--Winston

OK. Thanks!

--Winston

...

Winston, I find it difficult to imagine a situation where one would be delighted with the quality of a milled PCB. What is your experience level? Have you ever looked at a real two-layer PCB with plated through holes, soldermask, silkscreen and proper plated copper?

I mean, if you have to clean your milled PCB, maybe tin-plate or clean it very well, and then have to solder part leads on both sides, &| stuff vias with wires, I fail to see the economies here.

What is the technology here? Vacuum tubes? What is the quantity of PCBs you want?

You simply can not hope to compete in time and quality against a manufacturer.

Something's not adding up here.

(...)

Why is that? Done properly, they can be every bit as good as a board made by a commercial house. Well, mine are, anyway.

Electronic Engineering Tech. for a number of Fortune 100 companies over the years.

Sure! Right after receiving my designs from the PCB vendor. They worked great and looked terrific as did my four-layer boards.

Cleaning is fast and easy. Electroless tin plate is fast and easy. Soldering through - wires is fast and easy. My quest is to improve the things that are not fast and easy, like converting my Gerber and Excellon files to G-Code automatically instead of manually. I used to have more money than time. I now have more time than money.

Surface mount I.C.s and passives. Some through-hole. Current project is a little amplifier. My milled boards were a protocol converter and a little 8 LED blinker, both designed using PIC microcontrollers Many Years Ago.

One at a time, until the circuit is debugged and working properly. Then I can send it off to my favorite vendor if other folks are interested in boards. If not, one working example is plenty.

The competition is in dollars spent, not quality. Even with a nearly manual conversion process, I had a double-sided board within a week. Automate the most lengthy task and that time would shrink dramatically.

What would that be, a7yvm109gf5d1?

--Winston

I have not done this manually but if I had to do it, I take the following program and change it generate what ever output I need:

(...)

Apparently, that is what the folks at 'pcb2gcode' did. See the section titled 'Installing':

Cool!

--Winston

I have to agree.

I still have all my wirewarp tools in a box in the garage.

Yes I could still build boards with the cut-strip-n-wrap bit, but why bother. I don't even want to do that as a hobby.

Winston, If you enjoy the results of your cnc pcbs, wonderful, enjoy away.

But, please don't justify _your_ hobby as a viable pcb manufacturing tool. One off prototype, yes, full manufacturing, no.

I would love to see some of your pcbs tho, I have wanted to build a cnc mill for pcbs for years, but now its just to old school for my real work.

hamilton

What is your investment in the milling set-up? I have no need to go to Gerber's... I just need to make an occasional one-off for customer demo's. ...Jim Thompson

(...)

Thank you Hamilton. :)

Er. See my earlier answer in which I replied: " > What is the quantity of PCBs you want?

One at a time, until the circuit is debugged and working properly. Then I can send it off to my favorite vendor if other folks are interested in boards. If not, one working example is plenty. "

Hey, if I was still designing jigs for a living, I'd still be using PCB fab houses. Now, it's just a fun hobby.

I was looking around for some of my earlier photos of the boards but can't find the link any more. The boards have been in storage in a dusty garage for several years, so they don't have quite the 'sparkle' they did. You can get a good idea of the results by checking these images:

--Winston

I started with a Sherline mill running under Flashcut CNC. Probably had $2K in it. Used Generic CADD and placed each drill and cutter on it's own layer. DXFs got converted to G-code in Flashcut software. A set of files for the 'component' side of the board and one for the 'foil' side.

Made a platform with a peripheral clamping frame that indexed the blanks and clamped their edges flat.

Always lusted after one of these, though:

--Winston

We use the software that came with our LPKF milling machine. I will have a look at pcb2gcode!

And there are advantages in milled boards: I can have a prototype board in a couple of hours! Vias are a paint though!!

Pere

Yep. Drool !-) ...Jim Thompson

We had a similar setup, not lpkf but about the same. It was way too much trouble, so we got rid of it.

You can email files to lots of people and have several plated-through, solder masked, silkscreened boards in a couple of days with zero hassle. Meanwhile start pulling the parts kit and such, or work on something else.

John

Say, that sounds nice! I'm interested in hearing more about that machine.

Vias are a paint though!!

I didn't find them too troublesome. My boards were quite simple though. I designed to minimize vias.

--Winston

...

We can probably make use of some low density single sided prototype boards (connecting high density SMD modules). If we help you porting the software, can you help us making the boards? Will take a look at gerber2gcode.

What was troublesome? Broken cutters? Maintenance?

With shipping that's what, an hour turnaround? I'm not in that tax bracket. :)

I have my boards inside of say two weeks, normally. 'Course that was during 'boom' times. Perhaps they can turn boards faster now.

You can't beat it for 'easy' and two layer boards are cheap. (Less than half the shipping price!)

--Winston