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Everything PCB with OSH Park Hack Chat

Dan and Drew from OSH Park will be talking about everything PCB, from artwork to 2 layer flexible PCB testing and beyond.

Friday, March 2, 2018 12:00 pm PST - Friday, March 2, 2018 12:30 pm PST Local time zone:
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______________________________________________________________________________

Dan Sheadel and Drew Fustini from OSH Park will be co-hosting the Hack Chat this week. This Hack Chat is at noon PST, Friday, March 2nd.

Time Zones got you down? Here's a handy count down timer!

OSH Park are the creators of countless perfect purple PCBs, and they are here to talk about anything PCB related, from board artwork, to panelization, Gerber x2, castellated edges, stop mask expansion, drill file formats, and more.  They are particularly excited to discuss their experiences testing out 2 layer flexible PCB processes.

Dan is an original member of the @OSH Park team responsible for countless perfect purple PCBs. He enjoys designing tiny useless robots and mentoring students building better ones. 

Drew is an Open Source Hardware designer and firmware developer at OSH Park. He can often be found at maker events dressed in purple.  Drew is also a board member of the BeagleBoard.org Foundation and maintains the Adafruit BeagleBone Python library.

In this chat, we'll discuss:

  • PCB Artwork
  • 2 Layer Flexible PCBs
  • Stop Mask Expansion
  • Everything PCB!

  • Everything PCB with OSH Park Hack Chat Transcript: Part 3

    Lutetium • 03/02/2018 at 21:17 • 0 comments

    Michael Welling says: scripts don't mind being yelled at by the guys at the fab

    Dan Sheadel says: > Does OSHPark support (or are they planning to support) chamfering to make edge connectors?

    Nope. Turns out our fabs kinda hate doing bevel edges. Because of how the fab processes steps, it also adds a bunch to the panel fab setup costs, so the whole panel cost goes up.

    Nick Sayer says: On that topic, though, it would be nice to be able to signal to the penalization code "no tab" spots.

    Stephen says: @r miloh alexander asks: can you tell us what sw does OSH park use internally to panelize? How automated is the panelization process? Do you tabs (or mousebite) these batch panel orders or does the fab do this procedure?

    Dan Sheadel says: It's also a super rare feauture. For production boards it's handy, but production card edges should also have hard gold (which we don't do_

    Stephen Legge says: @Kevin You're thinking of Castellated Edges (http://docs.oshpark.com/tips+tricks/castellation/)

    Nick Sayer says: It kinda sucks sometimes when there's a tab *right* under an edge mounted component.

    samy kamkar says: @oshpark Important question, any plans on sending more jelly beans out with boards?

    morgan says: the most important question

    Ted Yapo says: @Nick Sayer sandpaper is your friend. Or a good file.

    r miloh alexander says: erp i meant to write "do you tab (or mousebite) the batch panel orders..."

    Kevin says: Jelly beans? I never got any jelly beans.

    oshpark says: @samy kamkar that was a treat during the winter holiday season... we'll be having more stickers though

    Stephen says: @samy kamkar asks what we've all really been here to find out

    Michael Welling says: awe

    Dan Sheadel says: > On that topic, though, it would be nice to be able to signal to the penalization code "no tab" spots.

    Working on this! Processing outlines is somewhat automated: Specifically, our fab does it with a human and some really fancy software on their end that inserts tabs.

    My current project is actually doing fully-automated outline detection, mill path routing, and tab placement. I have some prototypes working, but the runtime complexity for bad cases is awful. So, porting it to something faster.

    Nick Sayer says: @Ted Yapo Oh, sure, there's workarounds, but it's annoying.

    Benchoff says: wait, are we talking about pogs?

    Dan Sheadel says: One of the things we plan when this is live is adding the ability to designate no tab zones on an upload.

    baldengineer says: no tab zones++

    Nick Sayer says: YAAAAY!

    oshpark says: @Benchoff yes! we are working on new designs right now :)

    Dan Sheadel says: > @oshpark Important question, any plans on sending more jelly beans out with boards?

    Maybe! We like keeping it kinda seasonal and special.

    > wait, are we talking about pogs?

    Clearly.

    r miloh alexander says: @Dan Sheadel sounds peachy to have DNP tab zones...

    Stephen says: With just a few minutes left I want to throw in this statement from @Nick Sayer so the people from OSH Park don't miss it: Not so much a question as a comment: OSHPark is 90% (10% goes to EAGLE) responsible for returning me to a hobby that I abandoned over 30 years ago when I was a teenager. Everything I've designed since then has been entirely because the barriers to getting professionally made PCBs at a reasonable timeframe and budget have gone away.

    Dan Sheadel says: <3!

    Jasmine Brackett says: :)

    Shayna says: aww

    baldengineer says: well said

    Nick Sayer says: Absolutely true. I was building Heathkits in the 80s, but I tried to make my own PCB at home once and it was a disaster. I gave up for 30+ years.

    oshpark says:...

    Read more »

  • Everything PCB with OSH Park Hack Chat Transcript: Part 2

    Lutetium • 03/02/2018 at 21:13 • 0 comments

    Nick Sayer says: I wish I had a really good use-case for flex. All I can think of is just making FFCs, but you can just buy those from DigiKey. :/

    Dan Sheadel says: One of the issues with flex is that there's fewer fabs to do it in the US, and 2 of the fabs we've talked to said "Yeah, we do flex fabs and we're also in the us", but they just exported the job to a chinese fab. One literally just sent us the box _from_ the chinese fab directly. >_>

    Adam Vadala-Roth says: @Thomas Shaddack Voxel8 did that until they realized no one wanted to buy their printer

    Nick Sayer says: That's harsh.

    oshpark says: @r miloh alexander:

    > do you see any pcb artists using halftoning?

    Here is a wonderful example https://plus.google.com/photos/100779964808096572793/album/6333017586389944753/6333018254399231794

    Carrie Sundra says: I agree Nick. You can do a lot with origami folding.

    Dan Sheadel says: The second fab we placed an order, then actually remembered to check "These are fabbed literally in a spot IN THE US, right?" and the answer was no." At least that time we were able to cancel the order.

    Adam Vadala-Roth says: @Dan Sheadel thats a common problemt these days I'veheard from multiple people in industry

    Dan Sheadel says: The current fab IS ACTUALLY a US fab, as we hoped and expected. But some delays came up regarding our panelization, requirements, and we had to do some adjustments. The final panel for this is delayed, but still en route! Hopefuly we have news soon.

    Adam Vadala-Roth says: some US fabs just out source and say they do it here

    Thomas Shaddack says: what's the trick to drill holes in the PCBs without having burrs on the edges?

    oshpark says: Here is a link with Flex Beta Service Info + FAQ

    http://docs.oshpark.com/services/flex/

    Mohammad AL-Hamad says: lternative solder mask colours? ---> try this code #ff8040

    Dan Sheadel says: > I wish I had a really good use-case for flex. All I can think of is just making FFCs, but you can just buy those from DigiKey. :/

    We've seen some really good stuff so far. Once this is affordable, I think the ideas will come popping out the woodwork.

    Stephen says: Hah, wow I cen't believe they just shipped you the box straight from China!

    Stephen says: While we're on the topic of flexible PCBS, Robert Marosi asks: What's the most interesting flex-PCB application you've encountered so far?

    oshpark says: Dan has written some good documenatation about Castellated Edges here: http://docs.oshpark.com/tips+tricks/castellation/

    oshpark says: This was a fun flex test that Trammell Hudson designed https://twitter.com/qrs/status/929513598203830272

    Dan Sheadel says: We've seen some cool ones!

    - 90* angle bends for neopixels and lighting strips,

    - Someone is using a couple sheets as a pressure sensor for botton of shoes

    - Connectors, obviously

    - Glue on fingernail lights

    oshpark says: We had the good fortunate to be able to deliver the test flex boards in person to people at Supercon

    Robert Marosi says: Is it possible to solder BGA packages and small passives on flex-PCBs

    Dan Sheadel says: I made a pebble watchband (RIP) for breaking out the signals into a dev kit.

    oshpark says: @Andrew Sowa used the flex to make letter shapes for a sign http://andrewsowa.com/projects/#/3h-chicago-hardware-meetup/

    Adam Vadala-Roth says: @Dan Sheadel love that idea abotu the watchband

    Mohammad AL-Hamad says: Catalan solid flex PCB prototype is a good idea you can build many shapes and used as kit

    Dan Sheadel says: > Is it possible to solder BGA packages and small passives on flex-PCBs

    Solder, yeah. Will they stay there? NO IDEA. One of the things we'll be doing is some in-house destructive testing to figure out these edge cases.

    Thomas Shaddack says: thought. flex...

    Read more »

  • Everything PCB with OSH Park Hack Chat Transcript: Part 1

    Lutetium • 03/02/2018 at 20:34 • 0 comments

    Stephen says: 
    Okay, let's get this PCB party started!

    Add your questions in the discussion here and I'll ask them throughout the chat: https://hackaday.io/event/63030-everything-pcb-with-osh-park-hack-chat

    A big welcome to @Dan Sheadel and Drew @oshpark ! Why don't we start off with both of you telling us a little bit about yourself?

    Dan Sheadel says: 
    (for reference, here's why we can't be trusted to label things)

    Nick Sayer says: 
    @Thomas Shaddack That's fair. They're just not-so-awesome when they escape their containment.

    Mohammad AL-Hamad says:
    usually, i label my PCB using the copper in the design

    Stephen says: 
    HAH @Dan Sheadel

    oshpark says: 
    Hi, this is Drew Fustini from OSH Park. Here is a list I'm working on of PCB projects with awesome artwork:

    http://blog.oshpark.com/2018/03/02/pcb-projects-with-awesome-artwork/

    oshpark says: 
    I'm always amazed by the creative ways that people are able to use fiberglass, copper, silkscreen and soldermask :)

    Daniel Velazquez says:
    Silkscreen is not reallt needed

    Dan Sheadel says:
    Anyway, on point! Hi! I'm Dan! I'm a mash of Support and dev, mostly working on the backend but also managing front end updates and fixes.

    Dan Sheadel says:
    Fan of board art, tiny useless robots, and an FRC mentor, hence they byline on the hackaday blog. :)

    Stephen says:
    That's awesome, so glad to have you two on the chat. Let's start this Q&A with the basics before ramping up. Julius (Mr. Seeker) asks:

    If you want to start PCB design, what software would you guys recommend, besides Eagle?

    oshpark says:
    I am an Open Source Hardware designer here at OSH Park and am also a member of the BeagleBoard.org Foundation board of directors. I can often be found at hardware meetups wearing purple :)

    oshpark says:
    -Drew Fustini

    Stephen says:
    SO MUCH PURPLE

    oshpark says:
    Always :D

    Dan Sheadel says:
    Totes! Kicad and Eagle are the ones we're fans of. As far as hobby work goes, I think they're the most well rounded and usable.

    Non-ICE says:
    I've used Designspark too, tho it has its downsides

    oshpark says:
    Within OSH Park, we are split about 50/50 between EAGLE and KiCad. I (Drew) use KiCad for my projects while Dan usually uses EAGLE. Both are very popular tools with our customers

    Non-ICE says:
    from RS components

    Mohammad AL-Hamad says:
    i prefer KiCad

    Robert Marosi says:
    How can someone get into industry software like Altium or OrCad without paying so much?

    Nick Sayer says:
    I promise to keep mostly quiet, but one advice for beginners is to try both and then figure out which one you like the best. After you are down the road, you'll build up libraries of parts and footprints that will make you very *sticky* to the tool - changing will be a hassle you won't want to do.

    Boian Mitov says:
    Hello everyone, sorry for the late join :-(

    oshpark says:
    For anyone interested in learning KiCad, we recommend this tutorial: https://contextualelectronics.com/courses/getting-to-blinky/

    Dan Sheadel says:
    We've heard DipTrace and Designspark are both pretty usable. Haven't used them. If you have a school or university, you can try Altium or ORCAD a lot of time.

    Mohammad AL-Hamad says:
    I used both Kicad and Eagle

    Robert Marosi says:
    How can someone get into industry software like Altium or OrCad without paying so much?

    Nick Sayer says:
    I promise to keep mostly quiet, but one advice for beginners is to try both and then figure out which one you like the...

    Read more »

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Julius (Mr. Seeker) wrote 03/02/2018 at 19:59 • point

If you want to start PCB design, what software would you guys recommend, besides Eagle?

  Are you sure? yes | no

oshpark wrote 03/06/2018 at 23:58 • point

Check out KiCad: http://kicad-pcb.org/  It is free and open source software that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.  @Chris Gammell has a free getting started tutorial called Getting to Blinky: https://contextualelectronics.com/courses/getting-to-blinky/

  Are you sure? yes | no

Jon Raymond wrote 03/02/2018 at 19:59 • point

Any plans to offer alternative solder mask colours? Also, have flexible pcbs been deemed a viable option?

  Are you sure? yes | no

oshpark wrote 03/06/2018 at 23:32 • point

re: color, it's possible. We're getting to the point where we can do a new color on a 3 week turn time (probably). We'd need to figure out a color though, and run some tests to make sure it's pretty enough.

re: flex

One of the issues with flex is that there's fewer fabs to do it in the US, and 2 of the fabs we've talked to said "Yeah, we do flex fabs and we're also in the us", but they just exported the job to an overseas fab.

Our current flex fab is actually in the US, as we hoped and expected. But some delays came up regarding our panelization, requirements, and we had to do some adjustments. The final panel for this is delayed, but still en route! Hopefuly we have news soon.


  Are you sure? yes | no

Stephen Tranovich wrote 03/02/2018 at 19:56 • point

When making PCB art, which parts of the design are better to do in your CAD suite and which designs are best to be imported from another softare?

  Are you sure? yes | no

oshpark wrote 03/07/2018 at 00:04 • point

If you're used to things like Inkscape that can generate SVGs, you can get _really_ good art with litlte hassle for most tools.  

If you have to rasterize it (bitmaps) you'll run into problems with DPI, post processing, sizes, etc. It can be a mess. Some tools do better than others here.

Eagle does SVG import REALLY well. Way better than it does bitmaps.

Keep in mind if you export a Polygon, a lot of import tools can keep that! So if you're doing SVG art, it should import as an appropriate filled zone/polygon.

Uri Shaked documents his process that he used for heart PCB:
http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/03/28/heart-shaped-flashlight-pcb/

A Practical Guide to Designing PCB Art
https://medium.com/@urish/a-practical-guide-to-designing-pcb-art-b5aa22926a5c

@Benchoff  has some good notes here on art in KiCad:
https://hackaday.io/project/18508-mr-robot-badge/log/53901-this-is-how-you-do-art-in-kicad

facelesstech also has some good tips for KiCad:
 http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/01/08/convert-inkscape-svg-drawings-to-kicad-footprints/


  Are you sure? yes | no

oshpark wrote 03/02/2018 at 19:02 • point

Here's a list of some projects with great PCB artwork!

==================

PURE ART BOARDS:
==================

Full Panel PCB Painting

https://hackaday.io/page/3353-full-panel-pcb-painting-fabricated

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/06/26/pcb-artwork-in-2017/

Hand-drawn PCB Artwork

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/04/06/pcb-paintings/

Making Braille Signs out of PCBs

https://blog.oshpark.com/2017/11/02/making-braille-signs-out-of-pcbs/

PCB lapel pin

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/07/05/building-a-pcb-lapel/

Full panel PCB sign by Andrew Sowa

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcGrEupBJQi/

Lumen Electronic Jewelry

http://blog.oshpark.com/2016/10/31/lumen-electronic-jewelry/

Creating the Benchoff Nickel

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/03/30/creating-the-benchoff-nickel/

PCB Paintings Facebook group

https://www.facebook.com/pcbpaintings/

PCB Painting Art Nouveau

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/02/12/pcb-painting-art-nouveau/

Convert Inkscape SVG drawings to KiCad footprints

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/01/08/convert-inkscape-svg-drawings-to-kicad-footprints/

PCB Art With 4 Layer Boards

https://tekdemo.github.io/2014/09/18/PCB-art-with-4-layer-boards.html

https://tekdemo.github.io/images/no-know-coin//2014-07-01%2022.05.31.jpg

=========================================
FUNCTIONAL BOARDS WITH AWESOME ART:

=========================================

OSHWi Octopus Badge by Gustavo Reynaga

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/12/24/oshwi-octopus-badge-by-gustavo-reynaga/

Trammell Hudson PCB art soldering badge

https://trmm.net/PCB_art

https://twitter.com/oshpark/status/885169000619159553/photo/1

Minifigure Atmel SAMD21 Board

http://blog.oshpark.com/2016/11/09/minifigure-atmel-samd21-board/

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/QveMnbke

Cyborg Ring by zakqwy of neurotinker:

http://blog.oshpark.com/2018/02/09/cyborg-ring/

Glowbugs and reverse mount LEDs

https://hackaday.io/project/28155-silly-pcb-designs/log/71997-glowbugs

OSH Park PCB Crown

https://tekdemo.github.io/pcb-crown/

https://tekdemo.github.io/pcb-crown/images/2014-05-18%2019.55.57.jpg

http://blog.oshpark.com/2016/07/23/lessons-in-3d-circuits/

Brain board for Sarah Petkus' Noodle robot

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRjjlwWUAAEAKpD.jpg:large
http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/04/30/robotic-arts-noodle-is-gettin-bean-feet/

https://roboticarts.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/the-walking-noodle/

Heart-shaped Flashlight PCB

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/03/28/heart-shaped-flashlight-pcb/

Snowbot

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/02/21/snowbot/

Trixel Interactive LED Kit

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/04/04/trixel-interactive-led-kit/

4CHord MIDI

http://blog.oshpark.com/2017/07/27/4chord-midi/

https://twitter.com/oshpark/status/913954089461063680?s=19

  Are you sure? yes | no

oshpark wrote 03/02/2018 at 18:02 • point

We are looking forward to chatting with everyone today!

  Are you sure? yes | no

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