Christmas Star project

Visitor said:

As I posted above, the max board size for assembly is 480mm × 320mm.

You do know that 559mm is 22"?

Click to expand...

I know that every woman in my extended family was pretty particular about Christmas tree decorations and especially the tree topper. The only thing they all agreed on was that they each wanted something unique atop their own tree - and none of them have 22" tall flashing VACANCY signs.

Visitor said:

As I posted above, the max board size for assembly is 480mm × 320mm.

You do know that 559mm is 22"?

Click to expand...

The largest size JLCPCB handles is 400mm x 500mm just for etching the board. $275 for 10 boards plus ($67 for shipping).

Pcbway.com handles larger boards. It will be about $550 for 10 boards (with assembly) - plus the price of parts.

gophert said:

The largest size JLCPCB handles is 400mm x 500mm just for etching the board. $275 for 10 boards plus ($67 for shipping).

Click to expand...

What I pictured above is the max board size for JLC assembly.

At any rate, a bit spendy for somebody skimming on resistors to save a nickel.

Flashing vacancy signs.... LOL

thats the big mistake I made, Checking board size.
under CAPABILITIES they list 400c500
curious where does the large size come in? and size.

MrDEB said:

thats the big mistake I made, Checking board size.
under CAPABILITIES they list 400c500
curious where does the large size come in? and size.

Click to expand...

5he large board comes in a bit over 1/4 of max board size. It is a little over half max width and half max length - Meaning, they can only get one copy of your patterns on each sheet. The charge is minimal for a start but goes up significantly as you approach full sheet size because there is no room for other customer's boards to fill out the rest of the area, or, if there is, the other customers' boards have to be spread over multiple sheets and managing that becomes time consuming.

I discovered why my board turned out so BIG
using infa view (excellent prg) and making the star 4 x 6 inches, it comes out as 17 x 11 inches in the gerber viewer.
So back to the drawing board with a much smaller silk screen pic/board outline.

The position of the cursor is always shown at the bottom of the panel on the right. Didn't positions in the hundreds of mm range give you a clue?

You can change the scale to inches if that's an easier scale to think in.

Creating A Board Outline From A Graphic

Since I've never tried this, I gave it a try. You can import an image or a dxf file into EasyEDA. This was done with an image file and I suspect it's easier with a dxf.

Step 1: Import the desired image and adjust scaling to get the desired final size.





Make sure the units are as desired, and set the maximum X or Y dimension. The other will be set automatically. In this case, I set x = 100mm, knowing the Y dimension would be somewhat greater than 100mm.





Step 2: Some housekeeping.

The imported image ends up on the top layer, and can't be switched to the board outline layer.
Switch it to the document layer, which is white, to make the following steps easier.



To make laying out the board easier, set the origin to the center of the board. Zoom to include the x-axis and y-axis centerline points, and using the "set origin by mouse coordinates", align as closely as possible.





Step 3: Draw the board outline.

Select the board outline layer, set the routing angle to "free", and select the wire tool. Start at the top, and click your way around the corners (inflection points). Make sure the lines meet at the final point and press ESC to finish.



Delete the original image and the finished board outline is left.



You can check the dimensions under FABRICATION/PCB PROPERTIES. If you colored outside the lines and the board ended up slightly too large, you can adjust points as needed. If everything is as desired, I suggest selecting the entire outline and locking it.



And finally, with the micro MrDEB is planning on using, if the micro is rotated 45 degrees, I think everything just might fit.



It took far longer to write about this than it takes to actually do it; it only takes a few minutes.

Wow, micro-inch resolution on the ruler. You'll have to specify board temperature at time of measurement to make those last few significant digits meaningful.

GREAT DESCRIPTION Jon. Basically what I am doing with a few little differences that you pointed out.
Thanks
Presently laying out a smaller board but can't figure out how to associate a schematic AFTER I have the board outlined but using same schematic as original BUT the BOM is going to need the schematic associated with the board?
I tried saving the original schematic as a module but got lost real quick.
Tried copy and paste but didn't seem to work either.
My next attempt is to remove the blank schematic associated with the smaller board and try to input the schematic module.

The easiest thing to do is to create a new board from the schematic and when it suggests a board outline, just hit cancel. This will put all the parts on the screen without any board outline.

Then copy and paste the board outline from wherever it is now.

MrDEB said:

Basically what I am doing with a few little differences that you pointed out.

Click to expand...

One of the critical ones being checking the board size.....

Just got back from Longview and to make it easier I copied and paster your directions.
I had already planed to start over. Have the schematic saved as a module and hopefully it works

No need to do that.

As I explained above, just click "create pcb" from the existing schematic, and paste the star outline on the board created.

lots of ways to do things but here is my method and seems to work well

Top layer & components LOCK the top layer





start outlining the board outline LOCK AFTER DONE






board outline locked, unlock top layer and save for positing of LEDs to be on top layer






bottom layer using 1206 components.

I just placed an order with jlcpcb and they are currently relocating their pick and place equipment - to manage demand, they are limiting orders to 10 pieces with SMD populating.

gophert said:

I just placed an order with jlcpcb and they are currently relocating their pick and place equipment - to manage demand, they are limiting orders to 10 pieces with SMD populating.

Click to expand...

Boards I ordered on 9/1 just arrived yesterday, instead of the somewhat reliable 1 week or so delivery.

So you're putting parts on both sides of the board? Still planning to have it assembled? Which side of the board will you have assembled?

You do understand the scale of these parts? The yellow circles are 603 × 4 resistor networks. The purple circle has 0603 LEDs.