I just received an order of PCBs and while the schematic and layout seem fine, the board is dead short between +12V and GND, even before any components are added. It’s a through-hole design. There’s a ground plane on both sides and only a protection diode between the 12V terminal and a 5V linear regulator so there’s not very much opportunity for there to be this problem.
All the boards returned to me are the same, so I’m thinking the gerber exported wasn’t quite right and the fab reproduced them exactly as I ordered.
I probably should be able to see the problem with the gerber viewer. Is there another/better way too?
I just use a gerber viewer. More importantly, I do the DRC in Kicad before export.
The first Kicad designed board I ordered had a similar issue. I had moved a via after filling the zones and then exported gerbers. That via bridged the power planes. After drilling it add adding a jumper to replace that track, the board worked fine.
Yes I do both those steps too. I did have another board I sent to Seeed with a via that had no tin (I’ve posted here also on this) which turned out to be a mystery too. Both those were done on a prior daily of KiCad so potentially this won’t be a problem with a newer version.
There’s no 12V copper pour on this board so there’s only a two places where the 12V could be touching a GND pour (the 12V terminal and the positive side of the protection diode).
I’ve made a few minor changes including changing the location and size of the 12V termianl and re-exported it and ordered another set.
If there’s a way to be more vigilent I’d like to be in light of this however. Cheers !
Geoff
I received my first board from seeed two weeks ago. I had problems on the file format, so I had to update multiple times my submission. I was careless and moved some things on the board between 2 submissions and, in a hurry, forgot to regenerate the ground plane. What I received was a perfectly made board, with signal tracks going right through the ground plane. I reordered the board, it’s on its way, I hope it will be better this time.
So yeah, always run the DRC before exporting your files.
Carefully with a magnifying glass, maybe place a short circuit on the view the unassembled PCB and compare them with Gerber data. But it can also be an error from the manufacturer, to thin the hair line (dirty film master). It can find and delete that join the PCB (unassembled) on hard power Supply and the hair connection will blow … and it could be OK.
I just check out the Gerber data superficially.
It is rather small probability that revealing the error of Gerber postprocessor if DRC of design system says OK.
For 20 years the design of the PCB (OrCAD) it never happened me.
If the error was, so just between Chair and Keyboard… … and or the manufacturer of the PCB.
… and or the manufacturer of the PCB.