Didn’t know. When I spoked with PCB manuacturer we use (not USA) I got info that in prototypes they don’t count for it, and in production only if time of milling is more than about 30min per whole panel.
Difference betwean prototypes and production is that in first they don’t generate permanent doccumentation (they mix your PCB with other customers PCBs at one panel) so you can’t order it once more without paying for preparation of production.
I’ve used JLCPCB and Elecrow to make tree-shaped boards and butterfly-shaped boards, and they haven’t charged any extra for the weird shapes.
Huh that’s really cool. Did you have more than one design per board, or just one board with routing added for the cutouts?
No, just one design per board. I guess they do charge extra if you have more than one design. (Not really sure why, though.)
I mean, it would be cheaper for me to do one board per order with break-off tabs at $2 each than to do multi-board design with them. I might prefer to pay someone $2 to cut my board than do it myself…
Thanks for your help!
I’ve used OSHPark to do a design that was not anything resembling a rectangle. What they do is charge by the square inch and for an oddball shaped board this is the size of the rectangle that the finished board will fit into.
HI,
Not sure what the alternative of chemicals are but I would suggest the following:
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Increase the width of the traces where ever possible. Most traces do not need to be at the minimum. This is especially important for homemade boards.
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Many of your traces go needlessly close to other pads. For example, the right lead on R3 almost touches the left lead. Not good. In your design it appears to happen in quite a number of places.
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Solder mask is overrated for hand soldered boards. Tinning is more important but you can get by if you solder soon after cleaning and with an active rosin solder (will need cleaning, suggest soap and water).
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No plated thru holes is not a problem for most devices (just solder both sides). The issue is with the (I assume) sockets of the IC’s, the headers and SW1. You will have to look at your parts and see what can and cannot be soldered on both sides. One option is to have parallel thru holes that can be soldered on top and bottom with a short piece of wire to make the connection.
John
I you really want to start with home etching then start with making samples and tests to gain some experience.
Make a PCB with traces from thick to thin in a bunch of variants and develop / etch them.
The PCB’s can be small, such as 1 square cm, so you can do a bunch of tests cheaply.
Make notes of what works and what does not work. Putting serial numbers on your tests may be a good idea.
There’s also lots of video’s about different ways of home-etching on youtube, for example from Big Clive or Marco Reps.
An idea for plated through holes is to use 2 vials next to each other. Jou can then take a piece of copper wire fold it double and put it through both holes , bend it so it stays in place and solder on both sides. ( Just an Idea, I have not tried this.
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In 1983 I was working with people who solved this problem following way (metalised PCBs were not accesible those times here in Poland):
- take about 0,5 mm silver coated copper wire,
- catch with tongs (flat inside) about 1mm wire and,
- catch so strong to make a wire end flat,
- bend that end 90 degree,
- cut the wire about 1cm from that end.
- put PCB on 4 matches boxes (in corners),
- insert these 1cm wires int all vias,
- put a metal plate on the PCB and reverse both,
- cut each wire about 1mm (or may be less) over PCB,
- press strongly each wire with tongs to bend it toward PCB,
- solder both sides.
Effect was really good. Such vias could be even under THT IC.
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