board house issue.

[harps]

hello

I have just tried to manufacture my gerber file.

it was created in eagle , 4 designs merged on one panel 266mm x 161mm

it is tested in gc-prevue. and imports fine no errors.

heres a pic:

**broken link removed**

the board house say max 500mm x 500mm and any more than two designs will induce a fee.

so i am within the limits but will be charged extra for the 4 designs.

so i send my .rar containing the gerber files.

They email me back and say:

"We have reviewed your Gerber file. Unfortunately, we cannot make the panel as Gerber shows.
It's too big to apply stamp holes between it and V-cut cannot apply on it as it's not triangle shape.
So We suggest you order these boards separately through our online order form. 5% discount can be used if you order them together. "


I do not understand what they mean. Have i done something wrong?
if i order them seperately it will cost 3 times as much. i simply cannot afford that.

The way they have typed that email message , makes me feel i have no hope because i am a novice and they know that.

This board house has the best deal on price i can find. so i was really hopiong to use their services.

can anyone help ?

thanks harps. : )

 

[kubeek]

I think they have some problem with separating the boards after they are done, can you do it by yourself?

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

There is a typo in their message. triangle needs to "rectangular shape". Probably lost in translation.

That "L-shaped" board needs to be separate and you would probably be charged the rectangular price.

Another "possible" issue is that they might use a standard cutter and would want to separate the boards with one cut. That leaves rectangular sections unable to be cut.

My guess, is that they would need to separate each by v-scoring and then break into 4 boards and hen route. That they cannot do.

You might do better separating into two jobs. The large board and the L-shaped one and two copies of the other boards since they look identical.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Think about it, a router routes the edge of the board. Usually the PCB manufacturer adds two holes of their own choosing to align the board. Now the router can make one pass along the outside edge and your done.

This layout is a mess because of the notches in the boards. If there were no notches, the the cutter could cut them apart with no waste, but the cutter has a width to it.

You can't cut these boards apart in one pass so you have to separate (v-score) and route separately.

They MAY be able to do the boards with the notches removed.

That's why a lot of board manufacturer's only want one design per artwork.

I'm speaking from a machinist's point of view.

"v-scoring" is basically cutting in the shape of a "V" not all the way through so the pieces can be broken apart.

There is another way, but I have no idea how to do it. It's where the pieces stay attached in places. The end user breaks them apart.

e.g The boards are attached via 3/16" bridges, say 2-3" apart, and you receive them uncut in those areas.
They "could" score the boards in those areas so they break rather nicely, but you can't break an "L-shaped" section.

 

[harps]

hello thanks for your advice, i did as you suggested and made it more simple.

i shall file the little cut outs at home. the L shape board, i could hack saw.

still trying to find a fab house that will do this as one job ( i need two of these for now, maybe 20+ later?)

ive emailed wedirekt.de they had a multipanel option but im not sure if all pcbs need to be the same?. ( so i have my fingers crossed for that) Heres the pic below . i am not sure if i left enough room around and between boards? but it looks a bit better now.

does this look better to you? i am a total novice with baord house : /

the blue line around the boards and panel is a mill layer (.GML) layer 46 in eagle.

thanks again

**broken link removed**

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Hopefully, they can do it now.

A friend has had some luck here: http://iteadstudio.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=19_20

He has been using BatchPCB

For a large 4-layer board he used a vendor that has an ebay presence, but he had the board quoted.

 

[harps]

thanks again keepitsimple

really appreciated
: )