PCB Fabrication - Endless Noob Questions

[Visitor]

You can upload your Gerbers to 4PCB.com, part of Advanced Circuits, for a sanity check. In a short time, you'll receive an email stating "No showstoppers found" or a description of the problem and some guesses at the cause. You'll also receive a quote for manufacturing the boards at Advanced Circuits in the US – you'll really appreciate the prices you get from China!

 

[BobW]

It doesn't look like 4PCB.com generates quotes without human intervention, and I'd hate to waste someone's time if I have no intention of placing an order with them. I think I'm confident enough with my design at this point to risk $5 plus shipping. I'll go with MaxHeadroom78's suggestion of PCBway, since they have a some cheaper shipping options, and I'm not in a super hurry.

 

[Visitor]

It's all automatic and it's saved me from some screwups over the years.

 

[BobW]

Okay thanks. I went back to 4PCB.com to give it a try, but I had to register, which required giving them my phone number. So, that was the end of that.
I just went ahead and submitted my order to PCBway. Total including cheap shipping option is $11.00, which I think I can risk.
This is for 10 boards—actually 20 boards, because I can fit 2 into the max. 100x100mm size.
There was a bit of a hassle because they don't recognize gerber X2 format. So, I had to regenerate them in X1 format which takes a few more steps.

 

[Visitor]

Hello you can also try NextPCB just upload your schematics and they would customize your PCB design as per your requirement also you can select your shipping as per your requirement.

I rather doubt that NextPCB will lay out a board from your schematic.

 

[MrDEB]

as a suggestion to verify your pattern layout, print you board at 100% and place components on print to double check your footprints.
What software are you using?

 

[BobW]

I ended up using Diptrace. I started with KiCad, and gave up in frustration. The learning curve with Diptrace was amazingly short.

I did print out the pattern and place the components on the print to check. That's always been part of my checking from when I was doing toner transfer PCBs.

Anyway, I've got the boards back from the fabricator and everything came out fine. There was one minor glitch where I used a footprint for a through-hole electrolytic where the lead spacing was closer than it should have been, but still useable. See attached pics.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Looks really nice - I know what you mean about the spacing been wrong, I've had a few of those myself.

What's the big glass thing in the middle?

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

What's the big glass thing in the middle?

It's a "Sylvania"

 

[BobW]

Yes it's a Sylvania. That's the name they used for flux capacitors, in the old days.

 

[JimB]

A curious thing:

It looks like a small transmitter, to transmit audio to an AM radio.

JimB

 

[BobW]

Correct. JimB is the winner of "Guess the Circuit" challenge.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Well an ECF82 was a fairly rare beast back in the day

Decades ago an old friend of mine used to occasionally run a pirate radio station, and he used cathode modulation of a single stage oscillator/output valve.