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Messages - eauth

1
DirtyPCBs support / Re: PCB preview doesn't match gerbv?
Don't worry about the preview output. Obviously the software has some bug with the handling of LPC together with draw mode. The production has nothing to do with the preview output.
2
DirtyPCBs support / Re: FEATURE REQUEST: Transparent solder mask or no solder ma
Quote
Oh, it's just easier to see through transparent solder mask than any colour one, almost impossible on white or black solder mask. Transparent solder mask can add an extra visibility for trying fixes to bad designs.
Aaah, I understand. I have never had the pleasure to try transparent solder mask, but I still found it rather easy to figure out the traces with "normal" (green or red) solder mask.

Quote
No solder mask is easy to do in Kicad, you just draw a filled box or shape over the complete board on the solder mask layer(s) you want to remove. This way you can afterwards panelize no solder mask boards with solder mask ones.
In Eagle, you can draw a rectangle in the tStop/bStop layer over the complete board to keep it free from solder resist. If you just leave out the solder mask layer from the gerber data, it might not be clear for the board house that you want no solder mask, and you might get it completely covered with solder resist instead.
3
DirtyPCBs support / Re: FEATURE REQUEST: Transparent solder mask or no solder ma
[quote author="GroovyDrifter"]I've seen that there are already some chinese PCB houses offering the no solder mask option, but a transparent solder mask will be much better if is possible, as the no solder mask option can cause problems on SMD boards. This will not only give the boards a "vintage" look but also will be very helpful for early prototypes.[/quote]

I can't get your point. Technically, there is no difference between a "normal" solder mask and a transparent solder mask, some board houses offer transparent solder resist on black PCBs. Why should that be more helpful for prototypes?
4
DirtyPCBs support / Re: Via size vs drill size?
The "drill size" in Eagle is actually the finished size of the hole (after plating with Cu). You shouldn't care about the tool size that is necessary to drill the hole at all, this will be done by the board house. The restring (the width of copper around the finished hole) for vias is determined by the design rules. For Dirty PCBs, it is 25% of the finished hole size, with some min/max value.
5
DirtyPCBs support / Re: Drill sizes used
maybe they have just rounded up some drill sizes to minimize tool changes for the panel? Or the drill size was below their minimum allowed size?
Milling slots instead of drilling sounds strange, however. Are you sure that the drills were in your excellon file, and that there was no outline for a slot in the keepout layer?
8
DirtyPCBs support / Re: Size of nibs used to create panels
I can't tell you how you can do that in your PCB layout software. You should use a gerber viewer (gerbv) to take a close look at the produced gerber files:

For DirtyPCB, all holes (plated and unplated) should be in one *.TXT file. This should be an Excellon file.
The board outline and all milling data should go into a *.GML file. To avoid confusion, all lines in the GML file should be drawn with width zero.
The board house will use the gerbers for the top and bottom layer to decide if holes and millings are plated or non-plated when they prepare their manufacturing data. If there's no copper around a hole on both layers, they will be non-plated, otherwise they will be plated.
9
DirtyPCBs support / Re: Size of nibs used to create panels
Until now, in all of my designs the non-plated holes were done correctly. Either you really had bad luck with your boards, or there's something with your layout so that they made the wrong decision. It's important that the holes aren't sorrounded by any copper in the layout.
11
DirtyPCBs support / Re: Min BGA size
The specified BGA size refers to pads (without via). The minimum finished hole diameter is 12mil, I guess that the minimum size for a oblong via is 6+12+6 x 12 = 24x12mil.
12
DirtyPCBs support / Re: How does my first panel look?
Take a look at the drills for your mouse bites. With 0.6mm holes at 0.75 distance, your boards will almost fall apart.
0.5mm drills at 1.0mm distance would be fine.
13
DirtyPCBs support / Re: Max A.R of PTH
This is the "aspect ratio of plated through holes". The aspect ratio  is defined as board thickness / unplated drill dia.
14
DirtyPCBs support / Re: Making Holes in a Board... Confusion
There's some confusion in the FAQ:

Quote
    TXT            Routing and Drill (the holes and slots)

This is an excellon file, and it contains information about drills (circular!) only. In eagle, you have two layers with drill information:
Code: [Select]
44 Drills ... plated drills
45 Holes ... non-plated drills

The outlines of the board and all routed slots should be drawn in the Dimension layer (#20) with zero line width. If you have some non-plated holes, Eagle will draw an outline of the holes in layer #20. I guess this isn't necessary, but it doesn't hurt.

For Dirty PCBs, both layers (44 and 45) should be included in the TXT file. If you use the CAM file from dirtypcbs.com/about.php, everything should be fine. Just make sure that you draw the outline of routed slots on Layer #20.
15
DirtyPCBs support / Re: Panelization
???
You can see on your own picture that the mounting holes and mouse bites are non-plated. All holes that are not covered by copper on the top and/or bottom layer are non-plated.

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