PCB Ground Plane question....

MichaelW

MichaelW

Well-known member
So I built a Celestial drive earlier last week and it didn't work....(becoming a theme lately....!)

I was just beginning to troubleshoot and I found the problem but I'm a bit confused as to why.

I have no continuity between the ground pads of the board itself. (See pic below).

Continuity is good downstream of whatever is connected to those pads (e.g., jack sleeves, DC jack, and 3PDT board)

With my limited understanding of how PCB's are made and how the ground plane works, I can't see how anything I did in my build could cause this.

There's been no re-work of the board so I didn't murder it (like I typically do). All the original solder joints look good and there's no visible defects in the board.

Is this a board defect? Or is there possibly something I did in populating the board that would cause this?

TIA!!

Celestial Ground.jpg
 
Robert said:
Spokes are part of the ground plane so they wouldn't show up in that particular preview image, but that's what I'm wondering...
Click to expand...
Yeah I know— I just worded my question to see if there were spikes on his actual PCB poorly all for the sake of a reference to a shitty 1950s joke lol
 
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I can't tell from the pic, but like bricks mentioned, do you see "spokes" around the ground pads?

Like this:
1661100855696.png

I had an issue with a JLCPCB order recently, trying to determine if this one was involved in the batch.... I was hoping there'd be a batch number on the PCB but unfortunately not.

On a few occasions JLCPCB has taken it upon themselves to make modifications to Gerber files after they're submitted... and almost every time their modifications have broken something. I have an entire batch of PCBs here now where they decided to move the breaktabs on a panel for no good reason, and because of where they relocated them you can't separate the PCBs without breaking off a chunk of the board. :rolleyes:

I don't have this issue with any other fabricator.
 
That pic answered my question though, the spokes are missing from the ground plane.... can you show me the bottom side of that same capacitor?
 
Robert said:
I can't tell from the pic, but like bricks mentioned, do you see "spokes" around the ground pads?

Like this:
View attachment 31046

I had an issue with a JLCPCB order recently, trying to determine if this one was involved in the batch.... I was hoping there'd be a batch number on the PCB but unfortunately not.

On a few occasions JLCPCB has taken it upon themselves to make modifications to Gerber files after they're submitted... and almost every time their modifications have broken something. I have an entire batch of PCBs here now where they decided to move the breaktabs on a panel for no good reason, and because of where they relocated them you can't separate the PCBs without breaking off a chunk of the board. :rolleyes:

I don't have this issue with any other fabricator.
Click to expand...
I can't tell.....

IMG_3380.JPG

IMG_3379.JPG
 
I can show you how to fix it, but it's not going to be pretty.... Give me just a bit so I can check the other PCBs in the bin.

It looks like you've ordered two of these in the past month? If you haven't already, don't build the other one yet.

Actually scratch that, the other one hasn't been shipped yet. Good deal.
 
Robert said:
I can show you how to fix it, but it's not going to be pretty.... Give me just a bit so I can check the other PCBs in the bin.

It looks like you've ordered two of these in the past month? If you haven't already, don't build the other one yet.

Actually scratch that, the other one hasn't been shipped yet. Good deal.
Click to expand...
Ok here's the back side of the E-cap I removed.

IMG_3381.JPG

Yah, I ordered a second Celestial board since I figured I messed something up. 😄
 
Here's an example of what they wanted to do to the Flock panel recently...

They contacted me saying their engineers wanted to add another breaktab at this location to "increase stability"...

Now I'm no engineer, but what do you think is going to happen to that breakout board when you attempt to snap off the tab right beside that column of holes? It's going to live up to it's name, that's what.

1661103275991.png
 
Robert said:
Here's an example of what they wanted to do to the Flock panel recently...

They contacted me saying their engineers wanted to add another breaktab at this location to "increase stability"...

Now I'm no engineer, but what do you think is going to happen to that breakout board when you attempt to snap off the tab right beside that column of holes? It's going to live up to it's name, that's what.

View attachment 31051
Click to expand...
I’d ask the remaining vendors if they’d like to pick up the slack.
 
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