Library options? And a couple other noob thoughts

well ill see how my first attempt with with the auto tracing tonight (I’ll for sure be redoing this board with the ground cooper pour etc). IMG_8847.jpeg
 
Well there was a mistake in the schematic. Somehow drew a wire across two caps shorting them both. I wouldve noticed had i routed by hand…. Little surgery and i should be able to get it working.
 
finebyfine said:
I’ll do the ground pours last so it doesn’t think I’m making an error as I lay out traces. Also make sure to double check that the fill has been updated and nets are all connected before sending off to fab! Learned that one the hard way
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Thats a hard lesson!! I did the same. I was lucky it was a fuzz face style pedal and the ground plane, not being placed of the ground net, didn't really mess it up too much. And now thats the first thing I double check. haha!! I'm having a tough time with potentiometer placement. I've sent out 3 PCB's now, but they are 2 or 1 pot pedals. I have a 3 pot pedal almost done, but crossing my fingers they don't line up improperly. I'll do a bit more research before I send that one out.
 
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I had read where it was recommended power/ground traces be .635mm. Using ancopper pour for ground its obviously covered but for power traces is this necessary and through which point. So say post voltage divider or after a trim power a fet would it still matter?
 
I haven’t updated the Sheepylove library in forever because I use KiCad now, but if anyone wants to talk libraries I’m always happy! (Though this current phase of life is “challenging”)
 
Locrian99 said:
I had read where it was recommended power/ground traces be .635mm. Using ancopper pour for ground its obviously covered but for power traces is this necessary and through which point. So say post voltage divider or after a trim power a fet would it still matter?
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I’ve read the same thing before but I’m pretty sure at the currents and voltages we’re using in guitar pedals it doesn’t really matter. If you look up trace width calculators and guidelines even the diptrace default (2.54mm) satisfies them for practically all pedal circuits.

That said, I still use wider traces for power nets (after voltage dividers and pots as well) but really only out of habit and from my file templates. If it makes routing difficult or causes the ground pour to have gaps I’ll lower them and haven’t had any issues with the boards I’ve done that with. Again not an expert and might be talking out of my ass :)
 
Jiberjew said:
Thats a hard lesson!! I did the same. I was lucky it was a fuzz face style pedal and the ground plane, not being placed of the ground net, didn't really mess it up too much. And now thats the first thing I double check. haha!! I'm having a tough time with potentiometer placement. I've sent out 3 PCB's now, but they are 2 or 1 pot pedals. I have a 3 pot pedal almost done, but crossing my fingers they don't line up improperly. I'll do a bit more research before I send that one out.
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I just took one of roberts boards and blatantly ripped it off :)

I am spacing mine like this and can use the keech template I do everything in MM I make 0,0 my center and highest point for any component. so my pots are if I was to do six pots: (-20,0) (0,0) (20,0) (-20,-25) (-0, -25) (20, -25). Switches are placed at -10 and I try to only put them in that second row. But if you have to put them in the top and do a notch thing they would be at 15. everything lined up with the drill templates from robert using those for me. Figured why reinvent the wheel :)
 
For panelizing like stomp switch board. Does the V scoring vs. tab routing matter much? I'm assuming it more of a personal preference, the tab thing looked like there was a lot more possibility of screwing it up lol. Then I just hit panel by customer and enter what my columns/rows are? So if I have 16 boards in my panel, I'd just enter 4 and 4?
 
You can squeeze more breakout boards into a 100x100mm panel using V-scoring.

Break tabs take up space and leave splinters.

If your Gerber file is already panelized properly and it's all the same layout you don't have to do anything, just upload the Gerber as normal.

I never touch the "Panel by customer" options or the row/column quantities.
 
Robert said:
You can squeeze more breakout boards into a 100x100mm panel using V-scoring.

Break tabs take up space and leave splinters.

If your Gerber file is already panelized properly and it's all the same layout you don't have to do anything, just upload the Gerber as normal.

I never touch the "Panel by customer" options or the row/column quantities.
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Interesting. I did some research on V-scoring, but cant seem to utilize it. Is this done when ordering pcb's from whatever manufacture you choose, or done in whatever program you use to create the PCB. I use JLCPCB as well and Diptrace. I too am making custom breakout boards for some PCB's I designed as well and would like to get the most bang for my buck. All I could do though, is design one break out board. When I tried to add another board outline, it took the original board outline away. So, I'm assuming I need to make a specific size board outline and use the silk scream as the board outline for all the internal breakout boards? The only thing I'm lost on, aside from the board outline haha, is a way to be able to get all the internal breakout boards scored or perforated so I can easily break them out when needed. Thanks!
 
Robert said:
You can only have one board outline.

Draw your breakout board (including it's outline) then let DipTrace do the rest.

Keep the total size below 100x100mm to qualify for 10/$5 pricing. If either dimension exceeds 100mm you go into the next pricing tier.

View attachment 79736
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Awesome!!! So easy and the answer was right in front of me!! I don't think I can count how many times you've saved me a day of headaches! Thanks again!
 
Robert said:
You can only have one board outline.

Draw your breakout board (including it's outline) then let DipTrace do the rest.

Keep the total size below 100x100mm to qualify for 10/$5 pricing. If either dimension exceeds 100mm you go into the next pricing tier.

View attachment 79736
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Sorry to ask so many questions, but with V-scoring, will JLCPCB know where to score the board? The reason I ask is because I did send out a PCB to them with the V-scoring. But when I upload the gerber, and check out the gerber viewer, it doesn't look like its scored. I see where the scoring should be, but it's not cut out on the gerber viewer. Probably over thinking it, and I have nothing to lose really for $5 I guess, haha. Thanks!
 
Jiberjew said:
Sorry to ask so many questions, but with V-scoring, will JLCPCB know where to score the board? The reason I ask is because I did send out a PCB to them with the V-scoring. But when I upload the gerber, and check out the gerber viewer, it doesn't look like its scored. I see where the scoring should be, but it's not cut out on the gerber viewer. Probably over thinking it, and I have nothing to lose really for $5 I guess, haha. Thanks!
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Yea im curious here too. Ill find out tomorrow when my boards comes i suppose I did the panelizing thing and i can see the scoring in diptrace but i also dont in the gerber. I had hit thr panelizing by customer option. Which apparently i didnt need to.
 
Locrian99 said:
Yea im curious here too. Ill find out tomorrow when my boards comes i suppose I did the panelizing thing and i can see the scoring in diptrace but i also dont in the gerber. I had hit thr panelizing by customer option. Which apparently i didnt need to.
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Cool. Let me know how it goes. I was able to fit 4 of the breakout boards I designed on something that was real close to 100mm x 100mm. Works for me! And if I failed, guess I’ll put a bunch on order through pedalpcb and make them work for my boards. Hahaha.
 
Jiberjew said:
Sorry to ask so many questions, but with V-scoring, will JLCPCB know where to score the board?
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Yes, they'll see that there are multiple sub-panels separated by a board outline. I think I've only had one order where they didn't V-score the board before shipping, but that wasn't JLCPCB.

This is what my preview looks like:
1723034808508.png

I used to manually draw board cutout lines between each part and then label them "VCUT" until I realized that was all being stripped out of the Gerber files anyway.

1723034872937.png
 
Robert said:
Yes, they'll see that there are multiple sub-panels separated by a board outline. I think I've only had one order where they didn't V-score the board before shipping, but that wasn't JLCPCB.

This is what my preview looks like:
View attachment 79759

I used to manually draw board cutout lines between each part and then label them "VCUT" until I realized that was all being stripped out of the Gerber files anyway.

View attachment 79760
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Perfect. That’s about what mine looked like as well, except I could only fit 4 to keep the 100mm x 100mm pricing. But, works for me! Thanks for all the help yet again!
 
I think i need to change the setting for the v score next time but this is exactly how it looked i have a double score. Ive got 80 of these though so that should be a life time supply about. Lol. IMG_8942.jpeg

Excited to see how my sunflower with rangemaster board turned out. Ill assemble that tonight. 🤞
 
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