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ultimachine / RAMBo

3D Printer electronics
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Potential tweaks ? #5

Closed kakaroto closed 11 years ago

kakaroto commented 11 years ago

This is a question rather than an issue. I'm interested in getting the RAMBo PCB printed but I noticed in the readme file that it says "There is no warantee for these files in any way. They are used to produce these boards, but there may have been some undocumented tweaks by various designers, engineers, manufacturers, suppliers, and assemblers to make this a functional product."

I'd like to know if you know of any of these potential "undocumented tweaks"? Is that disclaimer simply there to avoid problems in the future or are there tweaks that you are aware of or that you think are added somewhere along the line?

If I took the gerber (with bom/brd/sch) files and sent them to a factory to get it printed, would the resulting PCB be identical to the RAMBo boards being sold on ultimachine.com ? If you know of any changes/tweaks needed, please let me know before I waste money trying to get a non-working PCB printed :) If you know there are no tweaks or if you don't know if there are any, that would also be helpful to know.

I'd also appreciate it if you could double-check to make sure the files on github are indeed the latest version.

Thanks.

johnnyr commented 11 years ago

Good question...

The files are the files we use to get the current boards produced. The fab house that makes our PCBs has more advanced software than us and processes our files to improve their production yield. For instance, the trace to pad connections have "teardrop" added. Similarly, the stencil file gets improved by the stencil manufacturer to prevent solder balling. Most PCB fabs will do this automatically and will quote the job based on their abilities.

You will also need to provide your manufacturer with the specification for the PCB. This can be changed to suit your preference. I use: 4layers, 0.062", FR4-TG170, 2oz, ENIG GOLD, GREEN SOLDER MASK, TWO SIDE MASK, WHITE SILK SCREEN, TOP SILK, Min Trace: 6mil, 4.05" x 4.10"11

kakaroto commented 11 years ago

Thanks a lot for the reply, it will be very helpful. I'll let you know how it turns out. I think the PCB specifications should be on github, I will clone and push them to a file and send a pull request later today. I've sent the request for the PCB to be printed. I will test it when it arrives and hope it just works! Do you have any kind of test suite to make sure all functionality is working ? Or should I just plug it into a 3D printer and see if it prints correctly and consider it a success ? Thanks.

kakaroto commented 11 years ago

I was asked by the manufacture for an assembly drawing showing orientation of components. Could you upload one in pdf format (or how to generate it from available files)? Thanks.