[chbot] PCB sanity check

[Andrew Errington]

I just sent a design to JLCPCB, which is undoubtedly the best way to find
any mistakes. I paid US$1.68 for shipping, but it should be here before
Christmas. This gives me plenty of time to idly glance at the schematic...

I've only found one obvious error. It's easy to fix, but I'd rather it had
not been there in the first place. Oh well.

Andrew

On Wed, 4 Sep 2024, 17:42 Charles Manning, <cdhmanning at gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree with Richard
>
> Once you've done all the DRCs and had a look at the 3D viewer you're
> pretty much ready to go (especially with hobby-level boards).
> It is interesting how often you find errors when looking at the 3D view.
> That allows you to see "the real thing" which is a bit more informative.
>
> Kicad is amazing now and has features that would have cost you both arms
> and all three legs just 5 years ago.
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 3, 2024 at 7:20 PM Robin Gilks <gb7ipd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Many thanks for the offer Richard - great to hear from you ;)
>>
>> My main concern was getting to grips with standard practice on track
>> sizes, via positioning (especially in fill zones), constraints (clearances
>> etc) cut lines and so on. All my PCBs to date have been home etched so this
>> is a first going commercial!
>>
>> By a happy coincidence we use Kicad at work (!!) and I was able to get
>> our hardware guy to give me some tips over the last couple of lunch breaks
>> - we have given up on Altium and use Kicad exclusively. I seems quite happy
>> with 8 layers, TFBGA-216 micros and balances lines for DSI LCDs.
>> The order has gone in now, I wonder how long it will be before I sit down
>> and do a version 2.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 2, 2024 at 4:09 PM Richard Jones <richardandjanenz at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Robin,
>>>
>>> I can take a look at your PCB later this week, but I'm not optimistic
>>> about finding things for you. Having passed ERC and DRC your PCB will
>>> reflect schematic errors faithfully, and I find that a good check is to fly
>>> around the PCB in the 3d viewer, with as many parts fitted as possible. You
>>> get to see how your silk screen will look top and bottom, some of the
>>> design decisions can be subjective. Once you are happy with the 3d view you
>>> can do a trial upload to see what the design looks like in your chosen
>>> supplier's gerber viewer. If you have routing cuts for ac mains isolation
>>> etc I find the suppliers online chats very helpful to confirm how they like
>>> odd things to be specified. Hope that helps.
>>>
>>> Good luck!
>>>
>>> Richard Jones
>>>
>>> On Sun, Sep 1, 2024 at 2:00 PM Robin Gilks <gb7ipd at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I've 'finished' my weather station PCB but since it's my first effort
>>>> with Kicad I'm looking for someone with experience of this software to do a
>>>> sanity check on my work.
>>>>
>>>> I'm using the latest Kicad 8 (8.0.4) and have eliminated all ERC and
>>>> DRC errors and warnings so I think I'm OK but who knows!! (some via
>>>> positioning is a bit wobbly for example.
>>>>
>>>> The latest backup zip file is about 250k so not something I'm going to
>>>> spam the list with but if there is a volunteer out there I can send
>>>> directly.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Robin Gilks
>>>>
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