Help me with my first eagle board, please

Archive BatchPCB
1

I’ve already done plenty of boards through pcbexpress, so I’m not exactly a noob, but I have a few questions about both the gerber files and my layout.

I’ve pretty much finished my layout, and it looks fine to me. However, I was unsure of a couple things. First of all, a couple of my traces need to be able to carry high current for short periods (a spike of >5 Amps for a few ms, via capacitor discharge). I’ve made the traces 0.04, about as thick as I can (any thicker and I get DRC errors), and I’m wondering if I should get 2oz. copper instead of one. I’m not sure what weight I used before, but around 0.05in seemed enough.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e360/mtwieg/brd1.jpg

Second, though I pass the drc, when I export my solder mask gerbers, the spacing seems to be very narrow; in some cases, there doesn’t seem to be any space between pads.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e360/mtwieg/brd2.jpg

I’m also having trouble with checking my gerber files. I’m using a trial version of GC-prevue (only workable program I can find). First of all, the bottom layers (solder mask and signals) are mirrored from how they are in EAGLE, so if I want them to match up with the top layers in the viewer, I have to not mirror them in the CAM. If I do that, they match up fine, but should I do this when sending the files to a fab house? What orientation do they expect the files to be in?

Lastly, I can’t get any of my drill files to work properly. When I try to import them to the viewer, it will either not recognize the files, or it will display them wrong (usually spread out over the window, but seemingly in the correct general orientation). I’m at a complete loss to this one.

I would post my files, but I’m not sure how.

Thanks for the held in advance.

2

Unnamed…because you didn’t sign your message,

If it were me…I would ripup the traces around where you need to resize…and resize the traces. 5 amps is a lot of power to go through 40 mil.

You can get 2 oz…but not from here. They do not offer 2 oz copper.

If your soldermask gerbers seem to close…make them smaller in the setting.

Get Viewmate…it works well.

Make sure you have downloaded the cam file from Spark Fun and read the tutorial…it tells all about this.

The files are posted in Zip format at Batchpcb.com

Hope this helps,

James L

3

I got viewmate and the job files from batchpcb, and that solved the layer mirroring problem. However, the drill files still won’t work. No matter how I export or import them, my viewing software always gives a syntax error. I would assume it’s some tiny problem with the drill file headers, but I can’t tell what.

-Mike

4

Which file are you opening as a drill file?

Also, post a snippet of the drill file here.

Cheers,

–David Carne

5

This is the .drd file as generated by special-SFE

%

M48

M72

T01C0.0236

T02C0.0240

T03C0.0276

T04C0.0315

T05C0.0320

T06C0.0394

T07C0.0433

T08C0.1260

%

T01

X5385Y2235

X9085Y3485

X10385Y2685

X11385Y3685

X11935Y4635

X12985Y5835

X11335Y6685

X10585Y6735

T02

X9835Y6835

X8885Y7785

X8335Y10385

X8835Y10985

X7385Y10885

X5885Y10885

X15635Y9235

X17385Y7385

X18385Y7385

X7285Y2685

T03

X11985Y2885

X15856Y3231

X15856Y5200

X12585Y6335

X11335Y8785

X12385Y9385

X10885Y10585

X10235Y10585

X6385Y6385

X2385Y9385

T04

X17033Y5533

X18017Y5533

T05

X4433Y5747

X2433Y5747

T06

X19988Y5263

X19988Y6641

X19988Y3885

X19988Y2507

T07

X17578Y9469

X5767Y9469

T08

X3285Y2985

X3285Y10735

X20085Y10735

M30

This is the .dri file

Drill Station Info File: C:/Program Files/EAGLE-4.16r2/projects/Dualevent1/boards/dualevent2-3.dri

Date : 2/23/2007 04:37:12p

Drills : generated

Device : Excellon drill station

Parameter settings:

Tolerance Drill + : 0.00 %

Tolerance Drill - : 0.00 %

Rotate : no

Mirror : no

Optimize : yes

Auto fit : yes

OffsetX : 0inch

OffsetY : 0inch

Layers : Drills Holes

Drill File Info:

Data Mode : Absolute

Units : 1/10000 Inch

Drills used:

Code Size used

T01 0.0236inch 8

T02 0.0240inch 10

T03 0.0276inch 10

T04 0.0315inch 2

T05 0.0320inch 2

T06 0.0394inch 4

T07 0.0433inch 2

T08 0.1260inch 3

Total number of drills: 41

Plotfiles:

C:/Program Files/EAGLE-4.16r2/projects/Dualevent1/boards/dualevent2-3.drd

6

Use the DRD file. The DRI is just information.

Cheers,

–David Carne

7

As I already said before, it doesn’t work. The layer shows up as a bunch of randomly scattered dots spread over a very large area.

-Mike

8

Mike…you are importing the file with the wrong format.

It should be:

When you start to import the drill file…click on options…the select the following.

Excellon

1 left decimal

4 right of decimal

omit leading zeros

Absolute

English

ASCII

That should fix the formating for viewmate.

The file is correct…it is the importing formatting that is wrong.

Let me know if this helps,

James L

9

propellanttech:
Mike…you are importing the file with the wrong format.

It should be:

When you start to import the drill file…click on options…the select the following.

Excellon

1 left decimal

4 right of decimal

omit leading zeros

Absolute

English

ASCII

That should fix the formating for viewmate.

The file is correct…it is the importing formatting that is wrong.

Let me know if this helps,

James L

This seems to have fixed it. Many thanks.

Another small question: how do I define the board dimensions in the gerber? Should I just draw them on the silkscreen layer?

10

Drawing the dimension on the silkscreen layer may be the easiest way.

I usually don’t do a dimension…it may become a problem later…but haven’t had any problems so far.

Glad you got it working…

James L

11

Okay guys, thanks for the help so far, but there’s one more thing…

I have two slightly different designs that I want to have produced together, but separated from each other (cut apart from each other). I assume I need to get them on the same gerber files next to each other. However, Eagle won’t let me simply copy one design and paste it next to the other. Is there a way to put both designs in the same Eagle layout, or am I supposed to create gerber files for each of them, copy the contents of one gerber file into another?

12

Please do give us a dimension!

Otherwise, we take our best guess, and we may be wrong.

Cheers,

–David Carne

13

busonerd:
Please do give us a dimension!

Otherwise, we take our best guess, and we may be wrong.

Cheers,

–David Carne

I figured out the borders, now I just need to know how to merge two designs onto the same file so they are produced together.

Mike