7 or 8 designs this morning on the bot. It’s grinding along… Pittuck must have been drinking Guinesss and eating ‘pies’ last night.
-Nathan
Yep. I pushed a couple designs through the checker this morning. Seems to be working great! (for all I know).
But when a design passes, and I receive the “Pass” email, I click on the purchase link and get a “File Not Found” page on the site…
Also, whether a design passes or fails, it still gets added to the home page as a “product”. Since all these “products” are called BatchPCB Custom Board - [something]x[something", it makes it difficul to decide which one to order.
Other than that, the site is lookin’ sw33t! Keep up the awesome work.
no guiness at the moment, on a 2 week sober ‘bet’ lol.
Anyhow, the coffee IV is working.
The products should not appear on any page and i will be deleting them ASAP. (after i have a shower + find the file that is contained in…)
Also i think i have also fixed the mozilla bug (i will upload the fix after i get the other bug gone).
Adios, for a bit
ok products removed
ok email URL and the mozilla bug should be fixed now.
I had previously asked this question in another thread, but never really got a satisfactory response: How do I specify the dimensions of my design? I’m going to need some custom cutouts, and the online DRC checker doesn’t include a “dimensions” file…
it uses the copper layer max widths. Although this can and probably will change soon (when the main systems are working) to use the silk screen also.
Basically, there is a $10 fee, and with the rounding of board sizes loss of money due to copper / edge problems is very rare
So is the $10 fee per design, or order? Some posts to the forums have made it sound like $10 per order, but if I try adding a board to the cart, and requesting two of them the total is $25.00 for two one square inch boards.
If this is just because the system is still in the testing/bug ringout phase, then I won’t worry about it. If this is the new pricing then I will just do the panelling/cutout myself.
Also for those of us who have the benefit of working just down the street from you guys, will we be able to select a pick-up shiping option?
Thanks for the great service, you give me a reason to live. (ok, so a little dramatic, but you have put new life into my electronics projects!)
pittuck:
it uses the copper layer max widths. Although this can and probably will change soon (when the main systems are working) to use the silk screen also.Basically, there is a $10 fee, and with the rounding of board sizes loss of money due to copper / edge problems is very rare
Okay, this went right over my head. Are you talking about the pricing plan for custom PCBs? Does it change based on custom (ie: non-rectangular) borders? Do you mean there’s a $10 base fee, plus a per-sq.-inch additional fee? I feel a bit thick, like I’m just not “getting it”…
There is / will be a $10 processing fee attached to the postage fee for every order. ( i think, i am clearing this up with nathan now )
This covers the cost of the person having to pannelize the PCB’s and troubleshoot boards which have ‘errors’. But it also means we dont have to get size 100% correct, so we can use the easy to implement underestimate method and ‘dip’ into this charge if needed.
Without the extra charge there would be no PCB service, it allows for some profit and/or some backup funds if there is a particually bad week’s worth of PCB’s which need overtime work.
wow. Sounds like you guys have given this a lot of thought. I can’t wait! In the meantime, should I just put the board dimensions in the top silkscreen layer, as others have suggested?
nah, just go with what you have (it will use the copper layers). If there is a mojor pricing problem the staff will pick it up.
BTW - is it working? what size is it giving for your board vs. the actual size?
I’m not too concerned about the pricing (I’m sure the copper layer is accurate enought for that). I’m more concerned about the custom cutouts/routing of the board edges…
It seems to be underestimating the dimensions slightly. It’s not too far off, but I suspect that’s mostly because I have traces pretty close to the edge of the board on all sides. However, the images I receive in the “passed” email don’t seem to include the ground planes / polygons from the EAGLE file (obviously a show-stopper). I don’t know for sure if this is a problem on your side or mine, though. I will double check the files tomorrow, and re-submit for a DRC check (right now the site appears to require some kind of security login).
I don’t understand how you guys will know what my board’s outline is. It seems to me that the board outline should explicitly be either in a seperate outline gerber or in one of the silk screen gerbers. For example, I sometimes extend my boards to fit a specific case or other form factor. There may not be any copper there so what would I get back from the service?
By the way, roach. Have you used a gerber viewer like viewmate to verify that your gerbers are correct?
This is exactly my concern.Philba:
I don’t understand how you guys will know what my board’s outline is.
Yep. I used ViewMate, and everything loaded up alright, so I passed it through the online checker, and it looks fine. My main concern was the drill file, and ViewMate helps to make sure that it's correct.By the way, roach. Have you used a gerber viewer like viewmate to verify that your gerbers are correct?
Looks like the site is down (or locked up) for now. I can’t get in 
Nate is a big dumb idiot. I accidentally pw protected the entire batchpcb site. I was meaning to pw the admin dir. Silly rabbit.
BatchPCB now has:
The silly pw protection removed
SSL installed
Authorize.net connecting securely and sucessfully processing
Border discussion: So the size checker currently only checks the copper layers and does the sqr inch/board price based on this info. You’re right, if your border extends past your copper, the board size will be wrong (too small). However, boards will be cut to the visible boarder on your layout. This is usually a white line on the silkscreen layer (or keepout layer in protel) indicating the shape of the boarder as well.
If your design has no boarder at all (we’ve seen A LOT of these, mostly with newbies) the mfg will cut a best-guess square that will include all copper. I recommend you include a boarder.
I will try to update the size checker today to scan all layers.
-Nathan
PS There is nothing so rough as a sushi hang-over…
A very long time ago, Sparky wrote:
sparky:
There are very few hassle free orders. Hopefully, with some sort of DRC software for customers, we can alleviate all of these problems.
I just uploaded my first design (to your new batchpcb.com) and it was entirely hassle-free, both for me and for you. The FAQ answered all my questions. The system seemed to work perfectly.
It looks like sparky’s dream of a hassle-free system may have been finally realized!
Now, you can perhaps focus your efforts on adding enhancements to your site.
For example:
I look forward to submitting further KiCAD designs and I have already begun mentioning you to my friends.
((RayDar))
So which is it, I’m confused… 2.5 or 5/sq inch? The main site says $2.50, but I just came across this forum…
Don’t worry, I won’t be asking gerber or NC drill questions, and I have my own software design suite. 8)
Either way, this is a killer deal, esp for personal prototypes. So many times have I held off on a design simply because I couldn’t see spending $99+S&H for Advanced Circuits’ 3/33 deal. The company i work for will certainly not mind a few screw-ups at this price too. 
j/k
Thanks.
You 'noob for the day,
Jamie
::edit:: fat finger typo ::edit::
It’s $2.50 per square inch with $10 setup for each order.
-Nathan
I’m going to remove this as a sticky so as to confuse as few as possible. This is an old post.
The current BatchPCB pricing is $2.50 per square inch with $10 setup for each order.
-Nathan