you could also panelize the gerber with a different program after you get the output from Eagle, for example the free open source Gerbmerge or others such as CAM350, GC-Prevue, Gerbtool, etc…
stephenh:
Yikes! Strong feelings indeed!Well, I’ll give them one shot and see where it ends up…
OK, well, without going into ALL of the gritty details…
I bought the serial Olimex PIC programmer from SparkFun. A few months later, I needed to burn a newer PIC, but it required the firmware upgrade. I found the firmware upgrade utility on their site and downloaded.
The instructions were simple. First verify the programmer can burn without anu problems. Insert a PIC18F252, use the utility to burn it with the new firmware, pop out the old PIC16F876, pop in the newly burnt 252 and you are good to go.
This was great in theory. I fired up the burner, burned a PIC16F876 to verify and then proceeded with the upgrade. I fired up their burning utility, clicked start. It got about half way through and then it bailed out. I tried again, this time the utility refused to burn because it said it had already been used the one allowed time. I figured there was some kind of registry value that was set and restricting it. So, instead of trying to hunt that down, I decided to try the upgrade again on a different computer. Same problem.
I contacted Olimex asking for help. They came back with their typical rude, short emails claiming I was not doing it right. I wrote back and explained what had happend. They stated that I had already upgraded it and they could not do anything about it. I argued there was NO WAY because the old PIC16F876 was still in the programmer. I never had a sucessful burn of the 252, so there was no reason to swap it in. Plain and simple they would not take my word for fact. They assumed I was trying to get an extra upgrade or somthing.
One last email was a plea for the .hex to burn the 252 directly, using MPLAB. The email that came back blew me away. It claimed I was trying to “steal” the hex for my own personal gain and I was a liar and theif. I mean, I was really shocked by the reaction.
I called SparkFun (the early days) and talked to Nate himself. I made him aware of the crummy support emails and he asked me to forward them to him. I did, but never heard anything after this.
I thought I was the only one to have this problem, but apparently, there have been others that have had this exact problem with doing the upgrade. I even tried to buy the pre-burned 252 and I was unable to order it. I pretty much gave up on it.
Sorry, I guess I did make this too long, but I hope this explains why I am so strongly against dealing with Olimex ever again.
macegr:
I played with the program for a while and couldn’t get into it. While this statement might make some people sputter coffee on their monitor, I found it less intuitive than Eagle. Even the mouse scroll zooming, for example, was chunky and glitchy. The part library was scant. While you usually have to build a part for Eagle on most projects, at least you can count on common microcontrollers, RAM, SMD electrolytics, and many other parts.Perhaps the awful interface hides amazing power that lets you do boards faster than Eagle, but after actually trying to use the software, I’m more inclined to pay $1000 to Cadsoft than $500 to Number One.
I just tried the latest version, and I see what you mean. The problem seems to be the steps for the mouse wheel, they are much too large and there doesn’t seem to be any way to change it. I’ll mention it to them.
Leon
Also the fact that when mouse zooming, it moves the mouse to the center of the screen and jumps the current view there too. VERY disorienting. And then middle-click panning…it works in reverse! Every program I use, middle click panning is a “grab” function and you move the design around as if you were sliding a sheet of paper. I can’t think of a reason to make it backwards from that. And if these are things I find debilitating in my first few tries, I have to wonder what else I’ll find that makes no sense.
I’m OK with those. I think of panning as moving a window round on the screen - most software I use does it that way.
Leon
Jason - this is a perfect time to dump olimex and move to a Microchip programmer like PICKit2. Never a problem with upgrading and their documentation actually exists.
Philba:
Jason - this is a perfect time to dump olimex and move to a Microchip programmer like PICKit2. Never a problem with upgrading and their documentation actually exists.
I have to admit that I did end up with the USB Olimex afterall, which has worked for the most part, but I would love to dump it.
Do you have a good link for the PICKit2?
leon_heller:
I’m OK with those. I think of panning as moving a window round on the screen - most software I use does it that way.Leon
Would be nice to switch between modes, at least…
A representative emailed me to ask how I liked the software. This is what I sent back on Monday, but haven’t heard back yet:
Jim,
I was impressed with the range of features offered, but felt the interface left a bit unsaid. For example, I didn’t have a good time figuring out how to link a schematic to a PCB with live back annotation, and was not impressed with the way the interface operated, especially mouse scroll zooming. Zooming is actually the main problem I have with the program. In AutoCAD and other programs, I am used to navigating a workspace by using the mouse scroll wheel to zoom out, move the mouse to the desired work area, then scroll to zoom back in. It’s a very quick and simple way to navigate the project. In Easy-PC, the zoom increments are so large, this method is all but useless. This is amplified by the fact that mouse scroll zooming automatically moves the mouse cursor to the center of the work area instead of zooming around the current mouse location; it’s very disorienting. Additionally, center-click grab panning actually works in reverse! I was also not impressed with the depth of the part library, and I can see that using Easy-PC will require a significant time investment in creating and revising parts. Normally each PCB requires some new parts, but I would need to build nearly every part for some of my current designs.
But if there was a way to get the mouse zooming functionality smoothed out, I would play with the part editor for a while and see if part creation would be less of a chore than I think. If the part creation is fast, I would be very interested in purchasing an unlimited version of the software.
rpcelectronics:
Philba:
Jason - this is a perfect time to dump olimex and move to a Microchip programmer like PICKit2. Never a problem with upgrading and their documentation actually exists.I have to admit that I did end up with the USB Olimex afterall, which has worked for the most part, but I would love to dump it.
Do you have a good link for the PICKit2?
http://www.microchipdirect.com/products … s=PG164120
It’s the second item on the page. You can buy it from microchip direct or other disti’s like mouser and digikey.
I thought I’d post an update on my progress with Olimex (going back to the start of this thread).
I spent quite some time on my design to be sure of meting their design rules. After sending the Eagle files to them, I got a prompt response with order form to fax back. I was a bit nervous about sending card details by fax to a foreign country, but gave it a shot.
For a couple of days, silence. No confirmation, no phone or email from them.
I eventually got a very curt response by email saying they’d received my fax.
After a couple of weeks I’d heard no more, so pinged them again by email.
Another 2 word response by email telling me the board had been dispatched.
Finally 1 month after sending the order, I got my board!
Despite the poor communications, I must say I’m pleased overall.
The quality of the board is superb - gold plating is excellent, the silk screen is spot on. My only complaint would be that the solder mask is extremely delicate. I’m soldering my board by hand, and had a couple of near misses where I’d scuffed the mask and nearly bonded 2 pads together on my SOIC device.
So, if you’re not in a burning hurry to get your boards, and don’t mind a total lack of feedback, you could do a lot worse than Olimex.
Oh, while I think of it, my 160x100mm 2-layer panel came to 44 euro including postage.
stephenh:
I thought I’d post an update on my progress with Olimex (going back to the start of this thread).I spent quite some time on my design to be sure of meting their design rules. After sending the Eagle files to them, I got a prompt response with order form to fax back. I was a bit nervous about sending card details by fax to a foreign country, but gave it a shot.
For a couple of days, silence. No confirmation, no phone or email from them.
I eventually got a very curt response by email saying they’d received my fax.
After a couple of weeks I’d heard no more, so pinged them again by email.
Another 2 word response by email telling me the board had been dispatched.
Finally 1 month after sending the order, I got my board!
Despite the poor communications, I must say I’m pleased overall.
The quality of the board is superb - gold plating is excellent, the silk screen is spot on. My only complaint would be that the solder mask is extremely delicate. I’m soldering my board by hand, and had a couple of near misses where I’d scuffed the mask and nearly bonded 2 pads together on my SOIC device.
So, if you’re not in a burning hurry to get your boards, and don’t mind a total lack of feedback, you could do a lot worse than Olimex.
Oh, while I think of it, my 160x100mm 2-layer panel came to 44 euro including postage.
Jesus! 1 mouth between your order and the deliver?
I think 2 weeks is affordable for me…but 4 weeks… Olimex has nice prices for me, but it seems like you are paying for the deliver time too.
Olimex said the next:
Turnaround time: 3-5 WORKING DAYS if traces/spaces >= 0,254 mm (0,010"); 15 WORKING DAYS if traces/spaces < 0,254 mm (0,010"
Did you have traces/space less than 10mils?
How many time is GP? I’m looking for do my PCBs in a reasonable time xD
Hmmm, have you looked at PCB Pool? They are European and quote 8 day turnaround for 50 eu. (to the US they quote same at $35 - about half price)
My board was >10 mils. To be fair they did dispatch the board in 5 days from my order, but the postage took forever. They had various courier options but that would have doubled the cost, so I got it sent by “air mail” instead.
I did look at PCB Pool, but unless I’ve missed something, the cheapest option for my tiny board was about 60 euro, with no solder masks or silkscreen. Why pay 20 euro extra for less features?
depends on when you want them…