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Trace width - Diptrace defaults to 0.33mm. Looking at online calculators, including one at www.desmith.net , for 1oz copper 0.33mm width tracks are good for 0.5A. I'm only dealing with a few mA so should probably make them a little narrower. But presumably it's a balance between resistance/impedance and size?

PCBWay has a minimum track width and spacing of 0.153mm/6mil. I don't suppose it's hurting any to leave the widths at 0.33, but maybe I'll reduce them to 0.16mm in order to maximise spacing between track and pads.

To cheer my day at work DHL delivered a parcel from PCBWay this morning .



$10 US for 10 no. 2 layer PCBs at 100mm x 100mm. $25 US for DHL. So about £27, or £2.70 each. What's not to like?

Considering it was the first time I've ordered a PCB I have to say it was very easy to deal with them. A nice young lady called Bella (fortunately with excellent English cos my Mandarin is rubbish!) contacted me to say that when they tried to check my gerbers they couldn't open them, but she'd recreated them through Altium. No idea how she did that if she couldn't open them, but they'd noted an error I'd made by leaving in all the Arduino header pins I'd originally copied in to the file by mistake. As a newbie this was very reassuring!

A couple of emails followed to confirm everything was okay and it was time to pay - I paid on the 14th and they arrived 7 days later. Extraordinary really. I don't have any other experiences to compare PCBWay too, but frankly I don't think I'd even bother trying anywhere else unless the boards prove to be rubbish. Which they don't look to be .

Now to build a board up and test it. Let's just hope my design is okay! And the tracks aren't too narrow...

Oooo ...


Yes it's always nice getting posh properly finished shiny new PCB's wot you ack-shirley designed yerself.

I just hope they don't end up as holey coasters!

Shoddy

Its (I think) amazing what resources are out there now for this sort of thing. Send them some files, they send you the boards within the week. Gone are the days of etch resist pens and stickers and FeCl baths. And double sided, and plated through holes, and stupid levels of accuracy, and solder resist. Its magic.

Aye, I can find out my errors so quickly now

I finally got my hands on some long pin 2 x 18 headers to try today - they'd been on back order from Mouser for a little while. Considering how many Arduinos there must be in the world I was surprised how difficult they were to find.

Anyway, guess what? They don't fit the holes used in the model I found on t'internet. Should have checked, but I didn't have the headers anyway. They'll take tinned wire so I'll get around to checking a board to (hopefully) prove they work as a concept.

Then I think I'll revise the board to try to accommodate all relays/steps on one pcb. One day.

Is it just not these, with two cut off with a blade?

https://www.rapidonline.com/te-connecti ... en-63-7729

No, they're multi layer stackable, so like these

http://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/S ... 8X8%2fM%3d

Ironically, if I do manage to squeeze it all on to one board I don't need stackable headers anymore...

These:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50PCS-6-Pin-2 ... 2200130288

Yeah, I wasn't sure if I could add them together to make 2 x 18 or if they might foul each other.

I've got some similar sized ones on the way so I'll see how they go together.

Nick wrote:Its (I think) amazing what resources are out there now for this sort of thing. Send them some files, they send you the boards within the week. Gone are the days of etch resist pens and stickers and FeCl baths. And double sided, and plated through holes, and stupid levels of accuracy, and solder resist. Its magic.

Oh ye-yah!!

Well, well. Guess what turned up to today, just 12 weeks after delivery? Yep, an invoice from DHL for £21.37 for vat and disbursements, an additional 80%! The vat is around 38% - who needs trade agreements anyway...

I'm not going to complain about paying the tax - we all know the rules (or have no excuse for not knowing them) and paying tax is what we do in rich countries. 12 weeks to send the bill, and then £11 for the privilege of them dealing with it for me is, er, amusing though.

For what its worth, you can use this page to pay before the parts arrive

https://epayments.dhl.co.uk/

Just get the waybill number from the pcbway tracker link. Paying in advance avoids DHL not delivering until its paid and going round the houses a couple of times.