Comments on: Doing an easy PCB pre-order check

By: dfowler

dfowler — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:26:49 +0000

xSmurf,

Thanks for that link. I perfer to work with a dial caliper but I have a digital that I used for PCB work. The key feature is that button to switch between inches and MM.

David

By: xSmurf

xSmurf — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:50:03 +0000

Dealextreme sells a nice digital caliper for 17$ (free S&H)
http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2306

They have an analog one too…

By: WD5GNR

WD5GNR — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:54:47 +0000

I always do this on regular paper and use a glue stick to tack it down to some foam board. The parts then grab into the foam. Of course, I don’t use good static sensitive parts. Any oddball SMD stuff can be superglued down although you usually don’t care much about those since the pads usually match the outline pretty well.

If I’m not mistaken, I mentioned this in my PCB book. Really useful when you are trying to figure out clearances and so forth.

By: dfowler

dfowler — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:32:39 +0000

Don,

Thank you.

That does look terrible. I do not see that with my browsers. IE7 and Firefox. I will try some changes very soon.

Ideally I could recreate this setup so I see the site the same way.

Maybe there is an online service that would be good for testing.

David.

By: DC

DC — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:27:20 +0000

David,

I sent you a screen shot. In FF, the font is nearly unreadable, as I think the screen shot will show.

Don

By: dfowler

dfowler — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:50:29 +0000

DC,

Do you have a suggestion? The font looks good to me. Maybe there is some problem with CSS and browser compliance.

Would you mind sending me a screen shot of the site?

I really do want to make the site easy to read.

David

By: DC

DC — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:22:23 +0000

Please, please, please change your type font into something more easily readable!!!!!

By: dfowler

dfowler — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:05:29 +0000

Follower,

The static risk is very low for most parts. You could use anti-static foam for sensitive parts like RAM chips but in general parts today are somewhat insensitive. Worse case you would damage a part but that would be better then ordering a batch of PCBs that are wrong. If you are really concerned, keep yourself gounded and maybe dont push in the sensitive parts. You can still do a fair job of verifying the placemnt and footprint without inserting the leads into the foam.

By: follower

follower — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:34:09 +0000

I was wondering if there are any static electricity/ESD risks with using foam like that rather than specific anti-ESD foam?

–Phil.

By: Wim Van Gool

Wim Van Gool — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:21:13 +0000

Well, I tend to either print it out and use a cardboard or I use some foam like you described above.
Using a cardboard is easier for when you’re stacking PCB’s and you want to make sure your components wont touch each other.