Some other useful tips I can pass along: 1. Make sure you have all of the unique parts so you can visualize how they will fit together. This is especially true for connectors, switches, pots, heat-sinked devices. Mechanical drawings in the datasheet are very helpful, but nothing beats having the part in your hands.
2. When you make your footprints, print them out 1:1 scale and make sure they match your parts. I've found a few errors this way before sending a board out for fab, and as a result every PCB I've made accommodated the parts the first time. 3. Be careful about pin diameters; it's very easy to make PCB holes too small for the device. I use a digital caliper to measure pin diameters. Also be aware that PCB manufacturers have specific drill-sizes, and the hole-plating process makes the holes slightly smaller. A good PCB house will provide specs on their hole tolerances. 4. Dont forget to add mounting holes. I usually lay those down first, because they block traces. 5. Dont go with minimum tracewidth/separation over the entire board. The tightest pad-pitch I've dealt with is 0.5mm, which is about 10 mils. Most PCB houses are doing 6-8mils. 6. Be aware that PCB traces are not perfect conductors. There is a handy tool (Saturn) available for free download that helps you understand resistance/voltage-drop, spacing for higher voltages, etc. 7. Dont be afraid of surface-mount devices. 0805 size components are very cheap and take up minimal board area. They are easy to solder by hand with a pair of tweezers -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/7b51d355-e7da-40b3-b968-6b266b3d911f%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
