JLCPCB & being (almost) Perfect
I always liked to use JLCPCB which apart from their manufacturing speed, their Call Centres are very responsive when it came to troubleshooting my designs. However, I also wished that they could help modify my PCB and/ or 3D files too but sadly, that is not possible. I mean, if they did help and in the process, there are more errors or, an error came up, it would be very easy for the Client to blame them. The issue would drag on while creating a very lasting and bitter experience. Therefore, since it is my own design, I will have to check it thoroughly again. Going over or building a prototype board is irrelevant since these silly mistakes were due to unintentional trace overlapping or, components placed too close leading to shorting when being soldered. And the most embarrassing ones of all? Forgetting a trace or connecting them wrongly which leads to mis-labeling.
The issue of being perfect is very important when it comes to matters such as PCB manufacturing. This was drummed into me when I was in the Diary Printing Industry. And unless the Client or designated PIC signed off on the amendments, the printing job must never start despite their Company asking or shouting at us. This is because we’re not printing Diaries by tens or hundreds but thousands. One small mistake can multiply it by the thousands and the whole Job is compromised, worse, redo or cancelled.
Testing the PCB
As soon as I got home, I fired up the soldering iron. But alas, it had to wait due to Family stuff and… Dinner. And discussions. And taking out the garbage. And finding some documents. And so on. It was not until almost two hours later that I got to take out the board and twelve necessary components to start my soldering. Ha ha. Most of the bulk work has been done, its only a matter of re-designing the Main Board again to give it less load, look into vac-forming, complete the prototype model and look into the Paragrafix PE sets, etc. And then the manual itself. But I can foresee the issue with the installation of the roof lighting where I’d have to choose between thick wiring or, inaccuracy of the model’s details.
This Project is taking so long, (I can’t even remember how long) so a few more years is not going to make any difference. But I hope to get it done before I cannot do it anymore.
The PCB Challenges (FPCB Stiffeners)
Looking back at the design, (OK, the first image at the top), I appreciated how it reminded and challenged my outdated belief years ago that a PCB board can only be in the form of either a circle, a rectangle or other straight-lined shape. Heck, when it comes to designing PCBs for Scale Models where every millimeter of space is a premium, the answer is so obvious! This Project taught me how to create a custom shaped PCB using opensource software such as InkScape. It allowed me to create the basic shape and fine-tune it and then exports it to EaglePCB7.7.0. There is another method where you can import it as a silhouette as basis for the Board. This is quite significant when it comes to a drawn symbol or logo.
The next step, I supposed would be to learn and use their specific software EasyEDA. Their reasoning is that this is the only PCB Software which could be used to design the FPCB Stiffeners. And after having a brief look at their tutorial, it seemed to be just another layer, which in theory, can be done with any PCB software including EaglePCB. Then again, I hate to rock the boat and is a good excuse to learn about this EasyEDA. Moreover, in the footnotes, it is possible to import the EaglePCB files into EasyEDA. Whoa…
