My First PCBs

Today (actually yesterday when I post this, it’s 11:59 as I type) I took delivery of the first professionally fabricated PCBs designed by me. No problems at all during the process, which is rather good considering it was my first real experience of the schematic -> layout flow, including having to make custom schematic symbols and component footprints. They are slightly larger than I was hoping for, but they are the first revision and I was a bit worried how close the tolerances were for PCBTrain‘s prototyping service. Things looked closer on the screen than they do in real life or I would have shaved a few millimeters off here and there. Anyway, pictures as soon as I get them.

Edit: It occurs to me that there was a whole new prototype between the last one I showed you and this one. It used our fancy new Gumstix expansion boards (designed in-house) and was a LOT more stable than my “home-made” versions. Pic below, it’s a lot neater is it not?