Hi Dave
I'm personally using eagle, but bought a professional license. The
free one is fairly limitted space wise. I'm fairly happy with eagle
and also needed support from them which was free and excellent.
However this profesional version costs some $$$ so if you are on a
thight budget, you may consider what follows.
There is a free schema capture and layoutsoftware available with a
very impressive feature list. I haven't really worked with it, but
maybe it's something for you. I downladed it and quickly played around
wiht it a while ago and was quite impressed from this first look. If I
would have to re-evaluate at this point in time I definately would
take a closer look. The product is called Autotrax and is - what is
hard to belive for a product as powerfulll and complete as it seems -
completely free.
http://www.autotraxeda.com/Markus
>interesting idea.
>
>my biggest problem is in board design software.
>
>seems eagle is about as free as you get
>with functinality.
>
>what file types to they take ?
>
>Dave
>
>
>
>
>--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "kingsettler2002"
><jamesjain2003@n...> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi All,
>> ..so I used to make simple boards myself, but I think the price
>> points have come down so much for proto borads that it is really
>okay
>> to get them made professionaly...for as little as $13 a borad
>>
>> I bought a few boards from pcbFABexpress (not to be confused with
>> pcbexpress) and this is what i found:
>> The minimum quantity is 5 boards; (it may work for some of you but
>I
>> would like minimum to be a little less than 5)
>> HOWEVER..the $13 for 2 layer price is applicable to this..you DON'T
>> have to buy 15 or 20 to get that price as other companies do.
>> The boards have been GREAT in quality...no problems at all..you can
>> tell they get it made from some good shops.
>>
>>
>> ALSO pcbFABexpress has a great referral program. Some silly name
>like
>> Gimme20. But essentially if you refer a friend to the site and that
>> friend orders boards..you get $20 off!
>>
>> So I was able to get 5 double sided boards for about $40 using that
>> $20 online coupon! That's $8 a board..mask, silkscreen(legend)
>> tooling ALL INCLUDED..I don;t know how these guys can offer it at
>> such low prices --hope they have a biz model that works in the long
>> run..but in the short term i am enjoying the prices.
>>
>> I even got my senior year project boards (from college)re-made at
>> these prices..so they look nice and clean and I can prodly show
>them
>> around as the first boards I ever designed.
>>
>>
>> has anybody used pcb-pool.com? Let me know if you have..i might try
>> them out too.
>>
>>
>> James
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Roan" <bob@t...> wrote:
>> > I am trying to make my own PCB boards and have identified at
>least
>> (!)
>> > two areas where I need help.
>> >
>> > #1 - When I held the drill in my hand to drill the holes, they
>> weren't
>> > in very good alignment (probably an understatement.)
>> >
>> > #2 - When I try a two sided board, I will have to connect the
>> circuits
>> > on the two sides with what I think are called vias.
>> >
>> > I'm willing to spend some money (under $200) would be nice on
>> equipment
>> > to help me in these areas. I particularly like the idea of cnc,
>if
>> I'm
>> > correct that it would automatically position the drill, but I am
>not
>> > very skilled at designing and assembling hardware. But I might
>be
>> able
>> > to do something simple. I'm a pretty good programmer, so I might
>be
>> > able to compensate on the software side for these shortcomings.
>> >
>> > any suggestions?
>> >
>> > thanks
>> >
>> > bob
>> >
>> >
>> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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