Monday, May 30, 2011

My First PCB Design (Part 2)


Well if you read my last post, you will know that I have been waiting for my first ever PCB design to arrive in the post. Well it finally came! exactly 10 working days from the time of order. Overall, I'd say the result looks pretty good! I haven't soldered one up yet. But when I do, I will do a video. The encoder fits perfectly, the only thing I might have done differently is give more space around the mount holes for extra strength. Please leave a comment if you would like to purchase one of these. They are designed to fit this rotary encoder from Spark Fun Electronics. If there is enough interest I will look into a simple way to sell and distribute online. Next stop, Arduino Shields!

If you want to make your own, check out the prototyping service at this link.

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE NOW! visit my ImMojo Store

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

My First PCB Design (Part 1)

I've been playing around with a rotary encoder I bought from sparkfun.The pins wouldn't fit in a breadboard and I got sick of spaghetti wires everywhere.

So I asked my local hacker space about PCB etching. I decided to give Iron On Transparency Sheets a go. But I got half way through buying the bit's I needed and then came across this site. I'd already done some Eagle Cad Tutorials to create my circuit for the Iron On sheets. So I looked at how cheap I could do a PCB run with the design I already had. It turns out Very Cheap! About $14 AUS for 10 pcs including shipping. I literally can't make them myself for that much so I thought why not give it ago!?

This is my first design.


The boards should arrive in a couple of days. I'll do another post when they arrive.

Here's a link to Part 2 of this post.

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE NOW! visit my ImMojo Store

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

makerslide open source linear bearing system



I'm gonna pledge some money to this. Just the thing I'm looking for at the right price.