I don’t have made gerberfiles because I only upload the .brd file to oshpark…
Do you always make gerber files and review these with a viewer? I thought that wouldn’t be necessary because oshpark shows a preview anyway…
It’s no big problem it’s more a confusement, I just can scrap the solder mask a bit away but I would like to know what I did wrong to make it better next time.
The big through hole is also different than I thought it would be, but it worked and the rectangular fields on the middle are in the same layer….?
I always generate Gerbers. Gerbers are subject to significantly less interpretation than a BRD file. It also gives me more control of things like what layers are included on the silkscreen.
I do not always check my Gerbers in a viewer, I only check about 1/3 or less of the time. Whenever I see anything I am unsure of on the OSH Park preview I check my gerbers using Gerbv. Also don’t forget that the renders OSH Park does are very low resolution - they may be missing some detail.
OSH Park provides a CAM job which you can use, you don’t have to make one up all by yourself.
This driver was originally an idea I had when I got sick of building 16x7135 drivers, then having the moonlight be high, unstable, or not work at all. After my failed attempts, JonnyC tweaked the STAR firmware for dual output. I built quite a few cutting traces and using a jumper on the normal 105C boards, then Mattaus helped me create the first version of this board. This is his board, with a few tweaks, and a nod to all of those who have inspired me and helped me down this path. I couldn't have done it without the help from many here! Thank you all.
Please note that this exact revision is untested, although I am 99% certain it will work.
I’ve examined the BRD. I have also run the OSH Park CAM job against it and examined the Gerbers that produced.
The large vias on your physical board look exactly like your BRD does in Eagle. Gerbv displays the Gerbers differently though. Like the OSH Park render, Gerbv does not show a bulge. I think this may be related to your use of square rings on the vias? I always use circular.
The top soldermask looks correct in your BRD and the OSH Park render. I think the extra mask applied around the vias is a mistake at the board house (fab). Why don’t you send an email to OSH Park’s support, they are very good about this sort of thing. They’ll either make it right if the problem is on their end or they’ll nicely explain what you’ve done to cause the problem.
It seems that you have placed an extra square on the BSTOP layer inside the large lefthand via. This should not affect anything as far as I know, but as far as I know it’s not there on purpose.
I recommend that you switch from “Proportional” text to “Vector” text and ensure that your lines are 5mil thick or greater. This is why your silkscreen text did not come out well.
Thanks. I care about the stopmask in the middle because it took me some minutes to make the size and position and then it was messed up…arghh!
I will email oshpark my question, wasn’t brave enough until now because I thought I maybe made a well known mistake.
Already read the hint with the vector text in another post from CK, I will try this next time…
@RMM
Why is there only one capacitor on the board?
File is here, just copy into your cam processor directory, then tell it to open the brd file, then run project…then zip all the .* (capital letter files) files (the .GBP and .GTP files are the paste files for OSHStencils), and upload that to OSHPark
There is not much need to go through the extra step of generating gerbers, unless drc errors are causing oshpark to reject your brd (or you want to change a part outline silkscreen without actually editing the part).
or OSHPark shows one thing but for some reason the fab house runs em differently
(like what happened to Werner)
I have uploaded a few .brd files I found in peoples shared project folders, OSHPark rendered them all funky, traces extra wide and shorting. blah blah…when I converted to gerbers, they came out just as I uploaded them…sometimes their stuff goes squiffy…not often but it happens
The fab makes occasional errors whether you use brd or gerbers. I’ve had equal fab errors with both.
I’ve noticed that too. Honestly, if you run drc on the boards, you’ll see the problems causing it. You can only have so many drc violations before you start getting problems. Gerbers mush everything together and can hide some errors. When starting out I can understand ignoring everything to just to get a simple pcb made before you really learn eagle. But it works against you, makes designs harder if you continue like that.
I dunno about all that. Generating Gerbers is definitely the tried and true way. Even Gerbers leave room for error, BRD files leave a lot of room for error.
As long as one isn’t using gerbers because oshpark is refusing the brd due to a ton of design errors. Most fabs don’t even accept brds, its supposed to be helpful that oshpark does. The brd isn’t sent to the fab, they generate gerbers with eagle 6.6.
I got answer from oshpark and its like wight has said it before, fab messed it up, their files look good. No big problem anyway but good to know it wasn’t my fault.
I used gerberfiles before for itead but I like how easy it is to just upload the brd file and see a preview…
Get a program called grbv and it will generate a 3D image of your board as well, you can even change the default skin to the oshpark one and see the way your design will look as well
Like RMM’s Moonlight Special V2 8x 7135
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P.S. RMM when you zip the files, don’t include the revisions in the zip…only the files with capitol letter extensions
