30 Jul
2006
30 Jul
'06
4:07 p.m.
Tim Shoppa wrote:
For me, far higher yield for double-sided PCB's
comes from ordering boards over the
internet. Generally you have to use (gasp!) a modern PC with
Windows software, but other than that the experience is wonderful.
GASP...I'm sorry to say this Tim, but this is SO untrue. The
majority of the Internet-based PCB fab houses accept Gerber-format
files...and while you *can* generate those with a legacy Windows PC, I
can't come up with any good reason why someone would want to. I do it
with Solaris on UltraSPARC all the time, for both commercial and hobby
projects. Commercial EDA software for modern platforms is hellatiously
expensive, but even that is unnecessary nowadays. I use two free
packages: gEDA for schematic capture and PCB for circuit board layout.
They also work nicely under MacOS X. I regularly do fine-pitch surface
mount designs with this software.
Oh yeah...Hi folks, long time no see. :)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Cape Coral, FL