Please read the FAQ very carefully. In this FAQ we did try to compile the most frequently questions which arise in the communication with our customers regarding the PCB production. If we missed something important you are always welcome to ask and we'll include it herehere. The technical support questions we got each day in 90% of the cases are already answered here below, so please before send your question check if the answer is not already here.
We offer low cost ROHS compliant PCB prototypes with Immersion gold surface
finish.
We allow multiply boards to be put on same panel.
We will panelize many different PCB files on one panel for your free of charge.
We will de-panelize (cut to rectangles) your boards from the panel free of charge.
We don't charge setup, tooling, photoplots, etc you name it fees, our panel
prices are all inclusive: PCB + soldermask + component print + tooling + setup
+ photoplots.
Our minimum order is 1 panel, we don't mislead our customers like our competitors
who says: we offer PCB for $10/each or $33/each (but later on you find that
this is for 3-10 pcs board order).
We do free Design Rule Check and notify you if we find that your design violate
our technological requirements or have errors.
We produce and ship in 3-5 working days after we receive your order confirmation.
We can ASSEMBLY your prototypes with
the components we carry on stock, and it only takes extra few days.
Q: Are my design files safe when I submit them to you for manufacturing?
A: We respect customer's copyright and will never manufacture PCBs for someone
else with your files unless we receive written permission from you, nor we'll
share these files with any other 3rd parties.
Q: I sent you my board files, you checked them that they meet your DRC requirements
and you confirmed my order with purchase order form. I still didn't send you
the purchase order form back, but I decided to change something in my board.
Can I send you my new files and use the old purchase order form?
A: No. Each po form is exactly for the board received. Also note that when we
issued your po form we already did a lot of postprocessing work, so if you decide
to send new files for board we already confirmed for manufacturing new po form
will be issued, but in your new po form there will be file re-processing charge
for each new file processed - reffer to our PRICE
web page for more info.
Q: Do you produce only prototypes or I can order production quantities from
you too?
A: We can manufacture PCBs in any volume.
Q: Can I order PCB prototype which you have produced for other customer?
A: Yes, you can, but for this purpose we should receive written permission from
the first customer who submitted this PCB. In this case you just have to reffer
to first customer po# to re-order the PCB.
Q: I found design on the internet, can you manufacture it for me?
A: We don't investigate if the customer who submit the PCB for production is
the original copyright holder, so when customer submits PCB files for manufacturing
we assume he have copyright for it and the customer is responsible if he violates
copyright law. Be advised that many designs made with Eagle on Internet are
made with illegal Eagle licensee, so we can't open them and produce them, so
before submitting Eagle design found on internet first check if it's made with
legal Eagle licensee read on our TECHNICAL INFO
page how to do this
Q: How to define my order?
A: Please include with your PCB files README.TXT as
per our web template.
Q: I want to re-order PCB which you have manufactured for me before, should
I sent you my files again?
A: If I remember your previous PO# you can just place your order by sending
README.TXT as per our web template,
instead the PCB files write in the readme your previous PO#. In this case we'll
take your info from the archive and you will not have to pay additional charges
as Silkscreen fix or Small error charges (even if your first PO had these additional
charges).
Q: What is your minimum order quantity?
A: One panel (SSS/DSS/SSQ/DSQ)
Q: My board is 3 x 3 cm (1" x 1"). What is the price? Can I pay only for
this board area?
A: When ordering prototype panel SSS/SSQ/DSS/DSQ you are paying for the WHOLE
PANEL AREA. Try to use this area completely. If your board is small we can panelize
it (multiply it) on the panel, but even if you want your board to be placed
once on the panel you pay the same price.
Q: I don't get reply to my e-mail. What's wrong?
A: Please check if the Return-Path of your e-mail client is configured correctly.
Send test e-mail to other e-mail you can verify that your e-mail client sends
e-mails or check if there is not problem with your e-mail server. We respond
in 24 hours, so if you don't get reply in this time please re-send your e-mail
again.
Q: I asked in my README.TXT for non-standard laminate thickness but the
received PO form have no such charge, should I send the PO form?
A: Please always double check the PO forms as we are also peoples and do mistakes,
our operator may oversight your requirement, the bottom line is that if you
send the PO form back you agree with the written conditions on the PO form,
i.e. if there is no charge for non-standard laminate thickness this PO go in
our production dept as order and your board will be manufactured on standard
laminate thickness as they have no access to your README.TXT.
Q: Can you send me the phototools together with the prototypes?
A: No.
Q: Can you assemble and solder my prototype boards? Is there minimum order
quantity for assembly?
A: Yes, we can assemble and solder your prototype boards. There is no minimum
order quantity. Just read what info we should receive to quote on our PCB
ASSEMBLY web page.
Q: Why your prices are so low? Are you using junk
or low grade materials?
A: The main cost forming factor in the prototypes production is the labour cost.
Luckely for you the labor in Bulgaria is inexpensive and this allow us to offer
you excellent quality product at bargain price. We are using the same
high grade materials as any other PCB manufacturer. The material cost is
only fraction of PCB prototype price.
Q: What import tax I have to pay when receive your boards in my country?
A: Bulgaria is Europe Union member from January 1st 2007. You have to check
what import taxes you have to pay with your local customs authorities.
Q: Does your web price contain VAT (Value Added Tax)?
A: No, our web prices are export netto prices. They doesn't contain VAT. If
you live outside EU these are your final prices, if you live inside EU and have
no tax exempt EU VAT-ID we should charge 20% Bulgarian VAT above the order value.
Q: Is there price discount if I re-order PCB panel which is already manufactured.
A: No, the price discount depend only from number of panels which you order.
Please check our PRICE web page for more info.
Q: What would be our production price per sq.dm / (sq.inch) ?
A: We don't have price per sq.dm / (sq.inch). The board price is calculated
taking into consideration the dimensions, how the boad would be panelized, stacked,
what are the minimum tracks/spaces, what and how many drill sizes are used etc.
You will receive quotation for each case. Please check our Design
tips to find out how to design your boards for lower price.
Q: Does the number of holes on my PCB affect my price?
A: We have panel limit which is 500 drill holes for SSS and DSS panels and 2000
holes for SSQ and DSQ panels, if your board panel have more than these you will
be charged each time you exceed this limit. For instance if your DSS panel have
501 holes you will get charged once per panel, if your DSS panel have 1001 holes
you will get charged twice per panel. For the hole limit charge please check
our PRICE web page for more info.
Q: Can I order my board with silkscreen on top and bottom?
A: Yes, we can do this for additional charge please reffer to our PRICE
web page for more details.
Q: What is non-standard drill size?
A: We are using standard drill rack with the following sizes: 0.7 mm, 0.9 mm,
1.0 mm, 1.1 mm, 1.3 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.1 mm, 3.3 mm. If you are using different drill
sizes in your board you will be charged for using of non-standard drill sizes.
For instance if you use in your board 0.6 mm 1.0 mm and 1.5 mm drill sizes you
will be charged for using 0.6 mm drill size which is non-standard. Reffer to
our PRICE web page for more details.
Q: May I have overlaping drills on my board?
A: Overlapping drill holes are not allowed to exist in your design, nor drill
slots. If there are only few we'll fix (remove the duplicating drill holes)
and charge you one time small amount in your po form. Please reffer to our PRICE
web page for more info.
Q: Is my card info sefe with Olimex?
A: We have strict company policy for the card info. The access to this info
is restricted to only few Olimex employees in our accounting where the fax numbers
written on the PO form are located. The database is not on file or online but
kept on paper copy only (your po form which is in our archive).
Q: I have Paypal account. Can I pay by Paypal?
A: Yes, you can pay by Paypal, but due to the higher service charge we have
to increase your order value with 5% if you want to pay by Paypal.
Q: Can I pay by Visa electron or Maestro card?
A: No, we can't charge Visa electron nor Maestro cards.
Q: Can I pay by check?
A: We can't accept payments by check unless the check is issued and drawn in
Bulgarian bank.
Q: Can I pay by card if my request is sent from Anonymous e-mail account
like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail etc.?
A: Yes you can, but if you are first time customer we must verify you are legitimate
cardholder and to be sure that this is not credit card fraud attempt. For this
purpose when we receive your PO form we'll first charge small random value under
EUR 1.00 to your card and will wait you to report back what is the value we
charged. Once you are verified as legitimate cardholder you can continue ordering
from anonymous account without future verification.
Q: I want to pay in cash when receive the parcel, can you ship C.O.D. (cash
on delivery)?
A: No, we can't ship C.O.D.
Q: I'm not first time customer. I got PO form, should I send fax with my
card info every time I order with card?
A: We must receive signed po form with every order. If you already have ordered
with us and your card info is not changed you can send your po form by e-mail.
In this case you must fill everything on the po form and sign it but in card
info field you must only fill previous po#, card EXP date and card CVC code.
Please have look at such filled
po form here
Q: Does your price include the shipping to me?
A: No, our price is EXW (ex-works) and doesn't include the shipping charge.
Q: What shipping options do I have?
A: AIRMAIL, Express Mail, FedEx, TNT, DHL, UPS. Please check for the different
shipping option in our ORDER web page.
Q: I ordered by airmail shipment. How can I track the shipment?
A: Airmail delivery is recommended parcel post service. This is post office
delivery and have no tracking/tracing as Express Mail or the Courier companies.
Q: What is your standard laminate thickness?
A: Our standard laminate thickness is 1.5 mm (0.062")
Q: What other laminate thcikness options do I have?
A: We can manufacture your boards also with these non-standard laminate thickness:
0.5 mm (0.020"), 0.8 mm (0.032"), 1.0 mm (0.04"), but you will
have to pay additional charge per every panel manufactured on non-standard laminate
thickness, please reffer our PRICE web page for
more info.
Q: Can you manufacture on high frequency materials as Rogers etc?
A: yes we can, but we don't stock such materials, so if you want us to produce
your boards on such material you have to supply the base laminates to us. Please
contact us for more information how to arrange this, the panel dimensions etc.
Q: Can you tell me more about your laminates physical properties?
A: Yes, please have look at the info below:
Laminate brand: CC-5400
Manufacturer: CKC TAIWAN
ANSI grade: FR-4
Laminate thickness 0.5 mm (0.020"), 0.8 mm (0.032"), 1.0 mm (0.040"),
1.5 mm (0.062")
copper thickness 18 um (1/2 oz) or 35 um (1 oz)
operating temperature Tg > 130 C
soldering 260C/500F - 40 sec., 290C/554F - 20 sec.
Dielectric cinstant 1Mhz: 4.0 - 4.5, guaranteed < 5.0
Dissipation factor 1MHz: 0.02-0.03, guaranteed < 0.03
Volume resistivity: Ohm.cm > 5*10^14
UL 94V-0, UL746 CTI 100
Q: What copper thickness option do I have?
A: We can offer 18 um (1/2 oz) and 35 um (1 oz) copper thickness.
Q: What soldermask do you use for production?
A: We use green Liquid Photo Imagable (LPI) Soldermask for our PCB production.
Q: Other manufacturers charge higher price for PCBs with soldermask, does
soldermask increase your prices?
A: No, the soldermask is standard option for our prototypes, so all boards are
produced with soldermask and this doesn't rise the price.
Q: Will I get discount on my prototype if I ask you to make it without soldermask?
A: No, in matter of fact our PCB finish is immersion gold, which means
if your board is manufactured without soldermask it will lead to solid gold
deposit on your exposed copper area and your price will be MUCH higher than
our standard panel price, if your design require absence of soldermask (RF parts,
termal dessipation) please ask for special quote - we can't offer you our standard
prices for PCBs without soldermask.
Q: How many soldermasks are printed on the single sided PCBs?
A: We print one soldermask on the copper layer of your single sided boards.
It may be on top or bottom depend on where is your copper layer.
Q: Is it possible top and bottom soldermasks to be different, does this
involve additional charge?
A: Yes, on the double sided boards we print two soldermasks on top and bottom
copper layers and the soldermask may be different (SMT parts) and this doesn't
involve additional charge.
Q: What soldermask colors are available for my PCBs?
A: If your board is fast turnaround prototype we offer only one color - green.
We can offer black, blue, red green, yellow and white soldermasks for production
orders, please check on our PRICE web page for
more details.
Q: Can I order my board with silkscreen on top and bottom?
A: Yes, we can do this for additional charge please reffer to our PRICE
web page for more details.
Q: Can I have different color than white for my component silkscreen print?
A: No the only option is white ink component print.
Q: Will you manipulate my silkscreen print?
A: No, we don't check for errors nor manipulate your silkscreen, so if you component
print is over your component pads you will have problems to solder your pads
later. This is why we always recommend to our customers before they send their
files for production to use Gerber viewer and check all their layers.
Q: Are your boards ROSH compliant?
A: Yes, the standard surface finish for our prototypes is Immerson Gold plating.
This is Ni-Au finish over the laminate Cupper. Immersion gold and galvanic gold
are the most expensive but the best ROHS compliant surface finishes on the market
today.
Q: Why do you use Gold plating isn't it the most expensive?
A: Yes, immersion gold is most expensive, but it's the best surface finish known
in the industry today. The immersion gold finish have perfect even surface and
excellent solderability and outperform all other ROHS compliant alternatives
like SN100C (SnCuNi) HAL or immersion Tin not speaking for the organic coating
(colophone+alcohol mix) over bare copper which is worst.
The alternative pure Tin finish is cheap but suffer from these problems:
Q: Can you do my protos with SMOBC or HASL finish?
A: No. We don't use SMOBC and HASL anymore, our only process now is ROHS compliant
immersion gold.
Q: When I send my Drill tools sizes are they before or after the plating?
A: The drill tools sizes are assumed the drill tool sizes for drilling. After
the plating in double side PCB the finished hole size will be -0.1 mm. i.e.
0.7 mm drill size will produce 0.6 mm final hole size. You should take this
into account when you design your board. The general rule of tumb when you design
your custom library parts is that if your component lead is X mm your drill
hole should be X+0.3-4 mm i.e. if your component lead is 0.4 mm you must provide
0.7 - 0.8 mm drill hole, if you make the clearance bigger you will have more
waste of solder when soldering and you may not fill your pads properly, if you
make the clearance smaller you will have problems when you stuff your components.
Q: It is possible to have non plated holes in my double side board?
A: No. All holes are to be plated. If you send us PCB files with split plated
and non-plated holes files, the non-plated holes file will be ignored.
Q: What is non-standard drill size?
A: We are using standard drill rack with the following sizes: 0.7 mm, 0.9 mm,
1.0 mm, 1.1 mm, 1.3 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.1 mm, 3.3 mm. If you are using different drill
sizes in your board you will be charged for using of non-standard drill sizes.
For instance if you use in your board 0.6 mm 1.0 mm and 1.5 mm drill sizes you
will be charged for using 0.6 mm drill size which is non-standard. Reffer to
our PRICE web page for more details.
Q: What is your minimum drill size I can use in my design?
A: 0.6 mm (24 mils)
Q: What is your maximum drill size I can use in my design?
A: 5.0 mm (195 mils)
Q: What if I use under 0.6 mm in my design and I send it to you for manufacturing?
A: We'll not process your files and notify you that you can't use under 0.6
mm drill size in your design.
Q: What if I use over 5.0 mm in my design and I send it to you for manufacturing?
A: We'll replace all drill sizes over 5.0 mm with 5.0 mm and will not notify
you about this, as we assume you read our web pages ;-)
Q: If I use 0.6 mm drill size what is the minimum pad diameter?
A: 1.06 mm which produce 0.203 mm annular copper ring (8 mils).
Q: I'm sending you my files. Can you substitute the drill sizes in my Drill
file to your standard drill sizes?
A: No. We don't alter customer files. Increasing drill sizes outside your CAD
program almost always create annular ring violations in DRC check, decreasing
drill sizes may cause problems with your component stuffing, so if you want
to use standard drill sizes just design your board with these.
Q: Does the number of holes on my PCB affect my price?
A: We have panel limit which is 500 drill holes for SSS and DSS panels and 2000
holes for SSQ and DSQ panels, if your board panel have more than these you will
be charged each time you exceed this limit. For instance if your DSS panel have
501 holes you will get charged once per panel, if your DSS panel have 1001 holes
you will get charged twice per panel. For the hole limit charge please check
our PRICE web page for more info.
Q: What drill sizes can I use in my design? Can I use inch sizes?
A: Yes, you can use inch sizes, but note that we work in metric units and we
have drill sizes from 0.6 mm to 5.0 mm in 0.1 mm steps. This means that if we
receive your drill sizes in inch units we'll convert to metric and round to
0.1 mm. For instance if you are using 27 mils, 28 mils and 29 mils drill sizes
they all will be rounded to 0.7 mm. To convert from IMPERIAL to METRIC you should
divide your IMPERIAL drill size to 39.37 i.e. 130 mils / 39.37 = 3.3 mm and
vice versa 1.0 mm = 39.37 mils after rounding = 39 mils. If this rounding is
not taken into consideration you can easily make DRC violations - for instance
you can use 34 mils drill with 50 mils pad/via which should pass the annular
ring copper check as the pad-drill is 16 mils, but 34 mils drill = 0.86 mm will
be rounded to 0.9 mm and the 1.27 mm pad/via will fail on the DRC check.
Q: May I have overlaping drills on my board?
A: Overlapping drill holes are not allowed to exist in your design, nor drill
slots. If there are only few we'll fix (remove the duplicating drill holes)
and charge you one time small amount in your po form. Please reffer to our PRICE
web page for more info.
Q: My can generated too many non-standard drill sizes when I process my
board, may I manually adjust them to your standard drill sizes?
A: Please DONT MANIPULATE YOUR DRILL HOLES OUTSIDE YOUR CAD PROGRAM - this is
very often error made by not experienced Eagle users, in the aim to use only
standard drill szies they manually increaseing their holes after they generate
Eagle NC drill files, this is totally wrong approach as always leads to annular
ring violations and your board will be not produced. If you want to use standard
drill sizes please make this in your CAD and do DRC check to make sure that
your board design is error free.
Q: Is there way I can make my Eagle libraries with Olimex standard drill
sizes?
A: Yes, someone already did such ULP which you can download from Eagle
web site.The name of the ULP is change_libraries_to_olimex_drills.zip
Q: What is your minimum order quantity?
A: One panel (SSS/DSS/SSQ/DSQ)
Q: My board is 3 x 3 cm (1" x 1"). What is the price? Can I pay only for
this board area?
A: When ordering prototype panel SSS/SSQ/DSS/DSQ you are paying for the WHOLE
PANEL AREA. Try to use this area completely. If your board is small we can panelize
it (multiply it) on the panel, but even if you want your board to be placed
once on the panel you pay the same price.
Q: Do you have other panel sizes?
A: For the fast turnaround prototypes we use only two standard panel sizes:
160x100 mm (6.3 x 3.9") and 320x200 mm (12.59 x 7.87"). For normal
production time runs we optimize panel size as per board size.
Q: I have board with dimensions above your panel size, can you manufacture
it?
A: We can handle up to 400x400 mm panels, but such custom panel sizes price
(per area) is twice higher than standard panel price per area and of course
this may cause additional delay in the order processing, so use this option
only if you can't use our standard panel sizes as this always will lead to higher
price and longer delivery time.
Q: Can I send you several small board files which to be panelized to one
of your panels?
A: Yes. We can do this free of charge. When you are sending more than one board
file please attach picture how the boards should be panelized. If you
do not provide panelization drawing picture we'll try to panelize but will charge
you additiona fee. Please reffer our PRICE page
for more info. The panelization drawing picture must be in easy viewable format
like: BMP, GIF, JPG, PDF and each board on the drawing should have name as the
PCB files name you send for it. Please note that we de-panelize the boards from
the panel with stright cuts from side to side so this is correct
panelization request and this is incorrect
panelization request which we can't de-panelize.
Q: What should I know when I send many different boards for panelizaiton?
A: Please be careful when you calculate your board dimensions, if you send many
boards for panelization and we can't fit them as per your panelization drawing
you should send new drawing or remove boards to make panelization possible but
we'll not process new files (i.e. you change your board dimensions and send
again) without charging re-processing fee. Please reffer to our PRICE
web page for more info.
Q: I don't want to have border on my PCB, can I have board dimension (outline)
= 0?
A: No, all boards should have 10 mils borders on all layers (most important
on copper layers). If you want your board manufactured without borders we can't
de-panelize them and we can ship to you as panel, so you can de-panelize yourself.
Q: Should be border continuous line?
A: No, it may be dashed line, but must be good visible as this is our guide
when we de-panelize your boards from the panel
Q: What are the de-panelization options?
A: We de-panelize the boards from the panel manually and have two tools for
this purpose.
Q: I want to panelize my boards by myself. When I do the panelization is
there need for gap between the board's borders?
A: Yes. Please panelize your boards with 0.254 mm (10 mils) gap between outer
outside of their borders (NOT between the centers of your board borders i.e.
take into account the border line width too!) if you choose guilotinee cut and
panelize with 2 mm (78 mils) gap between outer outside of their borders if you
choose disk cut. Boards that are panelized must have a minimum border width
of 10mils. Please have look at this
picture which explains how to place the boards.
Q: What are the maximum board dimensions if I want two boards to be panelized
on DSS panel?
A: If we assume your board border is 0.254 mm thick (10 mils) and you want guilotinee
cut your maximum board dimensions should be 100*79.5 mm or 160*49.5 mm. If you
want disk cut your max dimensions should be 100 * 78.75 mm or 160*48.75 mm
Q: How to calculate my maximum board dimensions if I want to yield 2x3 copies
on DSS panel?
A: For guilotinee cut: X=(160-0.254)/2-0.254 = 79,6 mm Y=(100-0.508)/3-0.254
= 32.9 mm. For disk cut: X = (160-2)/2-0.254 = 78.75 mm, Y = (100-4)/3-0.254
= 31.7 mm
Q: Can you mill/route, v-score my protos?
A: No milling/routing/v-score is available for the prototypes, but these are
available for production runs.
Q: I just learning how to use my CAD software. When I postprocess the board
my CAD program generate many different files. Can I zip them all together and
send them to you - I'm sure you will find all your necessary information for
the manufacturing?
A: If this is your first order - No problem to help you to understand what and
where your CAD software puts in your files. Anyway good starting point is to
download some of the freeware Gerber viewers from Design
tools web page and to evaluate yourself what is the generated file content.
Q: In what file format to send my NC drill files? I have option to generate
them as Gerber is it good?
A: NC drill files should be in Excellon or S&M format not in Gerber format.
Q: I have options for different precission, which one to pick?
A: Please use 2.4 or 3.4 precission.
Q: Can you manufacture my board from this: BMP, GIF, TIFF, JPG picture?
A: No, as these formats are not good for PCB manufacturing.
Q: Can I send you my CAD files and you to postprocess them for me?
A: Yes, we can do this free of charge if your board is designed with EAGLE.
Our customers use hundreds of different CAD products (see our Design
Tools web page) which cost between EUR 0 and EUR 50 000 we have no time
to learn nor free money to spend and buy all existing CADs on the earth just
to process your files to Gerbers :) so please do your home work and learn how
to generate and check your gerbers.
Q: I use Protel can you give me hints
how to process my files?
A: Yes, one of our customers: Henrik J. Koch after submitting several times
wrong gerbers and learning how and what to do correctly made excellent
tutorial based on the his own experience :) so you now can benefit and use
it without duplicating his mistakes.
To generate correct Gerber files always have been considered as kind of black magic, or something very hard, which peoples learn after years of designins boards. The truth is that it's piece of cake when you done it once correctly, and to tell you under secret we have seen many bad generated gerbers/pcb files coming from huge companies and from peoples who have been involved for 20+ years in the PCB design and production, so it's not how long you have dealt with this, but if you had good tutor who to tell you what and how to do :) once you learn if wrong way you can continue to do it wrong way 20+ years.
Q: Where I can learn more for RS274X Gerber format?
A: Excellent source is available here.
Q: My CAD have option to generate the pads as donuts, is it OK to send my
files this way?
A: No, please don't send pierced pads gerbers, they look good on your monitor,
but are not good for manufacturing.
Q: What is Composite gerbers and negative plots, how bad are they for my
design?
A: Composite layer is ancient way to generate your copper pour. This is still
used by old CAD software which don't have copper pour hatch stroke filling.
Why is bad...pictures
Q: Should I check my Gerbers before send them for production?
A: We highly recommend you to check always your generated gerber files with
gerberviewer before send them for production. This will save you money (wrongly
generated files which lead to production of board with errors) and time we check
your gerbers only once per day, so if you submit wrong files we'll report and
if you submit new files will check them next working days.
Q: What is the minimum apreture I can use in the gerbers?
A: Please don't use under 8 mils line widths in your Gerbers on the copper layers.
Basically you can use any line width size to fill your copper polygones, but
practice shows that if the stroke width is under 8 mils and the CAD program
doesn't generate hatch filling simple stroke to stroke filling the quality of
the phototools printed is bad. Many CAD programs have 5 mils or 1 mils line
width for copper pour set by default so you have to check your settings as we'll
put your order on hold if your copper pour is made with under 8 mils stroke
width.
Q: I designed my board in Inch (mm) units, in which units should I export
my Gerbers?
A: Always export your gerbers in the units you designed board to prevent
rounding errors in your Gerber generation due to the unit conversion.
Q: What is good number precision for gerber generation?
A: 2.4 or 3.4 is OK. Some CAD products have default precision 4.2 or 2.3
which is pretty bad for dense boards as the XY coordinates will be rounded to
second digit after the decimal point in first case.
Q: My CAD ask me if I want to add offset to XY when I generate my Gerbers,
what number I shuold set?
A: Please use offset 0,0 if you add large offset it will do nothing but
make your XY coordinates bigger and there may be errors due to rounding or to
exceed maximum number which could be present by the selected the precision.
Eagle is the CAD of choice for many peoples on low budget due to the flexible price policy of Cadsoft, which allow peoples to use limited version of their CAD as freeware if used for personal purpose. In other hads once you get used to it you love it and don't want to replace it with anything else which usually works slower and have less flexibility. The power of Eagle is in the ULP extensions which allow users to add new functionality to Eagle i.e. making our own commands etc.
Q: I'm total beginner and try to make my first PCB with Eagle, what procedure
to follow to be sure that I don't do something wrong or silly?
A: Welcome to the wonderful wolrd of PCB design :) If you are beginner
please follow these steps and you will make perfect boards from the very first
time:
Q: I want to learn how to postprocess my Eagle .BRD files by myself?
A: It's easy. Just do the following steps:
Q: How do I change the Eagle NC drill file precision?
A: By default Eagle generates the NC drill files with 2.3 file format (i.e.
3 digits after the decimal point) in some cases if your board is designed in
Imperial units (while default Eagle database units are metric) and the board
is high density there is small error due to the rounding when the drill XY coordinates
are generated. This leads to small displacement of the holes inside the pad
area i.e. your holes are not in the center of your pads. You can increase the
NC drill precision by following procedure:
Go in your EAGLE BIN folder and make copy of EAGLE.DEF file, then open it and
change [EXCELLON] section as follows:
[EXCELLON]
Type = DrillStation
Long = "Excellon drill station"
Init = "%%\n"
Reset = "M30\n"
ResX = 100000
ResY = 100000
;Rack = ""
Select = "%s\n" ; (Drill code)
Drill = "X%6.0fY%6.0f\n" ; (x, y)
Info = "Drill File Info:\n"\
"\n"\
" Data Mode : Absolute\n"\
" Units : 1/1000 Inch\n"\
" End Of Block : CR/LF\n"\
"\n"
Q: How can I find what drill sizes are used in my BRD design?
A: Do run DRILLCFG.ULP which will extract all drill sizes you are using.
Q: I'm sending you my Eagle BRD file. Can you postprocess my BRD file with
layers different than the default Eagle CAM layers?
A: No.We postprocess Eagle BRD files with only default Eagle CAM layers. If
you want other layers than defaults please postprocess your BRD file by yourself
(see below how).
Q: What should i know when I use copper pour (polygons)?
A: Eagle put the polygon copper on 8 mils distance by default (when ISOLATE
parameter is 0). Use ISOLATE=10-12 mils to increase your copper distance from
your pads and tracks.
Q: What happens if I send for production both Gerbers and Eagle BRD?
A: We just will ignore the Gerbers and process the BRD file, so please decide
which files you want to have your board manufactured from and send only Gerbers
or BRD..
Q: Is there way I can make my Eagle libraries with Olimex standard drill
sizes?
A: Yes, someone already did such ULP which you can download from Eagle
web site.The name of the ULP is change_libraries_to_olimex_drills.zip
Your design should comply to these DRC specifications to may be able to produce your board, if your board doesn't pass these DRC your order will be put on hold:
Please check these TOP 11 MOST COMMON ERRORS beginners (and experienced customers) do:
Q: My cad doesn't report any violations but your stop my order and say it
contains errors and doesn't pass DRC check, what could be wrong?
A: We have noticed these phonomens in some cases. They all come from some kind
of XY Gerber/NC drill coordinates rounding when the board is designed on the
edge of the specs. Possible reasons may be:
Schematic capture:
Design rule check & post processing: