Small production run of 3PDT wiring boards

[vick]

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I always use 3PDT wiring boards in my build and was looking to reduce cost by designing my own.  Just got    a small production run of 40 boards back on Saturday.

[adstrum]

Nicely done Vick.

If you don't mind, I'm curious to know how much the run cost. I've been using the 3PDT boards from 1776 effects and I've been very happy with them. At $1.50 each, they are pretty reasonably priced too.

[otalgiafx]

May be worth contacting stinger on this forum as he had a bucketload to sell last time I contacted him  -

http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/Have-some-3PDT-wiring-pcb-s-for-sell-td4086.html

[vick]

Yes the 1776 boards are great.

I went through Seed Studios for the run and the boards end up being roughly 50 cents a piece.

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/fusion-pcb-service-2-layers-p-835.html

I did a 5mm panel and I could fit 2 board on a panel though it is pretty tight.  I was planning on separating on my table saw with a thin plywood blade ( same a s I use for strip boards) but I did not have enough room so have to separate with a hack saw.  In the future I would go with a 10mm panel they have a 5 separate circuits on a panel limit so the cost would be the same but I would have enough room to use the table saw to separate.

[adstrum]

At 50c, that's pretty attractive.

[vick]

Eagle has a bit of a learning curve.  I was interested in learning to design my own PCB's so it was worth it for me to struggle through learning Eagle.

I actually tested the design through a 3 board order at OSHPark before I did the bigger run, so I have probably been working on this for almost 2 months.

If you noticed I kept all my pads in the same order as the 1776 boards, I have been using them so long I know if I changed the order I would screw up several pedals.

As a side note if you talk to the 1776 guy ( i forget his name) about ordering boards in higher quantities he might give you a break on the price.  Don't ask me how I know and don't tell him I told you.