

How To Develop a PCB on a Low Budget - ekianjo
http://pandoralive.info/?p=2834

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pmorici
If you were hoping for tips on where to actually get a cheap PCB made check
out OSH Park [https://oshpark.com/](https://oshpark.com/) They are really good
for a high quality 2 or 4 layer small run PCB. SparkFun.com used to run their
own service batchpcb.com but they sold to OSH Park recently. Also if you are
in Europe Fritzing Fab [http://fab.fritzing.org/fritzing-
fab](http://fab.fritzing.org/fritzing-fab) is supposed to be pretty good.

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Gracana
I love OSH Park. Their boards are very high quality and their design rules
allow for some small traces, spaces, annular rings, and drills. Small relative
to other batch-based and small-volume services, anyway... the limits are still
a little too big for properly escaping common BGA packages, which is the
hurdle I'm trying to overcome right now.

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mkhattab
BGA packages are definitely a pain in the ass. Especially highly dense BGAs,
which probably require more than 4 layers.

Assuming you have the PCB manufactured, would you assemble the components
yourself? I recall being quoted higher for BGA components at a PCB assembly
service because they needed to X-ray each BGA for inspection.

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mcescalante
Yes, probably better to assemble the components yourself. It's much more
expensive to get it done for you. I have no issues hand soldering 0805 or 0603
surface mount parts (for non-production), and an oven is equally as easy after
a few tries. Even getting an SMT placement machine to do the work would be
cheaper than dealing with BGA.

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unwind
As a (very recent, after a loong delay) Open Pandora owner, I appreciate the
skill and almost manic relentlessness that these people (especially
EvilDragon) have, and that clearly goes into this project too. Good luck!

On a more technical note, it's ... fascinating with a scent of just plain
scary that they're using a MIPI display. I have some experience in that field,
and MIPI seems to mix with open hardware right about as well as lithium mixes
with water. Have fun. :/

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ekianjo
What is your experience with MIPI exactly? what kind problems did you face?

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flyinglizard
It's a closed standard and nearly impossible to debug on the physical level
unless you have patience and serious equipment. While many fast buses are
notoriously difficult to debug, most are pretty common and have ubiquitous
tools. Not so with MIPI. Also, the specific MIPI transceiver implementations I
worked with were premature crap.

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flyinglizard
And this is what we built so the world can get their PCB components super
easily: [http://www.sandsquid.com](http://www.sandsquid.com)

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drivers99
That is really cool. I just went through an example. At first, I thought you
gathered all the parts together and sent them to the users, but I guess you
actually end up providing links with the orders at various sites. I don't have
logins at those sites, but I'm assuming it shows up populated with the list of
parts. So (assuming this is to make money), do you use referral (affiliate)
codes to make money from the site?

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flyinglizard
Glad you liked it! Right now we're only spending money - no revenue
whatsoever. Some of the component distributors listed offered to advertise
with us, but we passed (to keep Sandsquid clean and impartial).

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cordite
I thought it to be really cool!

At my university, we do something similar with having a core CPU board, and
then another main board with all the actual components, like dials, an LCD
screen, temp sensors, a speaker and so on.

This also reminds me of the whole phone blocks thing, with pluggable
components.

