Single-sided layout with Othermill help

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michael_lloyd
 
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Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2013 10:03 am

Single-sided layout with Othermill help

Post by michael_lloyd »

I may be looking at this wrong so I thought that I would ask here. I've laid out a single sided board for a power supply for an old tube radio. It's 3 power supplies in one but that's not important.

I laid the board out and sent it to the mill. When I got the board I realized that while I'm looking at the traces and silkscreen, and thinking traces are on the bottom, the mill sees everything as top. When it comes time to mount parts everything is wonky. Left is right, right is left. If I mirror the traces then the silkscreen doesn't match. If I mirror the silkscreen then I just as well delete it because it won't match and I won't be able to read it.

I can't figure out a way around this. Seems like populating a board is going to be a PITA if it has a lot of components. What am I missing?

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Single-sided layout with Othermill help

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

It sounds like you routed the board on the "Top Copper" layer instead of the "Bottom Copper" layer (red traces rather than blue if you're using Eagle).

You can solve the problem with the copper in Eagle by selecting Change -> Layer -> Bottom Copper, selecting the whole layer as a group, then right-clicking (or control-clicking on a Mac) to do a "Change Group". That will push everything through to the bottom layer where you expected it to be.

The silkscreen will be another problem. You have a parity error there.. you laid the traces out thinking they were on the bottom of the board, but laid out the silkscreen like you were looking at the top.

That's fixable, but takes a little more work. In Eagle, do a "Mirror Group" on the whole layout to bring everything around to the top again, but swapped end-for-end as it should be. That will also reverse all of the text in your silkscreen, but at least all the labels will be in the right place. To fix those, mirror any text that appears on its own, and smash any packages with names/values that show up in the silkscreen layer (make the text independent of the component). Then you can mirror those to get back to the correct orientation.

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michael_lloyd
 
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Re: Single-sided layout with Othermill help

Post by michael_lloyd »

Thanks for the explanation. I followed your recommendations and now everything looks as it should. Now all I need to do is figure out how to tell the Other Mill to make the bottom traces not top.

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SimoneOMC
 
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Re: Single-sided layout with Othermill help

Post by SimoneOMC »

Hi MIchael!

The Othermill will cut your bottom traces as they are laid out in Eagle, all you have to do is make sure the copper is on top in the machine, and that the "Side" button is toggled to "Bottom".

The machine will cut your plan, and when it's done, all you need to do is flip it over and drop your components through from the non-copper side of the board. Mike's excellent Eagle advice will help with that part.

Let us know if you have any further questions!

Thanks,

Simone

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michael_lloyd
 
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Re: Single-sided layout with Othermill help

Post by michael_lloyd »

Hi Simone,

Did you get my email about the mill locking up and shutting down? I sent links to the videos I made when it started making odd sounds. I'd like to know if you're going to send parts or an RMA and shipping label. I need to get the mill repaired asap. It's barely got a week of time on it.

Michael

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SimoneOMC
 
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Re: Single-sided layout with Othermill help

Post by SimoneOMC »

Hi Michael,

Yes I did, we will be sending you some info and getting you back milling ASAP. Apologies for the frustration!

Thanks,

Simone

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