I had designed and then ordered a PCB for my interpretation of a protoboardunio, as a first PCB design experiment. I had used the good service at OSH Park to make the order, and they arrived today!
OSHPark effectively uses a specific colour purple as their brand, and so the envelope of course came in that colour purple.
On first glance, the boards look pretty sharp. The gold on purple, with the while silk screen, makes the whole thing pop. OSH Park doesn’t put their brand or a reference number of the board – they just print the board as you sent it to them, which is nice. THe only thing I would say is that they leave the mouse bites and the tabs for the panelization, which is a little annoying. Not that big of a deal tho. 123D Circuits does put a silk screen water mark on the back tho.
A couple of things I noticed right off:
- Font size: 123D Circuits had different size print for the silk screen. The small print (Font size 1) that I used for the pin numbers and marking PWM and pin functions (TX, RX, etc.) is extremely small, to the point where I can barely read it. The slightly larger font that I used for the power connection and the title of the board is readable, but also very small. For future boards, I would not want to go smaller that Font size 2 if I can help it.
- Pin sizes: I used a number of different hole sizes as I wanted to see how they worked out on the board, and now I can see them clearly. Of note, the pin holes for the power regulator look extremely small. I am not sure if they will fit the pins on the 7805 that I planned to use for this… in fact, I am sure they will not!
Now, to (attempt) to put it together and see if it works!
Discovering my makerself 