Dr. Boogey Express PCB Layout

[shanter]

Ok, So im thinking about making my first Express PCB Order!! Im tired of making boards and drilling 10,000 holes so im gonna give this a go. But i need a little help

Heres the layout i copied from the Dr. Boogey floating around. there are jsut a few ares that im unsure about, but other than that it seems like everyhting is perfectly fine. I tried to make the layout smaller, but i pretty much matched it.



http://www.shantergenian.com/stufff/pedal/boogey.pcb

So if someone can take a look over it id really appreciate the help.

Thanks,
shant

DISCLAIMER! the layout is unverified, use at your our risk.

[shanter]

ok i guess what would help more is this.

is there a difference between these two?


or these two


or these two


im jsut a little confused as to exaclty how traces should connect.

[bluesdevil]

I think they would work the same as long as the parts connect to the same node, regardless of shape.

[LyleCaldwell]

No differences in results. 

Looking at your layout, first you need to leave more room for your electrolytics.  You don't want them sitting on top of the resistors.  You have room to move the resistors over a bit. 

Second, you put in a jumper line, but unless that is a jumper that you may or may not use, you can use a top layer trace there (red) as you're paying for a double layer board anyway.  On that note, you could reduce the overall size a bit more by using the top layer for some traces.

Third, and this can be important, you have the ground trace going all around the board.  This makes a ground loop.  Much better to have a break somewhere on the edge so there is only one path to ground.

[shanter]

awesome  ,

thanks for the help

now, if i understand correctly, the miniboard service is $51 for 3 boards which are exactly the same...right? so i'll have 3 of these layouts? or can i have 3 different boards?

[audioguy]

What is the layout created with?

EDIT-  NEVERMIND... For some reason I googled PCB Express which is just a service, not the software... so I confused myself!
Thanks for the cool layout!

[mojotron]

awesome  ,

thanks for the help

now, if i understand correctly, the miniboard service is $51 for 3 boards which are exactly the same...right? so i'll have 3 of these layouts? or can i have 3 different boards?

Hmmm, $51 is very expensive for 3 boards. You could make them yourself or have someone make you one for a lot less. All you need is one right?

[shanter]

yea, ive made a bunch of boards, i wanted to have nice one printed by expressPCB cause im getting lazy. But after i made the layout i realized i cant fit more than 1 on one board, i cant really fit anything else on the board either. I also did an estimate for standars service and that came to 81$ for 2 boards...Sheesh....

i have an updated version of the layout so if someone really wants to take a look over it ill post the new version. its just a bit cleaner and ive done the fixes LyleCaldwell suggested.

[LyleCaldwell]

Send me your SCH and PCB files and I'll see if I can reduce them in size for you.  ExpressPCB boards are great, but are costly unless you order more than 4 or so.  But they can really save space due to the double layer and they are extremely rugged - never had a problem with pads lifting like they do on so many "regular" PCBs.

[audioguy]

i have an updated version of the layout so if someone really wants to take a look over it ill post the new version. its just a bit cleaner and ive done the fixes LyleCaldwell suggested.

Have you updated the file linked in your first post?

[shanter]

not yet, ill update it in a few hours, im at school now.

LyleCaldwell, i only have a .pcb file, i never drew the schem. for the layout.

[LyleCaldwell]

Try this:

http://psionicmedia.net/lyle/music/boogey.pcb

[shanter]

Lyle, your link doesnt seems to work....

here the cleaned version. http://www.shantergenian.com/stufff/pedal/boogey2.pcb

thats the amount of space it takes up on the mini-board...

[LyleCaldwell]

Odd.  Here it is in a zipped form:  http://psionicmedia.net/lyle/music/boogey.zip

[Peter Snowberg]

I can't see the new link, but nice job Shant!

DANGER: Once you get pro boards made with plated throughs you're not going to want to go back unless it's an emergency.

I've done lots of squishing to get things to fit in the protoboard size to lower costs. It's worth it. I usually call it the "massage" phase. I'll bet you could easily get two per protoboard and maybe even three per protoboard with enough work.

The examples you posted above will be the same for effects applications. That stuff starts to matter when your boards are running at motherboard speeds but effects signals are pretty close to DC. When it comes to grounding, ideally you want components to connect to the ground traces as directly as possible so that you don't get ground noise leaking between parts of the circuit.

You might want to switch to mounting some of the resistors vertically to switching to trim-pots that take less board space. With the electrolytics, if you're laying them on their side then the clearances should be just fine around the leads. If they're standing up, you will probably want a little more clearancce. The jumper that Lyle mentioned is a good segue into double sided boards. I agree that the size could be reduced by routing some traces on the top.

You might even want to give SERIOUS consideration to using some surface mount resistors in the 1206 package. They're easier to deal with than through hole components if you ask me. If the size isn't too bad, consider 0805 packaged resistors too.

Great job!

[LyleCaldwell]

You could also mount your resistors vertically and save a bunch more space.  Use the 2.5mm non-polarized electrolytic cap pattern in PCB Express for that.

[shanter]

ok heres an updated version. the width is less than 2.5 so it fits nicely on the miniboard. 
i jsut have to make sure all the connections are correct. then ive got to get a few other layouts on this. something 2.4 x 2.5

maybe the bsiab2 too! haha



http://www.shantergenian.com/stufff/pedal/boogey3.pcb

[LyleCaldwell]

Looks good.  BTW, for most guitar effects, you can use .020" traces for signal, .040" traces for supply voltage, and .050" traces for ground.  That can help get things even tighter.

[TimF]

How about pouring GND on the top side and getting rid of the trace on bottom? That would make it smaller, and remove all potential for GND loops.

[LyleCaldwell]

You've got an error above the 100uf electrolytic on the bottom left.  There's a square pad connected to the positive leg of that cap and also to the wiper of the 100K pot above it, but that pad is unintentionally contacting the ground trace next to it.  Remember that pads are on both sides even if they show up as red on the screen.  You'll have to move that pad away from the ground trace.