As Sam mentioned about, this is definitely something they'll be working on. If you use some of these parts and have a known working footprint, I'm sure they'd appreciate your help.
@reportsingsjr - Chris here from WAi (contributor)
As Sam mentioned about, this is definitely something they'll be working on. If you use some of these parts and have a known working footprint, I'm sure they'd appreciate your help.
I couldn't agree more about having trouble finding the parts you want on disty search engines. The best thing to do is use the filters but even then it can be overwhelming. That's exactly why having a common parts library is useful. It just helps narrow your scope a bit. If all you need is a simple indictor LED then you're search is over. 1K resistor, done. It should take 80% of the effort out of building a BOM. The rest is obviously up to your specific design.
I agree, I would love an EDA extension. I think Octopart is thinking/working on this.
We've actually reflowed proto boards here with a hot air station. The trick is to get the whole board warm first and then target the gun (or pencil) at the joints. You can use a hair dryer to get the whole board warm and then use the hot air gun to quickly reflow each joint. It's pretty fast and works well.
If you bump the pads like you mentioned with a little solder, you can then flatten the joints very carefully with a flat piece of metal (but end of a small screwdriver or something similar) and then apply a little flux, and then warm the whole board and reflow as mentioned before. Works like a charm!
We're interested too. Using this technique though, we've already saved customers thousands (literally thousands, just on one job) vs. quoting it independently. Try uploading your project to see how it compares. No CC or any like that required.
Yes and no. That can still exist, but many of those guys have been let go. Many of the chip manufacturers have been/were struggling to keep a float and FAE's were easy pickins. But the nice thing about having the community sort of decide which is the best 3.3V regulator is that then you can all buy that chip in bulk and know that the supply will be there and the price will be reasonable.
Yeah, every stencil file gets thoroughly reviewed. We reduce aperture sizes for fine pitch components, "window pane" large apertures, round-rects on BGA's, all that kind of stuff. If you choose a CircuitHub approved footprint, all that kind of stuff will be taken care of automatically.
Using high-end machines makes life a lot easier too because we have a controlled snap off speed and angle as well as consistent squeegee pressure and paste bead height. You wouldn't believe how many factors go into getting a good stencil print.
We found that when we switched to our super fancy high end reflow oven (that's literally 15 feet long) all those sorts of issues kind of went away. Stencil design has a lot to do with it, believe it or not. Too much paste on the center pad and the QFN just floats up and the joints never get connected. So yeah, if CircuitHub just has a footprint for QFN's that's known to work, you can eliminate a lot of that type of research.
Hi wyager, I'm Chris Denney by the way, CTO for Worthington Assembly
Couldn't agree more. I really think it's going to happen. The EE hobbyist movement is really only in its infancy. The more people that jump on this and get excited about it, the more people will invest their time in FOSS projects like you described. It's only a matter of time.
It's hard to know which is the best option, build a brand new EDA tool and provide this service, or stand on the shoulders of giants in the past. CircuitHub has decided to go the route of allowing you to use your EDA of choice. Right now they support Altium, Eagle, and KiCAD.
Reflow is tough. Getting the profile right so as not to damage components is a real pain without very expensive equipment.
"Cloud based" was used because we just couldn't think of a better term.
Footprints for part standardization is absolutely the goal. If we get a known footprint then we can guarantee a better yield because we know it's reliable. How many 0603 footprints do you think exist out there? How many times have people created that? So much redundant effort...
I couldn't agree more. That's where CircuitHub can help. We're going to work really tightly with them to provide constant feedback. Everytime we learn something it will improve the DRC. And since the DRC will be based directly on our capabilities it should become remarkably accurate.
That's our plan. We already have over most of them in our facility already. Where do you think a lot of the part numbers came from ;)