Home Brew Printed Circuit Boards on Linux
By Thomas Weeks, 2002-08-19
Circuit/Schematic Design: gEDA/gaf's "gshcem"
- http://geda.seul.org/tools/gschem/
This
is the program that you use to design your schematic diagram and
create the "net list" that you will use to create the PC
board layout. Other related tools (e.g. Circuit simulators, etc) are
located here: http://www.geda.seul.org/
. There are several other schematic capture and design packages out
there such as XCircuit, Electric, and others. Check here for more
information: http://www.openppc.org/tools.html
PCB Layout/Design: "PCB" -
http://bach.ece.jhu.edu/~haceaton/pcb/
This is the package that you use after you have either
created net-list, or you just want to go directly to designing your
printed circuit board. The current version is only listed up to
V1.7, but the 1.99j (unsupported) version has much better
functionality and is located here:
http://bach.ece.jhu.edu/~haceaton/pcb/pcb-1.99j.tar.gz
. After you create your PCB layout, you then output them to
postscript if you are printing them, or to gerber files if you are
sending them off to a PCB fabrication house.
Gerber File Viewer: "gerbv" -
http://gerbv.sourceforge.net/
This is the package that you should
use after you create your final output gerber files before sending
them off to the PCB fabrication house. This is not a required step,
but strongly recommended. Otherwise an unseen error could creep up
and you may have to re-master your PCB gerber files. Some people
even recommend viewing your gerber files with more than
one gerber viewer, just to make
sure.
PCB Fab Vendors:
There are several on line
vendors that are really great and will work with you on various PC
board sizes, layers, and customization. One of the best services
for the price that I found was through a pace called "Advanced
Circuits" here at this site: http://www.4pcb.com/
. The also have a special deal where if you meet several of their
minimum requirements and can afford a 1-2 week turn around, you can
get 3 boards for as little as $100 (~$33 each). This special deal
can be found here: https://www.4pcb.com/33each.asp
Just make sure that your project meets their minimum requirements
before expecting to take advantage of this deal.
Some other
vendors are: http://www.pcbexpress.com/ ,
http://www.unitedel.com/ ,
and others:
http://www.electronicassemblynews.com/printed-circuits/index19.html