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blogroll
Wed, 23 Feb 2005
Last weekend I had some spare time while I was doing laundry, so I decided that it was time to set down a board layout for the single-digit Nixie clock I made a long time ago. I didn't have any more B-5853 tubes, but I do have a large number of B-5440s, which are even better for this purpose because they have stiff legs. I even found this nifty little page, the soculator, that will generate an Eagle script given some tube parameters. Hawt!
I was pretty anal about this layout, and I actually put the switches and transformer directly on the board. I ended up making a few Eagle library parts in the process, but it was a good refresher in using Eagle (though I suspect that these days the Orcad interface might be more intuitive, given that I'm using Cadence, which is made by the same company). Other than the Nixie and the 74141, I believe all the parts are available from Digi-Key. I love Digi-Key...
By the way, gerbv is a hot little program. It'll do cool things like superimpose several Gerber files, and it allows you to turn individual layers on and off. You can also control how it superimposes layers (e.g., xor, or, and, invert), which would probably make for some interesting pictures given the right Gerber file. It can also export PNG files, the result of which you see on the right.
Another incredibly hot utility is gbtiler, which lets you take one or more Gerber files and tile it, thereby putting several copies of the same (or even several different) layout(s) in the same Gerber file. Since Advanced Circuits allows 66 square inches (used to be 88; I'm not sure when it changed) for $33, you may as well take full advantage, right? Technically, they don't want you doing this, but I just put through an order for four of these guys tiled up and they didn't bitch too much. You just have to explain that you need several on the same PCB for an "experimental apparatus" or some such nonsense. Hehe.
I can't wait for everything to get here...
[ permalink | 3 comments ]
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jim wrote
Yes, Eagle's scripting abilities are hot. Even if the language is a bit contrived; they should have used Perl or Lisp or something.
repak wrote
Did I ever show you the code I wrote for my thesis where I generated lots of coupled inductors of different sizes? The end product was that board with all the different spirals on it you might have seen lying around the lab.
A quick hack, but it ended up being pretty cool in the end.
-repak
Scott wrote
Riad: That shit is hot. Like hotter than 170 volts.
Soculator is a brilliant idea too. Advanced Circuits
is awesome. The only thing about them that I never
understood is why their t-shirts are only available in XL.
Jim: Perl? PERL!?! Guile is the way to go here.