Ordering PCB's for Ronja 10M Metropolis Transmitter

The PCB data for manufacturer are packed up in the file metropolis_transmitter.zip. The Transmitter PCB is designated by a revision that is printed on the silkscreen layer.

Do not make the PCBs at home without industrial technology. You will have a high risk of failure due to short circuit, open circuit or component misplacement in the manufacture process.

Send the data to the manufacturer together with the information that they should read the README (Czech manufacturers: README.CZ) file.

If you are ordering multiple pieces, consider the possibility of panelizing the PCB. Panelizing means the PCB is copied more times on one board and cut apart after the manufacture.

Films

PCB manufacture involves films. They are quite expensive because you have to have 5 of them: 2 coppers, 2 masks and 1 silkscreen. It is economical to use one set of films for manufacture of many pieces. If panelization is involved, it requires larger (and therefore more expensive) films.

Technology

The PCB is double-sided with solder masks (a stuff that prevents soldering on parts that should not be soldered on, they are very handy for manual soldering) and service print aka silkscreen (white letters on the component side of the board, very handy for manual populating).

It's precision class IV. Together with aforementioned specifications it's the most common form of printed circuit boards and is a default technology at most manufacturers you get when you say "two-sided boards".

Format

The output is in Gerber RS274-X format. Look for a manufacturer that takes this format. This format has been chosen because it's a de-facto industry standard and has been developped specially for this purpose. This is the most common format used in the world of PCB manufacture. Drill data are in Excellon format. Both formats are ASCII-oriented (text files).

Beware, some manufacturers claim they support Gerber RS274-X format but then it comes out that they are unable to load the Gerber data. It occured during the development and the order had to be placed at another manufacturer instead. The Gerber data (made by the PCB program) were correct in this case.

If something like that happens, argument with the RS274-X specification made by Barco graphics company. The link to the specification is in the README inside metropolis_transmitter.zip.

Layout

See Editing for information how to edit the Transmitter layout data.

Ronja: Ordering TX PCB's

Ordering PCB's for Ronja 10M Metropolis Transmitter

Films

Technology

Format

Layout