Re: Re: Hobbyists strike again

Hi Andrew,


Andrew Werby wrote:

> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 05:57:48 -0700
> From: "Dan Mauch" <dmauch@...>
> Subject: Re: Hobbiests Strike Again
>
> I looked at his PCB . What impressed me is that he is milling his
> traces.
> Dan
>
> [Even if he isn't, people keep asking me how they can do this. Is
> there a
> program out there (or a combination of programs, even) that simplifies
> this
> process so someone can go from a picture of a pc board to a g-code
> plot
> file?
>

I don't know about any simple g-code conversion programs, I use PIA.EXE
and it simply prints the transparencies which I use to expose pre
sensitized PCB for ecthing.
It's so quick, I bet I can have a baord made before you could set up the
mill ! ( I'm betting all of a dime on this ! shows how confident I am !)
The PIA program ( link at my web site ) does export Gerber Files and
HPGL so it may be possible to convert these files, but i have not done
that... I know it's possible to convert HPGL to DXF and then DXF to
g-code...

As far as drilling, PIA exports Excellon drill files, they look a lot
like g-code except the measurements are not in decimal inches.
Here's a sample of Excellon
M48
INCH,LZ
T01F00S00C0.037
%
G90
T01
X+05188Y+02901
X+04588Y+02901
May be there's a way to use these directly with a regular g-code driven
mill, I wrote a program to convert the Excellon to straight g-code so
that I can use it with my mill and
my main reason for the conversion program was to add the ability to
rotate all the holes around origin 0,0 which allows for drilling after
etching.. i.e. easier to align the
etched PCB on the mill...

My web site is at http://home.swbell.net/hans_w

regards
Hans Wedemeyer

> It would be nice if the hole-drilling were automated as well- am I
> dreaming? Does anybody out there cut pc boards with a mill, or is
> everybody
> convinced that etching is the way to go?]
>
> Andrew Werby
>
> Andrew Werby
>
> Andrew Werby - United Artworks
> Sculpture, Jewelry, and Other Art Stuff
> http://unitedartworks.com
>
>
>
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