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Always Print PCBs at 1:1 Scale Before Fabrication

A project log for Journey SBC

My educational journey into the development of a single board computer.

kevin-neubauerKevin Neubauer 11/15/2018 at 02:420 Comments

I was just about to pull the trigger on ordering my Wi-Fi / BT board when I figured I should print it out on paper to double-check footprints. After printing at 1:1 scale, I realized the header pins were super small. I hadn't realized that I assigned a 1 mm pin footprint to my header part instead of a 2.54 mm (0.1")! I was probably distracted when I did it and equated 0.1" to 1 mm. I did look for a part source for the 1 mm header pins, but they were either expensive at around $7 for 50 pins or they had to ship from China. I decided to update the footprint.

Assigning the correct footprint, regenerating the nets, and then updating the nets in the PCB editor resulted in an immediate facepalm. I had to resize my board, rip up a bunch of traces, and then re-run them. The new board has a bunch of dead space on it, but it's needed to accommodate the larger header pin footprint...

Anyway, here it is. I'll likely order it tomorrow. After assembly, I'm going to see if it works and benchmark signal and throughput by using a Raspberry Pi.

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