[hpsdr] Proto or not proto?

[Eric Ellison]

Bill!

Spoilsport! (smile). Yep, I may have my thinking cap on 'backwards' on this
one. I just figgred that someone might pop up and do a board design, on this
'semi-customized' to the Atlas buss and very open to 'tack on's - add in's
etc.

The Atlas board at 400 quantity priced out at about 6 bux. If we did a 2
layer Proteus board in the same quantity it would probably cost out at about
3 bux, without any parts, probably less if didn't have any gold. (RoHS
Heresy!) The DIN connector would cost more than the board in 1 quantity.

However, the real fly in the ointment, is the 400+ quantity! There are not
nearly as many folks like you guys on our alpha teams out there who would do
the 'dead bug' stuff, and the board might price out at 6 bux or a bit more
in 100 quantity. I sure admire how you 'whip up the hardware!

I am still amazed that we have interest in 136 Pinocchio boards added to the
initial 20! I figured these would be more for developers only! Apparently we
have a LOT of developers out there! (smile).


Thanks
Eric


 

  



-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Tracey [mailto:bill at ewjt.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 12:43 AM
To: Eric Ellison; 'Vaclav Sal (Volt)'; hpsdr at hpsdr.org
Subject: Re: [hpsdr] Proto or not proto?

To some extent you can use existing Euro card prototyping boards.  A little 
work with a Dremel on a Velleman ECL board is ( 
http://www.designnotes.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=E
CL&Category_Code=prb 
) is how I did my Xylo shim for Janus.  Unfortunately none of the Velleman 
boards are really setup for 96 bin connectors so you end up doing a fair 
amount of trace cutting and blue wiring to get the connectors to work.

Interesting proto board I've seen of late is from http://www.busboard.net 
is the SMTBoard 3U Thin  -- this one is nice in that it has a continuous 
ground plane and a pattern that looks like it would be good for surface 
mount prototyping.   I think Mouser carnies these board for about $10 or so.

One of these days I'll come around to design first, solder second  -- but 
at the moment I like sitting down on the bench and building a circuit on 
the fly and seeing how it does.

How many folks are interested in prototyping something to go on an Atlas 
bus?  What are people thinking of prototyping?   Thru hole or surface mount?

Cheers.

Bill (kd5tfd)




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