Question to Parallax support regarding Quickstart Board
skylight
Posts: 1,915
To accomodate the quickstart into a small project box I am going to have to grind away parts of the board using a steady hand and my trusty dremel in order to allow the board to fit between the circular plastic posts that the screws to close the box go through.
the places where the posts go are marked with yellow circles below:
Looking through a loupe I noticed a via top left of the board above what I think is a capacitor, I will need to grind away approximately half of the via but still leave the trace that goes to the top of the capacitor.
The problem that i'm worried about is that looking at the top and bottom of the board at the via there are no visible traces apart from the one that connects to the capacitor, this lead me to now believe that the board is a multi layer sandwich and the traces are inside the board, this has worried me that I may destroy any hidden trace within the board at the vias location or indeed at the other points where I need to grind the board away.
If I grind away part of the plastic posts of the box without exposing the screws I may have a small play in how much pcb I need to grind away.
The question is will removing the board below the yellow circles do any damage or will the quickstart still work ok?
the places where the posts go are marked with yellow circles below:
Looking through a loupe I noticed a via top left of the board above what I think is a capacitor, I will need to grind away approximately half of the via but still leave the trace that goes to the top of the capacitor.
The problem that i'm worried about is that looking at the top and bottom of the board at the via there are no visible traces apart from the one that connects to the capacitor, this lead me to now believe that the board is a multi layer sandwich and the traces are inside the board, this has worried me that I may destroy any hidden trace within the board at the vias location or indeed at the other points where I need to grind the board away.
If I grind away part of the plastic posts of the box without exposing the screws I may have a small play in how much pcb I need to grind away.
The question is will removing the board below the yellow circles do any damage or will the quickstart still work ok?
700 x 700 - 194K
244 x 265 - 32K
Comments
The design of the QuickStart is open and you can download the design files directly from their site here: http://www.parallaxsemiconductor.com/products/quickstart
I did a quick look see and it looks like adding post slots to those locations is safe as it would be sending it through a flood filled area... Just make sure you insulate layers after you cut them because the dremel can actually wind up making a connection between layers and shorting it.
Bill
I'll be using a grindstone attachment so in itself it shouldn't leave any conductive particles (I think??) but I understand what you mean that a copper layer may drag down over another layer and create a short,I will try to minimise this by feeding the board in straight rather than any up and down movement and I will inspect the board afterwards to see, Thank goodness for those loupe glasses that I bought after seeing them discussed in another thread, they have been such a help as it would be near impossible to see something so small otherwise.
Never did get one that would actually edit the layout.
Anybody know for sure what it takes?
Thanks,
Ken Gracey
I resaved it just in case and also added a bare add-on board, see the attached zip.
Now, where can one find parts to play with?
Too many to list. use google search:
https://www.google.com/#safe=off&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=Diptrace+Parallax+parts&oq=Diptrace+Parallax+parts&gs_l=hp.3...1517.11263.1.15418.23.23.0.0.0.0.348.3002.11j8j3j1.23.0...0.0...1c.1.14.hp.hAMiIjRxCTc&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.46751780,d.dmg&fp=a3e523efcc599d2f&biw=1280&bih=905
As far as I know, Parallax does not have Diptrace parts on their website. You can search the forum for them also.