For my first dive into making PCB’s, I’ve decided to get some of the Amber boards made. Amber has the imp002 solder down module, so you get access to all pins, as well as the BlinkUp & LED indicator circuit. I would be populating it with a 3.3V 1A LDO, so it would be a bit more of a workhorse than the April. It is a pretty simple board, all the components in the BOM are sourceable from DigiKey, including the imp002.
I am currently looking around at prices from various small-batch board makers to get good pricing. A green board would be the cheapest, but I might go for black boards, since they look really cool.
Depending on interest (and if all goes well), I would be willing to make a small number of boards available, either as an unassembled kit, or fully assembled and tested board (no blink-up, obviously), including the imp002. Not sure of the price yet, but I’ll get that worked out soon.
If you are interested, PM me or say so here.
For the Hannah fans, I might be interested in a run of those in the future, though it is a much more complex board, and the BOM needs an update for a few parts that are being discontinued. When the Olive files are released, I would also like to make a run of those as well.
I would like a few ambers!! And an olive or two as well! I like black boards as well, more hi-tech look. I would recommend getting stencils…we have them made for our led arrays where I work and makes populating the board much quicker and cleaner. You can get a reflow oven pretty cheap these days…that’s if you don’t make one with an imp!!
Yes, I like the idea of stencils as well…I’m not sure if a file for the stencil is available however. @Hugo Do you have the stencil file for Amber? Is it easy to make? (I guess the Gerber has this). Amber should be pretty easy to hand solder, but I am looking into a board pre-heater and possibly a reflow oven.
I have purchased from Seeedstudio.com and have not had trouble with them but never used them for boards. The oshpark service is so good I never felt the need to look elsewhere.
You can make the boards without stencils but I found the boards I made with stencils look much nicer than those I made with solder past dispensed from a syringe. The uniformity of the solder made the parts line up all straight.
Osh park does look really inexpensive. I think I try both. Seeed Studio lets you pick different board colors, though you definitely pay for it, and unless I missed it, I dont think OSH park does.
I just placed an order for all the parts on the Amber BOM x10, so now its just getting the boards.
Wow, that actually doesn’t look like the reference design. The gerbers show it to be a square, unless I am mistaken. Maybe the reference design just left board around the sides of the keepout area?
I made a piggy back relay board for the April and used Osh Park. 3 boards for $13. Boards are very sturdy and great quality. Very quick turn around time! (I messed up on the vias the first round, so they make for a snazzy key chain:)
@Hugo I just received all of the parts for the Amber boards from DigiKey, and did an inventory. I am looking at a printout of the solder pads and component names on the board to make sure I have every thing, and am noticing a number of components that I don’t have. Are all of the components that are not in the BOM for the version with the DCDC in it? Does the BOM have everything I need? I noticed a few components beside the Imp that I don’t have…caps and the XW1. It’s going to be fun soldering those 0402 components.
