Editing "paste-mask layer"??

Ken wrote on Mon, 04 January 2010 11:25

I am adding a test connector, with contacts made between board pads and

 

spring loaded pins.  To ensure pads will make good electrical contact,

 

the manufacturer cautions the "past-mask layer" be corrected defined.

I find no reference to that name in the EAGLE manual.

 

Does it have another name?

How can I be sure the contact pads will be solder paste free?

Having solder on the pads is not necessarily a bad thing.  Solder is soft,

and allows the point of the pogo pin to dig in a little without harming

anything.

What you really want is to make sure there is no solder mask on the pad,

since that is deliberately a insulator.  However, both the solder mask and

paste mask are separate layers in Eagle.  You can chose separately for each

layer whether it will cover the pad or not.  Look at layers bStop and

bCream.

Quote:

Manufacturer notes:

 

CAE/CAD packages usually assume that pads with no through holes are for

 

surface mounted components and solder paste is deposited on them by

default!

 

To resolve this, edit the pad-stack in your CAE/CAD software, show the

 

paste-mask layer and set the pad size to zero for that layer.

I guess they really don't want solder on the pads.  You adjust this with

the bCream layer (or tCream if the pad is on the top side).  Normally you

would make a device in a library for that, which has the appropriate layers

all set.

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Olin,

Thanks!

Ken

Olin Lathrop wrote:

Ken wrote on Mon, 04 January 2010 11:25

I am adding a test connector, with contacts made between board pads and

 

spring loaded pins.  To ensure pads will make good electrical contact,

 

the manufacturer cautions the "past-mask layer" be corrected defined.

I find no reference to that name in the EAGLE manual.

 

Does it have another name?

How can I be sure the contact pads will be solder paste free?

 

Having solder on the pads is not necessarily a bad thing.  Solder is soft,

and allows the point of the pogo pin to dig in a little without harming

anything.

 

What you really want is to make sure there is no solder mask on the pad,

since that is deliberately a insulator.  However, both the solder mask and

paste mask are separate layers in Eagle.  You can chose separately for each

layer whether it will cover the pad or not.  Look at layers bStop and

bCream.

 

Quote:

Manufacturer notes:

 

CAE/CAD packages usually assume that pads with no through holes are for

 

surface mounted components and solder paste is deposited on them by

default!

 

To resolve this, edit the pad-stack in your CAE/CAD software, show the

 

paste-mask layer and set the pad size to zero for that layer.

 

I guess they really don't want solder on the pads.  You adjust this with

the bCream layer (or tCream if the pad is on the top side).  Normally you

would make a device in a library for that, which has the appropriate layers

all set.