>$1000 for a simple 8"x8" PCB???

On 05/05/14 22:27, Steve Ins wrote:

I want to make a simple PCB, so I'm looking at Eagle as it seems to be

what other hobbiests use.

The board is 8" x 8", and will have only a few LEDs and chip resistors

on it. I don't need multiple layers, libraries, autorouting, or even

drilled holes. I could make the PCB by hand with a utility knife, but I

thought using a PCB program would be neater and cause less hand stress.

BUT it seems the Eagle program is more than $1000 to do this! Do other

hobbiests really spend this? (I was hoping for free...)

My question: Is there another program out there cheaper, Eagle just

seems unreasonably priced.

 

Eagle is free if you want to design simple and small. If you want to

design something really complex that justifies 8"x8" then the $1000

price tag is actually quite reasonable. If you're merely hell-bent on

wasting PCB space...

Yes there are cheaper programs. There are free ones, both as in beer and

as in speech. Some of them are even tolerably usable apparently.

Of course, if you had the cunning to work around things instead of

whingeing about the price of something that's worth every penny, then

there are ways to achieve what you need for your trivial case without

needing any expensive options, but since this is an Eagle discussion

group hosted by CadSoft / Element14 then I'm most certainly not going to

give you any clues there.

Steve

You're correct that for a simple project the price is high.

For your application there are several others available and PCB manufacturers accept output from these as well.

Obviously Cad Soft Guest is a little biased but it doesn't translate in rudeness.

Because it is a single board with a few parts on doesn't mean its trivial to the poster.

Mark

Hi Steve you have obviously exceeded the limitations of the Free Eagle (I never remember what they are).

If I remember right it was something like 100x100mm which is 1/4 of the size you mention. Best idea would be to

reduce the size of your board but not knowing how dense your board is it may not be practical even if it's not complicated.

You could however try designing the board in 4 parts then stitching them together using some graphics  package presuming you are

going to etch this board your self. Failing that you can look on the net Google is your friend here for Free PCB tools or look to see what

folk are using on sites such as Hackaday or what ever.

There may be some suggestions that could work for you in this discussion: Software is too expensive!

But first you might what to find out how much it costs to make an 8" x 8" PCB.

If I had a Windows PC I would check out DesignSPark PCB

or Kicad which runs on Windows, Linux and Apple OS X

HTH

Warren

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Indeed John 1 PCB is basically the same as 10  from a small run organisation which is only marginally less than 100 off.

um PCBPOOL wants around £100 for a 1 off 2 layer 200mmx200mm i.e. 8" on side!

Hi Steve,

At work I'm using a design package that costs 1k anually for maintenance... It does however work very well, with very little frustration during routing.

For private projects I used to work with Eagle, but as I got more and more fed up with the illogical way it is routing (no live DRC, no dynamic routing, no way to easily shift segments while keeping 45 degree angles) I recently migrated to KiCad. It has its quirks, and a very limited amount of DRC rules, but it works, and is more consistent in operation than Eagle if you ask me. Anyway, I don't want to start a tool-war, just saying that a free alternative exists!

I agree with John,

Unless there is some demand of form over function; the area needed to perform "only a few LEDs and chip resistors" does not require 8"x8" space. Free Eagle is capable of up to ~100mm if i remember correctly.

Hi Steve,

If you have any new PCB project feel free to contact me,you can get good

price wiht best quality.

Waiting for your contact.

Monster@shiyupcb.com (mailto:Monster@shiyupcb.com)

Skype: monster.cheung

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OK as a reference how much for a 200x200mm Double sided PCB with

Resist/Silkscreen and I'm presuming HASL is the cheapest finish?!

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