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Slots for DC power connector

ross_valusoft

Hi folks,

 

Sort of related to Paul's recent question about milling holes ...

 

Wall warts (plug packs) often come with a coaxial plug that mates with a

pcb mounted socket that has 3 flat metal tabs that are meant to fit

through slotted holes in the pcb. Following delivery of all of my boards

from the Chinese pcb house with single drill holes instead of slots, I

am trying to understand what went wrong. He was told by me when

requesting a quotation and at the time of order placement, that J1 had

to have its 3 holes milled. These were shown on the milling layer. He

says that slots 1 mm wide are always done by drilling and not milled. Is

that correct in your experience?

 

More importantly, how should the slotted hole be defined to avoid a repeat.

 

Thanks,

 

Ross

 

  • I'll second Neil's comment regarding PCBCart, they did a great job of my

    board designs.

     

    When I submitted my files they checked with me whether I wanted the

    connector slots milled. I just used the standard DCJ0202 device on my board.

     

    They advised the smallest mills they use are 0.8 mm which worked out

    fine for these slots.

     

     

  • Neil Allison wrote:

    No suggestions/comments?

     

    All of the devices in the CON-JACK library have the same single hole

    pad with a slot definition in the milling layer. I had used one of

    these and board house only drilled the pad hole ... ignored the slot.

     

    I draw the router path using a wire with the same width as the router

    tool I want.  I use a separate drawing layer for each router tool. I

    start at layer 101 and create a separate gerber file with the CAM

    processor for each tool.   If I have both plated and non-plated slots of

    the same width I keep them on separate layers and in separate gerber files.

     

    I specify the detail of the tool size, plating and routing in the

    readme.txt file that goes with my data pack to the pcb manufacturer.

     

    I've not had any problems so far.  I use PCBCart (China) and

    occasionally Entech (Australia) for my prototype pcbs.

     

    For DC power connectors, I sometimes just use large diameter PTH holes

    rather than slots.

     

    Best regards,

    Neil

     

     

    Thanks Neil ... several helpful suggestions there.

     

    Cheers,

     

    Ross (across the ditch)

     

  • in reply to ross_valusoft

    No suggestions/comments?

     

    All of the devices in the CON-JACK library have the same single hole pad

    with a slot definition in the milling layer. I had used one of these and

    board house only drilled the pad hole ... ignored the slot.

     

    I draw the router path using a wire with the same width as the router

    tool I want.  I use a separate drawing layer for each router tool. I

    start at layer 101 and create a separate gerber file with the CAM

    processor for each tool.   If I have both plated and non-plated slots of

    the same width I keep them on separate layers and in separate gerber files.

     

    I specify the detail of the tool size, plating and routing in the

    readme.txt file that goes with my data pack to the pcb manufacturer.

     

    I've not had any problems so far.  I use PCBCart (China) and

    occasionally Entech (Australia) for my prototype pcbs.

     

    For DC power connectors, I sometimes just use large diameter PTH holes

    rather than slots.

     

    Best regards,

    Neil

     

  • No suggestions/comments?

     

    All of the devices in the CON-JACK library have the same single hole pad

    with a slot definition in the milling layer. I had used one of these and

    board house only drilled the pad hole ... ignored the slot.

     

    How should this be done? Should I have "created' a slot using

    overlapping holed pads?

     

    Appreciate any/all suggestions.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Ross