PCB Design
 

Please please please say someone has experiance with this on the board.... i am finishing my senior design project and we have hit a HUGE snag. We are looking for someone who knows how to do PCB to possibly help us, so any of you that could help let me know.

Are you talking about the topology problem of designing the traces themselves, or the process of actually making a printed circuit board?

We have a design and we need to convert it to a PCB board layout, perferably a gerber file... but we have no software or experiance

Just what do you need accomplished? I was a designer a few years back and still have friends in the field.

I work at an electronics manufacturer. What kind of file do you have? Is it just an image file, or CAD?

The420, I use this software: http://www.cadsoft.de/ They have a free version for hobby / students that is extreamly powerful. The only limits are size of print area (4 x 3.2 inches) and number of layers (2) allowed. There are tons of places that will take the gerber files and create the boards for you. I have used this site in the past: http://www.4pcb.com/index.htm and have been very pleased with the work they do. You simply upload your files to them, they check them for production problems, then send you your boards.

Search for Quick route 3.6 (QR36), its free and produces fairly good PCBs, Target is better but will cost you money.

To actually make a PCB talk to your local UNI EE labs... they should be able to make one for you (single layer normally).

I need to have a very small and simple board made. The thing is i am on a budget and really need to get the board right in one shot. Also i have 4 weeks left before my project is due. I appreciate the software help, i am going to download them and give them a try. If some with experiance has a few minutes and wants to help me out send me a PM, i will send you the circuit and the component list to see if you are able to help me out. the board is a two layer RF board, and has only 4 components on it. thanks

2 layers for 4 components? Is that really necessary? Most Unis can make PCBs quickly (< 3hrs) that are single sided/1 layer... and it normally costs £3 for us. If the layout is simple you could knock it together in minutes...

It sounds like you could freehand this project- no board at all, just components and solder.

Either way, the board design you're describing sounds like overkill. Is it a requirement of the project to do it that way?

Just to clear some stuff up here, and to answer some suggestions. This circuit will be opperating at the 2.4 GHz range. This eliminates the possibility of using anything you can get at radio shack or simmilar. It is possible to sodder each component to a piece of coaxial cable and make the circuit like that, but that is sloppy and might cause more problems than the time it would save. But i do have to have 2 layers, as i have to have a top layer and a bottom ground plane layer. So fallowing some other advice i was wondering if anyone had used expresspcb.com before. I have my circuit layed out on this but still have some ?s. Please let me know if i am leaving stuff out. you all have been very helpful and i want to make sure i am giving you enough info to help me. Thanks again