Card Builders, anyone?
Posted: October 6th, 2022, 10:39 am
Anybody else on here that makes their own cards? Either by sending a KiCad file to a fab shop, or from scratch? I actually got into the PCB hobby somewhat before restarting my interest in 8 bit computers - sometime in the early 90's. As my interest in 808x/Z80s is to use them, rather than collect and restore, a specific need for the bus is not satisfied by going to Amazon and viewing their vast offers of S-100 cards.
Nowadays the process is fairly inexpensive, although requiring a considerable amount of space and LOTS of water, but really good, if not totally professional-fablab quality, cards can be made. I see a considerable number of builders that design circuits and micros, but all send them out to be actually made. (https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/doku.php?id=start) Probably doesn't cost that much, but has to take a week or two or more before something comes back. I can make an S-100 (or S-44, S-86, etc) card in about an hour, not including soldering components. (And definitely not including KiCad time, which can be an hour or a month.)
Just curious. Haven't yet found anyone who does the whole raw process.
Ken
Nowadays the process is fairly inexpensive, although requiring a considerable amount of space and LOTS of water, but really good, if not totally professional-fablab quality, cards can be made. I see a considerable number of builders that design circuits and micros, but all send them out to be actually made. (https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/doku.php?id=start) Probably doesn't cost that much, but has to take a week or two or more before something comes back. I can make an S-100 (or S-44, S-86, etc) card in about an hour, not including soldering components. (And definitely not including KiCad time, which can be an hour or a month.)
Just curious. Haven't yet found anyone who does the whole raw process.
Ken