[Coco] Blank EPROM-based Program Pak Board Design Released

[Chad H]

Already jumping on board my friend, I got the Eagle 6.5 free download and
installed it as a "light" freeware edition.  I got the .ZIP of your
CoCoEPROMPak and loaded the board/schematic into Eagle and so far so good,
or atleast it appears so.  I am currently viewing the demonstration
tuturials on their site on how to do schematics and boards in Eagle.

I think I'm already getting the 'essence' of how to go about it... You start
with (or edit) a schematic and it turns that into a board design (which you
can also edit too) and then the project gets exported to 'Gerber' files for
production?   Are these 'Gerber' files what you had to submit to OSHPark or
the entire project?

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of Mark J. Blair
Sent: Monday, November 04, 2013 10:07 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] Blank EPROM-based Program Pak Board Design Released


On Nov 4, 2013, at 19:06 , Chad H <chadbh74 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hey Mark.  I got my boards  today, still awaiting the components to 
> finish them out.  I'm curious about working with the design files and 
> wondering how easy it would be to make "modifications".  Is that a 
> easy process?  For someone who is not familiar with the files, how should
I approach that?
> Thinking about perhaps adding a LED and such.

I hope the boards work out well for you! In case it's not immediately
obvious what you need to do, I have some pictures on my web page showing how
to clean up and bevel the card edge:

  http://www.nf6x.net/2013/10/cocoeprompak/

I designed the board with a CAD package called Eagle PCB:

  http://www.cadsoftusa.com/eagle-pcb-design-software/?language=en

There is a free version of Eagle that might do everything that you need. I
have a paid version, and I'm not sure whether this board design fits within
the constraints of the free version. If you try it out, please report back
whether it works for you. I run Eagle on my Mac, and it's also available for
Windows and Linux. It's pretty primitive compared to higher-end PCB tools
like I use at work, but those are REALLY expensive, even compared to the
most expensive Eagle version.

I'm not sure how to quantify how easy the process is, because that'll depend
a lot on the individual person. Lots of hobbyists use Eagle, though, and
there are tutorials and support groups all over the internet. Some of the
electronics hobby suppliers like Sparkfun, Adafruit, etc. have published
how-to stuff for Eagle if I recall correctly. If you would like to learn how
to design your own PCBs, then making some simple modifications to an
existing design might be a good way to get your feet wet before you design
something from scratch.

--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/


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