Homebrew PCBs

Hey guys,

Anyone play Stargate at the arcades growing up?  The original Stargate
arcade boards came with a daughter PCB, a scab used by Williams
Electronics to fix a design problem late in production.

This is what I am talking about:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/picture.php?albumid=89&pictureid=560
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/picture.php?albumid=89&pictureid=559
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/picture.php?albumid=89&pictureid=558
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/picture.php?albumid=89&pictureid=557
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/picture.php?albumid=89&pictureid=556

This shows the daughter board mounted on the main PCB:
http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/jpegs/R8948.jpg

So I need one of these daughter boards; they are of course no longer
in production.

How much of a stretch of the imagination is it to create one of these
one sided PCB's from a picture of a real one?

I understand the basics of the toner transfer method: get a reverse
image ready, print with laser jet onto cheap glossy magazine paper,
iron onto board stock, etch in HCl and H2O2, wipe clean with acetone,
drill thru holes.  Sounds easy enough, BUT... what software would I
use to go from the photo to the reverse image of the final PCB? Will
any laser printer work? I took chemistry in school, so the etching
does not scare me, how do I drill the holes?

TIA,
Saltbreez


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Note that gEDA's PCB has a way of loading a photograph as the
background of your work area for just this purpose, but it doesn't let
you go straight from photo to artwork, it's purpose is to help you
design a *real* pcb (footprints, traces, etc) using the photo as a
layout guide.

http://www.delorie.com/pcb/bg-image.html

Before I started using the free version of DipTrace, I made a few boards in CorelDraw.

I started copying this board by just loading it up as a background image and scaling it to actual size:
http://www.polyphoto.com/tutorials/LaserTag/ESSSensor01.jpg

I don't see any way to import a raster image into DipTrace, but I'm new to it.

Steve Greenfield

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Surf Thenet <surf@...> wrote:

>
> Hey guys,
> 
> Anyone play Stargate at the arcades growing up?  The original Stargate
> arcade boards came with a daughter PCB, a scab used by Williams
> Electronics to fix a design problem late in production.
> 
> This is what I am talking about:
> http://forums.arcade-museum.com/picture.php?albumid=89&pictureid=560
> http://forums.arcade-museum.com/picture.php?albumid=89&pictureid=559
> http://forums.arcade-museum.com/picture.php?albumid=89&pictureid=558
> http://forums.arcade-museum.com/picture.php?albumid=89&pictureid=557
> http://forums.arcade-museum.com/picture.php?albumid=89&pictureid=556
> 
> This shows the daughter board mounted on the main PCB:
> http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/jpegs/R8948.jpg
> 
> So I need one of these daughter boards; they are of course no longer
> in production.
> 
> How much of a stretch of the imagination is it to create one of these
> one sided PCB's from a picture of a real one?
> 
> I understand the basics of the toner transfer method: get a reverse
> image ready, print with laser jet onto cheap glossy magazine paper,
> iron onto board stock, etch in HCl and H2O2, wipe clean with acetone,
> drill thru holes.  Sounds easy enough, BUT... what software would I
> use to go from the photo to the reverse image of the final PCB? Will
> any laser printer work? I took chemistry in school, so the etching
> does not scare me, how do I drill the holes?
> 
> TIA,
> Saltbreez
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Surf Thenet <surf@...> wrote:
>
> Hey guys,
> 
> Anyone play Stargate at the arcades growing up?  The original Stargate
> arcade boards came with a daughter PCB, a scab used by Williams
> Electronics to fix a design problem late in production.
> 
> 
> This shows the daughter board mounted on the main PCB:
> http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/jpegs/R8948.jpg
> 
> So I need one of these daughter boards; they are of course no longer
> in production.
> 
> How much of a stretch of the imagination is it to create one of these
> one sided PCB's from a picture of a real one?

Assuming you have full schematics and everything is simple logic(ie no analog) , I wonder if a CPLD might work better. You may be able fit all the logic from that board into one chip. You might want to take a look a Xilinx. Their fpga/cpld development kit is free and you can get cpld boards from digilentinc.com  The development software also has a schematic input mode, so you do not have to learn verilog or VHDL to do the programming.

Not meaning to discourage you from building a board, but you may be able to take advantage of todays technology to make your job a little easier.

I've emailed the OP as I have crafted the trace pattern he requires  using EagleCAD and will send him a pdf off-line.

The circuit was available at arcade-museum.com and consists of a 7410, 3 resistors, 2N4401 and a 14 pin DIL header. So it was simple to use Eagle and the photo to replicate the PCB, estimating PCB size and positioning of the componants.

The email addy you sent does not work...

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 9:52 PM, warrenbrayshaw <
warrenbrayshaw@...> wrote:

> I've emailed the OP as I have crafted the trace pattern he requires  using
> EagleCAD and will send him a pdf off-line.
>
> The circuit was available at arcade-museum.com and consists of a 7410, 3
> resistors, 2N4401 and a 14 pin DIL header. So it was simple to use Eagle and
> the photo to replicate the PCB, estimating PCB size and positioning of the
> componants.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links, Files, and Photos:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

This is such a small PCB, one chip, one trans, 2 resistors... I just don't
have a lot of hope for simplification.  Concerns regarding testing and
verification seal this, but THANK YOU! for the suggestions :)

Saltbreez

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 7:34 PM, javaguy11111 <javaguy11111@...>wrote:

> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Surf Thenet <surf@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hey guys,
> >
> > Anyone play Stargate at the arcades growing up?  The original Stargate
> > arcade boards came with a daughter PCB, a scab used by Williams
> > Electronics to fix a design problem late in production.
> >
> >
> > This shows the daughter board mounted on the main PCB:
> > http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/jpegs/R8948.jpg
> >
> > So I need one of these daughter boards; they are of course no longer
> > in production.
> >
> > How much of a stretch of the imagination is it to create one of these
> > one sided PCB's from a picture of a real one?
>
> Assuming you have full schematics and everything is simple logic(ie no
> analog) , I wonder if a CPLD might work better. You may be able fit all the
> logic from that board into one chip. You might want to take a look a Xilinx.
> Their fpga/cpld development kit is free and you can get cpld boards from
> digilentinc.com  The development software also has a schematic input mode,
> so you do not have to learn verilog or VHDL to do the programming.
>
> Not meaning to discourage you from building a board, but you may be able to
> take advantage of todays technology to make your job a little easier.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links, Files, and Photos:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I misunderstood your picture. I thought you were doing the big board. I did not see the smaller board that is wired in. CPLD probably would not do much good as you say.

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Surf Thenet <surf@...> wrote:

>
> This is such a small PCB, one chip, one trans, 2 resistors... I just don't
> have a lot of hope for simplification.  Concerns regarding testing and
> verification seal this, but THANK YOU! for the suggestions :)
> 
> Saltbreez
> 
> On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 7:34 PM, javaguy11111 <javaguy11111@...>wrote:
> 
> > --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Surf Thenet <surf@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hey guys,
> > >
> > > Anyone play Stargate at the arcades growing up?  The original Stargate
> > > arcade boards came with a daughter PCB, a scab used by Williams
> > > Electronics to fix a design problem late in production.
> > >
> > >
> > > This shows the daughter board mounted on the main PCB:
> > > http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/jpegs/R8948.jpg
> > >
> > > So I need one of these daughter boards; they are of course no longer
> > > in production.
> > >
> > > How much of a stretch of the imagination is it to create one of these
> > > one sided PCB's from a picture of a real one?
> >
> > Assuming you have full schematics and everything is simple logic(ie no
> > analog) , I wonder if a CPLD might work better. You may be able fit all the
> > logic from that board into one chip. You might want to take a look a Xilinx.
> > Their fpga/cpld development kit is free and you can get cpld boards from
> > digilentinc.com  The development software also has a schematic input mode,
> > so you do not have to learn verilog or VHDL to do the programming.
> >
> > Not meaning to discourage you from building a board, but you may be able to
> > take advantage of todays technology to make your job a little easier.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links, Files, and Photos:
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>