Boards in the mail

My order for the RSMC boards came in the mail today.

I love how this works — I upload the Gerber files which define the board layers (copper traces, plating, thru holes, mask, silkscreen, etc) and in a couple of weeks I get the boards in the mail.  In this case, I used the files created by Chuck Catania & Seth Neumann out in the Bay Area, but you can use circuit design tools of all sorts to generate the appropriate files.   I’ve used the Eagle CAD tool, which is free (as in beer) to use when the board is small enough (about 4″ x 3.2″, which is a pretty decent size).

The order was for 50, but I guess that 52 fit the manufacturers process, since that’s what I ended up with.  Oh, darn, free stuff.

For the record, I use the Seeed Studio PCB process.  I’ve had my cpShield boards made by them as well, which are a CMRI interface shield for Arduino boards, and now these RSMC boards.

I’ve had all of the parts I need for a while now (Digi-key and Jameco ship much faster than parcel post from Shenzhen), so now that I have the Tortoises ready, I can start building the controller boards.

More of the sweet smell of solder….. (blech).