Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Amp Stuff => DIY Layout Creator and Custom Boards => Topic started by: EL34 on August 30, 2018, 01:05:00 pm
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I created an on line program that will take a DIYLC board layout and create a Eyelet board or Turret board that can then be made on my CNC machine
The Analyzer program lets you add your custom board to my shopping cart
2 easy steps to have a .diy board made
(1) Create a .diy file or use a downloaded .diy file that you find on the web
(2) Use the DIY analyzer program and add the board to your shopping cart
DIY analyzer program is here
https://hoffmanamps.com/php/DIYLC/DiyFileAnalyzer.php (https://hoffmanamps.com/php/DIYLC/DiyFileAnalyzer.php)
Watch the videos in this post
https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=23814.0 (https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=23814.0)
I have a .diy Template File you can use to create boards that can be cut on my CNC machine
You can import this files into a current .diy file and then copy and paste them where you need them
Hoffman .diy template file is here
https://el34world.com/Forum/Files/Hoffman_Template_File.diy (https://el34world.com/Forum/Files/Hoffman_Template_File.diy)
I have a .diy file library here
You can download or submit .diy files
https://el34world.com/charts/DiyLayoutCreatorFiles.htm (https://el34world.com/charts/DiyFiles.php)
Notes:
You can only have one type of terminal holes in your custom board.
You can have the terminals installed or you can have a board with holes drilled and no terminals installed.
Eyelet holes are 1/8 inch and Turret lug holes are 3/32 inch
If I am installing the terminals, all holes will have a terminal installed.
I do not do wire holes or other non terminal holes if I am installing the terminals.
If you order a board with only the holes drilled, you can have as many holes as you want.
You can drill out any holes that are not terminal holes to a custom hole size for wires, etc
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Here is an example of a simple board only with no parts
Just a blank board with some eyelets on the board
The DIYLC program comes with an eyelet component
It is located in the connectivity menu on the left side
I will be using the eyelet component to indicate where holes will be drilled in custom boards
It does not matter than you may want Turret lugs, use the eyelet component on your layout to indicate where the holes will be drilled
My program will ask what type of terminals you want installed
Or you can just get a board with holes drilled and no terminals installed
I saved this .diy file after creating it in DIYLC
Then I went to my custom program on my web site and loaded the board file into it
My program then spits out an image of the board as it would be made on my CNC machine
The program will send me a CNC machine file
You can have that board made as a drilled board or a board with Eyelets or Turret lugs installed
Notes:
I only drill terminal holes
All holes drilled are the same size as the terminal holes
Turret lugs are a 3/32 inch hole
Eyelet holes are a .125 inch hole
If you want wire holes or some other hole, you can order your board with as many holes as you want
But you will have to install the terminals yourself
You can then drill out the extra holes to any size you want
Order a drilled board only if you want extra holes
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Anything taller than 3.125 inches will create error messages in my program
For example, you load up a 4 inch tall board with a bunch of eyelet holesYou will get an error saying that a bunch of holes are located off the edge of the boardSince I only use 3.125 inch high material, any board taller than that will show errors
Here's a shot of a .diy board that taller than 3.125 inches
My program notes the errors in red text
All holes off the edges of the board are noted down below the image
X and Y coordinates are noted
You could then go back to DIYLC and resize your board
Or find the holes that are off the edge of the board
It is possible to have a stray eyelet hole somewhere off the edge of your workspace that you cannot see
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You can set the workspace area size in the edit menu
Edit / Edit Project settings
Lets say you pasted an eyelet down low and forgot about it
Then you set your workspace to 4.5 inches tall
The eyelet is now hidden below the white workspace area
My program will spit out an error with the coordinates of the stray eyelet
If X or Y are beyond your workspace area, you can set the workspace size larger to find the stray eyelet and then delete it
Here's a couple images showing that
One image shows the stray eyelet before setting the workspace size smaller
Then the eyelet cannot be seen in the smaller workspace
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DIYLC has a bug where background images do not scale to 100% of the original image size
There is a way in DIYLC to adjust the scale as you add an image, but it is limited in how much you can alter the image scale
Make sure you check out the video's I did here for more info
https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=23814.0 (https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=23814.0)
To get an image to scale to the exact size you want, you have to multiply the width and height by 2.78 inches
The image has to be resized in your favorite image editor program
So for example you want to use a background image that is 10 inches wide x 3.125 inches tall
The image you use in DIYLC has to be resized like this
10 x 2.78 = 27.8 inches wide
3.125 x 2.78 = 8.69 inches high
72 pixels per inch
The attached images show how I do this in paint shop pro
Note that you have to uncheck the aspect ratio box or both the width and height will be changed at the same time
You want to be able to change the width and the height separately
The first image below shows a screen shot of the resize tool in paint shop pro
I resized the image to 27.8 inches wide x 8.69 inches tall at 72 pixels per inch
The second image shows that resized image in DIYLC
Notice that is close to 10 inches wide x 3.125 inches tall
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How to add a .diy custom board to my shopping cart
I just made it way easier to add a custom .diy board to my shopping cart
Watch this video
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This is what the final screen looks like after you have analyzed your custom board
The button down below lets you add the custom board to your shopping cart.