A Walk in the Park

As a slight detour from my own PCB making exploits, let me tell you about a couple of PCBs I’m having made commercially. I am a big fan of the Z80 microprocessor made by ZiLog and have had an itch to do some Z80 Machine Code programming for some time. I’m not sure exactly what I want to program but there you go! I discovered this really neat Simple Z80 Single Board Computer designed by a chap called Grant Searle. Having had some practice with EagleCAD PCB, I have designed it a layout and included an expansion connector too. The connector has pins for all the Data Bus, Address Bus and most of the Z80’s control Bus.

Simple Z80 SBC by Grant Searle

A Simple Z80 Single Board Computer

This is a render of my PCB layout. I am having it fabricated by OSH Park (www.oshpark.com) who accept Eagle .BRD files directly. This negates the need for Gerber files and makes the whole process really easy. At the time of writing, the price for 2 inches square is $10 and you get three of them which is the minimum order. Considering the time and materials it would take me to make my own board, I believe that to be very reasonable. I couldn’t solder so many Vias in any case! You can see OSH Park’s pricing on their pricing page. Another really useful feature of their service is that they have a set of design rules in Eagle format for download, allowing a Design Rule Check whilst you are designing your layout to check whether you are within OSH Parks fabrication limitations.

This is the second board I have sent to OSH Park. I also designed a simple Universal Programming Shield based on a prototype I made some time ago. Since ordering, I have spotted one issue though, see if you can spot it:

Arduino Universal Programming Shield

A shield to facilitate programming of AVRs and other chips.

Any idea? OK I’ll spill the beans… The ZIF socket is right next door to the pin headers. Unfortunately, the ZIF socket is wider than a standard IC socket by one set of pins on either side meaning, on this version board, I’ll have to use a standard socket. I would have used a ZIF Socket symbol in Eagle if I could find one! I have since updated the PCB design and I’m deliberating whether or not to have some made. A lesson there, check, re-check and check again BEFORE you send your file!

Many thanks to Charlie Robson who suggested OSH Park in the first instance. I have seen many images of OSH Park’s boards and they look great in their purple finish. When I have received the first batch (The Universal Programming Shield), I’ll review them here.

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