Anyway, at some point, I looked for a better replacement for that bloody square relay, and found one of the same model line as the others, which I think ended up being a bit cheaper as well, but I was more happy with the fact that the bloody relay was gone from the design. I, obviously, redesigned the board, and at some point, I found a questionable error with the glass fuses. I couldn't find any real solid answer, but it seemed to be that you can use AC fuses for DC systems, but it's not entirely recommended. I decided to look for something else and the only real option was SMT fuses. If I remember correctly, it raised the cost of the parts I needed to get from Mouser, but it also condensed the board size quite a bit (more on this in a bit).
Before and after ratsnest tool.
I kept the height of the board and got rid of the length... Again, I'm fairly certain there's another board design between the one above and the one from the previous post, but that requires me looking on Melty, which I don't feel like doing (I'm using Mei-chan to write this). Anyway I think I chopped off about 20 USD from the board, which well makes up for the slightly higher cost of the SMT fuses. While I was a bit irked with the SMT fuses, it's also a bit better, since if it blew while someone else was using it, they couldn't just replace the fuse and (maybe) be on their way - the problem would have to be traced before the fuse can be replaced. I also rearranged the pins so that it would be more sensible.
Once that was finished, I properly arranged the items on the fan/light power distribution board, which turned out larger than I was hoping for, but there's not a whole lot that can be done considering the size and number of parts.
Before and after ratsnest tool.
I made the traces relatively symmetrical and did a ground pad for both sides. While the positive trace for the fan lines aren't entirely efficient, there's probably no better way without spending a lot of time to find a good arrangement to enable a relatively equal path. I think 6 screws might be a bit overkill, but I'll worry about that when I properly mount it.
With those done, I began working on the mounting plate that the board mounts to, which attaches to a power supply. I originally tried to do it all in LibreCAD, but eventually moved to QCad when I found QCad worked a bit more like I wanted to. It took a bit of time to clean things up, but I eventually got it all worked out and then worked on making the title block, which was a bit tricky. I had gotten it to where I liked it, but recently, when I went to submit it to get quotes, I simplified it more, since there's not really a real need to have revision levels and/or revision details.
Screenshot from QCad.
I made separate layers for both inch and millimetre dimensions, though either can be used. While it would be nice to be able to strictly work with one unit of measurement, computers are a huge mess of metric and inch dimensions. A power supply uses 6-32 screws (which isn't a metric screw), where the holes are 6mm from the top and side of the corners (we're ignoring the long side where the offset screw is). Also, the power supply is 150mm wide... (I'm going to stop here before I rant any further.) Anyway, It's why there's some "weird" dimensions like the .236 radius, because that's actually a 6mm radius. I'm not sure how places are with mixed dimensional units, but I think it's generally better to keep it the same. There might be a way to do dual units in QCad, but I've not seen an option for it. I kinda wish I did the drawing in Solidworks now, so that the machinist can see that the radius I used as an example is 6mm and not .236".
I had printed out a few copies when doing the title block to see the size of the text, since QCad uses "units", which I have yet to understand (I've at least understood it enough to figure out what I want).
Anyway, I've recently sent out a few quotes (four exactly), and gotten "two" back. One of them was an automated quote, which was really cool, since I just had to upload a 3D model (Solidworks, STEP, etc) and click a few options as it updated the price in real time. The other quote I got back was actually an email saying that they don't work with sheet metal. I'm hoping to hear back from the other two places before next Wednesday, but we'll see. So far it seems like it'll be about 62 USD for one plate (I wanted three, but 180 something USD isn't cost-efficient to me), and while I did kinda want it to be made at work, I feel really awkward about putting in the order, since it's a personal project (even though I'd be paying for it).
It was earlier this week that I firmly decided to get the quotes out and get rolling with the project, and I first started with ordering the PCBs (I also ordered the PCB for the soundcard switchboard which I haven't talked about yet). I ordered the parts from Mouser (again, with the parts for the soundcard switchboard), and found that the relays for the fans were back-ordered and wouldn't arrive to Mouser's warehouse until mid-March or something. I figured the best option was to just compile the entire order into one shipment instead of spending an extra 5 USD for one line item to ship separately. I had a feeling that I should've ordered the parts for the soundcard switchboard separately, but alas, it is too late.
It was Tuesday after work when I started looking and getting quotes out, finding that most places wanted a 3D model, which was still on my computer at work (of course). Wednesday after work, I sent out the other three quotes, since I now had the model I made in Solidworks (which was just importing the DXF and extruding it .0625 inches).
I did also order the screws, some 6-32 button head socket cap screws (BHSCS) a quarter-inch in length, some 6-32 phillips pan head screws (PPHMS) also a quarter-inch in length, along with a few other screws so that I don't feel awkward about buying 125 screws that would total 5 something USD. I think it was the day after I ordered it that I received an email saying that it would be a few days before they can get my order out to me, and I was thinking to myself that it doesn't matter anyway since it'll be March before I get to do anything with the projects.
From what it seems like, I think the place with the automated quote thing will be the place I'll be getting the plate from (which also quoted 10-day turnaround).
It'll be a couple months before I update again, but hopefully not later. I'm thinking to create a sort of bill of materials with projects, but the plate would be the most awkward to try to link (everything else is easy) - I'll see what happens when the time comes.
