Voltera Community

Alignment probing after simple outline

pathare 2017-03-27 17:23:08 UTC #1

I'd like to have access to probe pads after doing an outline for a simple print. I have problems where I need to have a connector close enough to the edge to plug in. If I could do an outline and then probe down on one of the mounting pads for the connector I could confirm its close enough to the edge to work.

troy 2017-03-29 01:57:52 UTC #2

Hey @pathare,
I know we have some recommendations for aligning to an edge, but I can't recall them right now. @mewertow?

Meanwhile, I have some questions:

Are you asking for a step like the Confirm Alignment step in the Aligned Print procedure? taken as is, that step probes the center of the toolpath's bounding box. That might help but I don't think that's a great solution for this case, what would be better?
Would an aligned print be a better fit for this?
Would templates help?

pathare 2017-03-29 12:10:26 UTC #3

This is the design I was printing. The top was my first print, I really didn't think about the problem right away, or I wouldn't have baked it. the top left is a micro USB, I don't think it would be able to be plugged in from where the connector is sitting.

What I would like is to be able to touch pads after doing the outline. That way I could go to the pads of the connector and see where they would get printed.
I'm not a huge fan of the built in feducials on the standard boards. they end up being so close to the mounting bars that I really cant get a good feel for the probe position on them, so maybe if I drilled the board before printing but for me an aligned print wouldn't be the answer.
I really haven't considered using your templates for anything, I could see using them for the shield interfaces but I'm not sure this is an answer either.

One thing I was just wondering was, if the voltera assumes a standard template size from my gerber file or if the extents of the outline are just the edge of the gerber plus some tolerance. maybe defining a board outline in my gerbers could be a solution to this problem. Then I define everything in the cad program and then actually work with the outline of my board in the simple outline setup.

An issue I had that was my fault and not yours with this design was that I use traces on the outside of the connectors on the bottom. when I did the simple alignment printed, drilled the holes, and then aligned the bottom print to those holes, I ended up probing off the edge of the board. My design fit within the 2X3 but only with the assumption that the micro USB was on the very edge of the board.

troy 2017-03-30 02:27:13 UTC #4

I spoke with matt today. Our recommended approach for aligning to an edge is to cut the board after printing and baking (if you can). A quick cut with the right tool will be faster in some cases.

Alternatively, you could do an aligned print using the top and bottom pads of the usb connector. You'll need to click one of them during the first "Move To Pad", and the other during the second. Note: the first pad is used as a pivot point and the second determines the rotation of the board around that pivot. Generally we try to keep the alignment pads far apart to minimize the impact of measurement inaccuracies, but you should be ok here.

Also...

As you suggested the outline is just a rectangle with some padding. I've made a note to fix a bug there: the box we draw around the circuit does not match the path that the probe traces...that was intended at the time (they are different things), but if i made them the same that would be more useful and clearer.

I noticed this too if you pinch the clamps for maximum coverage. I was told that the clamps don't need to be in that far. They're to keep the board from wobbling so you don't need much contact.

Let us know if this will help,
- Troy