Now that I have completed the clock using IV-6 and MM5316N, I would like to convert it to PCB and order it from PCBWay.
Here is the previous article.
Making PCB with KiCad
Main PCB
Since it will be built into an alarm clock, I'll make it a circular board like the Nixie tube clock board.
The power is supplied from the USB connector on the child board.
Except for the MM5316N and the switch, I would have preferred to use DIP components, but due to the poor availability of components, I decided to use available surface mount components.
This is the back of the board: MM5316N is mounted on the surface for the shortest wiring to the VFD, and the other components are mounted on the back.
VFD PCB
This is the child PCB where the four IV-6 VFD tubes will be mounted. the pins of the IV-6 are slightly tilted, so I shifted them clockwise by 5 degrees to match the real ones. I think this will make the VFD tube face the front, but I won't know until I actually plug it in after the board is made. Hopefully it will face forward.
Ordered from PCBWay
Registering board data
Order the board from PCBWay as usual. PCBWay allows you to select a matte black color for the board. I like it because it gives a nice matte finish. In this case, we will choose matte black so that the inside of the alarm clock will be dark.
Since we will be mounting surface mount components, we will also order metal masks. Since we will be using studs to align the board and the metal mask, the data has holes in the four corners of the metal mask and the board. To make sure that the holes will be drilled, we have set the "existing reference point" to "laser will pass through".
The details of this area are described in detail in this article, if you want to read it.
Also, the original size of the metal mask was 19cm x 29cm, which is a bit large and gets in the way when stored, so I wrote a comment in the "Other Special Processing" section to have it cut out to 15cm square.
Approval
PCBWay llows you to upload your board data and pay only after the data has been approved (data check).PCBWay allows you to upload your board data, have it approved, and then pay for it.
or this order, it took only a few minutes from uploading the data to approval. This is very fast. With other PCB shops, it can take up to 10 minutes and you have to leave it for a while, but with PCBWay, I only had to wait a little while and it was approved without any frustration.
Payment
Once you are approved, you can pay for your order by PayPal or credit card.
It's now in production. I'm looking forward to assembling it when it arrives. I hope it arrives soon.
