The hope is to build a nice environment to get some fresh eyes on a new PCB design before you wait 2-3 weeks to get your PCBs built. The schematic gets shown in a PDF viewer and any uploaded Gerber files are converted to SVG and displayed for reference.
Long term, I would love to see if this can grow into a repository of open source hardware that could easily be indexed and referenced for inspiration.
Obviously, please don't post any IP protected designs here.
I think the key is creating a space where people can comment in context, as someone here suggested, and take action on the comments. Similar to Figma or Google Docs, the ability to facilitate discussion and iterate quickly makes the design process faster. That's essentially what we're trying to build at Flux.ai (I'm a cofounder).
We're still in private beta and have lots to figure out, but I'd love to chat with you and get your thoughts on what we've built so far :)
- you should post the solder mask and paste layers. Can’t review any component soldering issues without those.
- part assembly layer, same deal as above.
- stackup. You would need this to review anything more than a 2 layer board.
Question- have you tried overlaying the renders for different layers of the board? It is hard to review the one example you have on the website. The bottom and top layers are in different places so I have to mentally connect dots.
A way to discuss and explain things about a pcb that aren't easily written right on the pcb, like what happens in classrooms.
I often see myself drawing something a certain way on a board going up on github/pcbway/oshpark, and thinking someone else is going to "fix" this some day because it's not obvious why this bit here is drawn exactly this way, and I'm not cluttering up dwg.user with a paragraph of text for every other square cm...
And surely I am guilty of committing that same crime myself come to think of it.
This could help with that.
Regarding your circuit example... have You considered providing holes for mounting of heatsinks into account? I know there are sticky backed heatsinks available like those used on stepper drivers but I have always been partial to clips or screws, especially on power transistors. Likewise providing board mounts and clearances from board edges for dielectric properties is also a good idea.
I would think adding multiple options would be best but then again if You did open it up, You may also run into people using the forum for unrelated or malicious files.
On a side note, I recently acquired an Ortur laser master 2 pro and a 6040 CNC desktop router and am building a tool chain for small scale, high turn around PCB production (Mainly for my own personal us but would be willing to share out a portion of my eventual production capacity). I would imagine there are many other people doing the same thing and that may be another resource your site may want to investigate. Especially given the ever growing shipping times for overseas products.
Haha ok that sounded like I'm a out to run off and clone it, no I'm a out to upload a few boards, because you know you can double dip just like the dating sites putting multiple different audiences in front of the same back end, and make a seemingly totally different, differently marketed site where you show off your designs and get likes and a place to humble brag and stuff, and you know that's what I want, since you know I'm definitely only posting boards I already think are jewels. :)
Posted some comments on your example PCB but the newlines got removed and it turned into a wall of text.
