Centerplates

This page describes the proposed openmulticopter centerplates and how they are created using the GPL'd PCB tool-suite.

Note: These centerplates are just a DRAFT! They're not finalized and not tested and haven't been produced, yet.

How to convert the openmulticopter logo into a PCB footprint
First you need to install the PCB tool-suite (see Introduction to gEDA and PCB), inkscape, and pstoedit.

Scale the logo SVG file to ca. 9mm x 9mm (or whichever size you want to have it in the PCB) in e.g. inkscape, then save/export it as EPS.

Then you have to convert the .eps file into a .pcb file using pstoedit:

$ pstoedit -f pcb logo.eps > logo.pcb

Now open that file with pcb:

$ pcb logo.pcb

Select the Delete tool (F8) and click on the four frame lines to remove them, we want just the logo itself. Then, click Select / Select all visible objects to select the logo, and afterwards click Select / Convert selection to element. The UI will turn "gray"; you should now click in the middle of the logo to place the "marker" there.

Now, do Select / Select all visible objects again and then Buffer / Cut selection to buffer (where you have to click on the "marker" of the logo again, so that it "hangs" on your mouse pointer). Finally, click on Buffer / Save buffer elements to file. Save the new footprint as openmulticopter-logo.fp (the file extension for footprints is .fp). You can now place the footprint file anywhere gEDA and/or PCB can find them, e.g. (quick hack):

$ cp openmulticopter-logo.fp ~/geda/share/pcb/newlib/headers/

In order to add it to any of your PCB designs, you can later press the i key in pcb to bring up the PCB Library window, enter "openmulticopter" in the search field and then click on the footprint entry which is found in order to place it into the PCB.

How to design the centerplates in PCB
Here is a detailed HOWTO on creating the centerplates using the pcb program, so you can reproduce the layout easily and/or adapt it to your needs.

First you need to install the pcb tool, please check Introduction to gEDA and PCB for details.

TODO

View or edit the PCBs
$ git clone git://github.com/esden/openmulticopter.git $ cd openmulticopter/hardware/centerplates $ pcb centerplates.pcb

Images and Gerber files
Run the following command in the hardware/centerplates directory:

$ make

This will generate a number of centerplates*.png PNG files for viewing, a centerplates.ps PostScript file for printing, and centerplates*.{gbr,cnc} Gerber files for producing the centerplates at a PCB manufacturer. In order to view the Gerber files you can use gerbv:

$ gerbv *.gbr *.cnc