The making of PCB Art #PCB #Art #Making #BadgeLife @SSilver2k2

Shea Silverman posts about making art with printed circuit board manufacturing methods:

I’m a collector. I like to collect things. Video games, Raspberry Pis, Pokemon cards, and Pins. I don’t have many pins, but they really appeal to me. It’s like pixel art. Making awesome designs with limited colors on a small canvas.

A eureka moment hit when PCBWay wrote this month asking if they could sponsor Shea’s next PCB board.

I quickly started investigating and found an awesome plugin for Inkscape called SVG2Shenzen!

I use Inkscape for a lot of things, mostly for setting up projects on the laser cutter at FamiLAB, but I never thought of using it to create PCBs! The boards came out amazing!

And the verdict:

Pros:

• The boards I received from PCBWay.com blew me away.
• I was not expecting much for $5 (+ $15 shipping from China).
  • I ordered the boards on Saturday, they shipped them out on Wednesday, and they were in my hands by Friday.
• The production speed is incredible.
• They audit every board before you pay and begin production.

Cons:

• The ordering experience was a little clunky.
  • I had to input my dimensions and order details BEFORE uploading my Gerber files. Other PCB manufacturers usually get order details from the Gerbers.
• Because I was making pins, I didn’t need anything drilled. This caused the audit to fail, and due to the time zome difference, their message to me and my reply caused a 20 hour delay in production. edit: Adding a note to ignore the drill file for my second order caused it to pass the audit test without delay.

The Pros HEAVILY outweigh the very minor Cons I experienced. I will have zero problem using them from now on for my board needs!

Read how the design was executed and more on the blog.