Backwards again!

The prototype HyperPlex printed circuit boards arrived in the mail today from BatchPCB. This is the first PCB I've designed, and it's exciting to see it become physical reality. There's just one small problem...




Backwards again! This image is reversed, the invoice is normal but the PCB is mirror-reversed. It turns out that Eagle, the PCB layout editor I'm using, defaults to producing mirrored Gerber files for PCB production. The HyperPlex board is so regular that I didn't catch the error on previews.

Fortunately I can still assemble the prototype HyperPlex correctly, I just have to switch sides; the only minor downside is that the silkscreen (vanity text and component placement hints) will be on the top side, hidden by the LEDs.

It'll be lucky indeed if this is the only problem! This turned out to be quite a finicky design, and I expect it'll be hard to build too with everything packed so tightly. I was prepared for the small overall size of the board (1.6" square) but didn't anticipate just how small those pads and traces would end up.

I'm still waiting for the LEDs to ship (they're on back-order), but I'll probably try a test assembly later this week with a few LEDs and a spare socket I have on hand.