Help making a PCB business card

[rthorntn]

G'day,

Would really appreciate the help.

My [brand new] business is not electronics (actually computer security), so please go easy, I like to dabble with electronics but have never produced a PCB.

I was thinking really simple 90x55mm black PCB (rounded edges) with silkscreened QR code, logo and contact details, I want the business card to be useful in a nerdy way so I was thinking of embedding a small protoboard (10x10 or slighly larger, maybe a rectangle) on there that could be snapped out, one of the protoboards that has like every 3 holes connected with a 20mil trace, like this:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8808

Or maybe a more funky layout:

http://www.adafruit.com/products/1214

So the issues I have:

I downloaded eagle and am completely lost
I will want hundreds of these and will need a low board cost
I'm a beginner

Thanks for looking.

Cheers
Rich

[kizzap]

If the purpose is for advertising, I wouldn't have the protoboard pop out. keep it connected, and if they use the board they then see your business every time they use it. 

what you plan to do is extremely easy in eagle, to the point that you wouldn't even need to place any components down, just do it with Vias. To join Vias, just type "Name" without the "" and then click on the vias you want to join and give them all the same name (i.e. 1, 2, 3, etc...) to make the board the right size, click the "i" in the side bar, and click on the top or right boarder line, the values are X,Y for the two points of the line, and are defaulted to inches. (google the standard business card size for an idea).

Then you pick the trace line, and join the dots. If you feel the line looks too small, then up top there is an option for line width, adjust it till you are happy with the trace thickness.

I'm not 100% certain on this but you shouldn't have to worry about the grid, each via should snap to an appropriate grid for DIP packages.

-kizzap

[Iano]

I will want hundreds of these and will need a low board cost
I'm a beginner

Not sure if this will help, but have a look at the very cool design here to see if it gives you any extra ideas.   They've used a stunning design printed/etched directly on a UV etched board. 

UV etching is pretty simple and cheap.  (They show a step-by-step guide on that site too.)  If you don't want to do it yourself, the job can be cheaply contracted out.

[Anson]

I would just do 0.6mm FR4. It would be a bit thinner than a credit card. Do the logo in gold trace and the rest silkscreen. Then add some decorative traces that would be hidden under solder mask and maybe some gold vias. Having a protoboard to me would look cheap. It should look interesting but not too fancy or busy. A business card represents you, what your about and makes a statement. It should make people think wow that's a nice professional looking card this guy must be good.

If you make these you will want to make enough to keep cost down but not so many that they won't get used.

[rthorntn]

Thanks everyone.

kizzap, great idea to keep my details stuck to the protoboard.

I am having issues with eagle 6.4.0 on windows 8.1, the menus don't open up when I click on them (anyone seen this?) making it impossible to use, off to try it on my mac.

Iano, not sure if I want etching like that, thanks for the suggestion though.

Anson, thanks for the thickness, sorry what do you mean by "add some decorative traces that would be hidden under solder mask", why would I do something if it's not going to be seen?

So who would I get to produce the boards any ideas, 90x55mm size and I want 200 of them at around $1 per board?

Thanks again.

Rich

[Falcon69]

I doubt you will find anyone who will print them at that cost. 

You can also design the boards with your logo and everything with the copper.  No need for silk screening.  It won't cost extra for the boards to be printed that way, but will cost time in labor to design them.  On my boards, I've actually placed my initials and company Logo that will look like a copper trace.  It looks pretty cool.

on another note. I've had several boards made from manufacturers who advertise on ebay.  The quality isn't bad either, but the cost is $30 for a 50mmx50mm size, or $40 per 100mmx100mm size.  Anything over those dimensions, and the cost is extra.  So finding a company to make what you want, 90mmx55mm for $1 each is unlikely.  But if you order 100,000 of them, it may be possible.

Here's a pic of the Logo etched in copper.  This is really small, the actual size of the logo is about 3mm x 3mm.

[rthorntn]

Thanks Falcon69.

On the cost, I was thinking China, closer to $2 would be OK

Using this:

http://www.ladyada.net/library/pcb/costcalc.html

I get Gold Phoenix at $5.50 for 2 sides green mask and 1 or 2 sides silkscreen but that seems to be for prototype quantities and i'm looking for at least 11 x 155 sq in panels, surely with more quantity I could get the price right down?

Maybe I should aim to get a design that a bunch of people would be happy with and order tons of them and then have the company specific stuff added (etched?) later, thoughts?

Or maybe I should just get 40 done at $5.50 each and only hand them out to people I think will use my services.

Or maybe I should get the flipping CNC I bought ages ago setup and working, is this is something I could make much cheaper by doing a lot of the prep on a CNC?

My main problem right now is eagle, I can't figure the workflow, are there any good tutorials out there?

Rich

[ju1ce]

90 x 55 mm boards cost 1.16 € per piece on PCBcart (qty 100). Add the cost of tooling (40 €) and shipping and you probably end up at a bit over $2 per board.

[Aeon]

The Workflow with eagle is

I have used eagle some years but I never.liked IT much.

Some weeks ago I discovered DipTrace. I learned that program in about 1 day and use it since then. I dont think I will use eagle ever again.

The Workflow in DipTrace is very straight forward and uses more modern CAD usability concepts.

Like eagle they have a free Version.