Now I don't know if they always refuse this or if this was just a overzealous operator on a bad day.
Now I don't know if they always refuse this or if this was just a overzealous operator on a bad day.Nope. Those half cut holes are called castellated vias, and most manufacturers will either refuse to do them, or charge extra. They are hell for milling bits. It is an interrupted cut with different materials. And mills must be sharp to have a nice edge without spreading copper all over the place.
The milling shouldn't be all that different from milling slots
The milling shouldn't be all that different from milling slotsit is very different because of copper in the cut. It is the same reason why manufacturers don;t let you have copper close to the edge of the board. At the speeds they cut FR4, copper gums up the mill. You need different speed and feed for cutting the mixed material, which is sub-optimal.
True, but hardly unmanageable. If they support through-plated slots (or cutting slots in general - many are in copper pours too!), they will have the same problem so they will have to have a procedure for it in place.
Regarding the groundplane and the Busboards, you’re not precluded from using DIP parts, they just dance a bit above the board unless you choose to shorten the pins. I leave them as-is, if I blow up the part I can snip it off more easily. More likely though with a microcontroller I use a socket for a DIP part anyway.
Yes, this is exactly what happens if you use the same feeds and speeds as for normal boards, without taking into account that you are machining copper and have interrupted cut.
They did route through the holes, as specified, no problem. However, it is not very clean, there are pieces of copper and FR4 hanging in places. So I am not sure whether the breakouts will be usable,
the SC70 ones have also silkscreen across the area where the chip is supposed to go That will make soldering there interesting. Not sure whether that's a mistake they made or the gerbers are like that (didn't check).
Thanks for the feedback with the photos.They did route through the holes, as specified, no problem. However, it is not very clean, there are pieces of copper and FR4 hanging in places. So I am not sure whether the breakouts will be usable,The ones I got from Elecrow looked a bit better, but they look still usable to me. Just use a bit of sandpaper on the sides to get rid of the remaining copper.
the SC70 ones have also silkscreen across the area where the chip is supposed to go That will make soldering there interesting. Not sure whether that's a mistake they made or the gerbers are like that (didn't check).It was designed like this. The Silkscreen isn't on the pads, just between the two sides of the ic. Looks like their silkscreen is a bit thicker than usual, but don't think this will be a problem.
Seems pretty good for the price.