That really looks like a terrible process to have to go through for a PCB! I would have never tried one doing it that way. The modern software and PCB makers have really streamlined the process from doing it the old-fashioned way. I briefly fiddled with DigiKey's KiCad but never got too far with it. I think DipTrace does seem to be easier than that one anyway.
I did a tiny bit of drafting in the late '80s (not electronic related) and it took a lot longer than today using a computer with good software. At the time the company had only one IBM PC/AT with Autocad so there were not enough to go around, It wasn't long until they got more PCs and everyone had their own. That was new and fun back then. I will say that I think the computer designing is much easier to make a mistake in, such as copy/paste and forgetting to change something that was a little different (I still do that!). I think in the manual drafting an error was much easier to spot and you had to draw each item so the copy/paste errors were non-existent. The PC was much faster though and also much easier to make revisions on. Time saved outweighed the occasional extra errors. We had nothing like Diptrace though, that is pretty impressive!
The Digikey first order of parts came today. I had absolutely no pots with the mount on the PCB so I ordered some of those and a few other items today. Should be here by Friday. Oshpark emailed that the PCBs will be on their July 20th PCB layouts (or something like that) and then go off to be made. Won't be too long now!
Ok on the TMCC buffer, I knew from your earlier posts that some of the parts were expensive (and so is moving, first-hand experience there a few years ago). That turned out to be a lot of work and I'm sure Dale would be pleased with it all coming together now and his work being carried on.
I will probably be one of the people that doesn't actually need one, but thought I better get one while the getting was good. You can't have too many electronic gizmos! I do plan to expand my layout, that was the idea from the beginning, but things have not progressed much after I got the first part up and running. It's still in the plans, maybe I'll make it someday?
To ALL:
If anyone is interested in ordering PCBs from Oshpark I can try to figure out how to share the project and post a link here for anyone that is interested. It was $10.75 for 3 boards with free shipping. For parts, I ordered extras for a discount price so I don't have an itemized cost breakdown per part to get a total cost per board. All parts I ordered are from DigiKey, they had everything.
Or you can wait and see how mine turn out and go from there. I will post my progress as I get the parts in and get things put together. Also, I think I got all the parts correct, but I usually goof something up somewhere so the material list may need a little adjustment? If you want to wait I can make any corrections to that as well. It's GRJ's PCB design that I used, so I am sure that will be fine, probably no worries there.
