Semaphore and 555 Timer Circuit

The free version should be fine, I think it's good for like 300 points, component connections or what ever they are called. I think that is what most of us here are using. I'll be glad to help where I can, but GRJ is way ahead of me in this department (as well as all the other departments around here).

For anyone interested in ordering some PCBs, I recently sampled a few PCB manufacturers to compare pricing. The sample PCB I used was from the 4-way traffic signal project. I've added some components to it, opto-isolator, bridge rectifier, capacitor and voltage regulator, in addition to existing components. The final PCB ended up being fairly large, about 80mm x 68mm (approx. 3-1/4" x 2-3/4").

* = JLCPCB  and ALLPCB are 5 PCBs as default quantity.   ** = Best - Per PCB for 5.   *** = Best - Per PCB for 10.

Some places offered a default quantity of 5 PCBs and others offered 10. I upped the quantities to 10 at the places using 5 as their default for fair comparison with the others. As far as I could determine, OSHPark offers PCB quantities in increments of 3 only. All are located in Asia except OSHPark, which is located in the US (I believe they also have their PCBs made in the US).

I have used OSHPark, JLCPCB and SEEED, all had very good quality PCBs and I have had good results with them. I have not used PCBWay or ALLPCB. Shipping times from the suppliers I have used are all similar and will usually take 2-3 weeks when using their standard shipping, their least expensive shipping method. The Asian suppliers also offer PCBs in several colors at no extra cost, but choosing a non-standard color adds 3-4 days to the PCB manufacturing process. They also offer Expedited DHL (or other carriers) shipping at additional cost over their standard shipping rates.  

I have used JLCPCB the most. JLCs shipping prices seem to sometimes vary a bit with different quantities. I have also noticed that sometimes selecting greater quantities can actually lower the pricing, so pricing seems to fluctuate as well. I have never ordered more than 20 PCBs at one time. Pricing and shipping on my lot of 20 was inline with increases in quantity prices and shipping costs shown above.

OSHPark offers free shipping as standard, and their shipping is pretty fast once they get the PCBs back from manufacturing. One thing to watch for on the Asian PCB manufacturers is shipping selections when you check out. They usually have some type of Expedited shipping selected as the default, so unless you want them faster, be sure to change that to the least expensive shipping selection.

Lastly, to be fair to OSHPark, they can be very competitive and cost much less than any of the others if you are ordering small PCBs. I didn't compare sizes to see where they became the most competitive, but I am guessing it's somewhere around one to two square inches in size. If you have small PCBs they are definitely worth checking out and can be very inexpensive at OSHPArk. 

Edit: Thought of a couple more things here: Currently (as of this post) the Asian PCB makers all offer their default pricing for PCBs up to 100mm x 100mm in size. The prices start going up for anything larger.

Also, some of the Asian suppliers are offering free or discounted PCB assembly for a small quantity of PCBs, one site offered this service free for 5 PCBs. I'm not sure if this is a one time deal or what on assembly, but I suspect it might be a limited time offer to get you to try their assembly service?

I've never tried doing this and am not exactly sure how to go about it, so I didn't pursue any of the details for these services on any of the sites. However, this might be a good option if you want to use very small Surface Mount parts on your PCBs. I also believe you have to use their parts for this offer as well, but I didn't check into that either.

That's a great job summarizing the options!  

BTW, some time back there was discussion about consolidating the various PCB designs...perhaps with a link to the originating threads.  Do you know what became of this?  I figure there are over a dozen PCB designs by now born from OGR discussion.

Stan, that would be a good post in the Documentation thread, but we'd have to have one person maintain it so they could add edits as new projects come along.

Thanks for the kind words, Stan!  It could very well have been me who was talking about putting all these projects in one thread? Several times I have thought that would be a good idea as well. But somewhere along the lines I think I've lost track of some of them. I have a few saved, but I don't think I am anywhere close to having them all.  

I would be willing to volunteer to try and maintain a thread of them all, that is if I can find them all. I agree with GRJ that it would be probably best if placed in the Electrical Reference Docs thread. 

I'll see if I can put together a small list and post the links in a new thread. Then if anyone knows of others that are missing, just let me know and I will add it to the list. 

Tom, if you start a thread, I'll see what I can add to it, when we get a decent list, we can put it in the documentation thread.

Ok. I'll get one going. I do have a few thread to add as well, but it will probably be tomorrow before I get started on it. Thanks for the assist, I need all the help I can get! 

Tom I can also offer assistance to help develop the list. I think this is a really good idea.

Rod

Thanks, Rod. All help is appreciated! I just started a new thread for putting a list together as GRJ suggested. I'm still gathering links to post, some of which I'm sure you know of, but please post anything you have ready. 

Here's the link: Creating a List of Electronics Projects developed on the OGR Forum

You might post names of other projects that have passed by, maybe that will spark some memory and we can include the stuff for them as well.  I suggest each project have the associated files to recreate it if possible.

Ok, I have added a couple things to the new thread. Also with some more thoughts, questions, etc... One was about the associated files you mentioned here. I was originally just thinking links, but posting the files would be nice to have as well.

My only fear was if someone made changes to the files in the original thread, that might be missed? OTOH, many of these projects have been posted for a while now so updates could be unlikely?

The thread of projects by OGR Forum members has been posted to the Electrical Reference Materials thread here: Electronics Projects Developed on the OGR Forum by OGR Forum Members

All the projects from the other thread about creating the list have been added. If anyone has any more projects to add, let me know and I'll try to get them added to the main list in the Electrical Reference Material thread. Also, I probably have errors in the list somewhere, so corrections are welcome as well!

I tried to go back through the project threads and give credit to everyone involved for the different projects. No one was intentionally left out, but I probably missed someone somewhere. I'll be happy to correct that info as well, just let me know.

rtr12 posted:

The thread of projects by OGR Forum members has been posted to the Electrical Reference Materials thread here: Electronics Projects Developed on the OGR Forum by OGR Forum Members

All the projects from the other thread about creating the list have been added. If anyone has any more projects to add, let me know and I'll try to get them added to the main list in the Electrical Reference Material thread. Also, I probably have errors in the list somewhere, so corrections are welcome as well!

I tried to go back through the project threads and give credit to everyone involved for the different projects. No one was intentionally left out, but I probably missed someone somewhere. I'll be happy to correct that info as well, just let me know.

Tom

FYI - Your link above points back to this 555 timer and semaphore thread

Bob

Thank You for catching that!!  Should be fixed now and pointing to the correct post.

That's what I get for having multiple browser tabs all open at the same time while trying to edit things...I should have checked it after posting.