The Village BBS
Florida Arcade and Pinball Collectors => Technical Questions and Help => Topic started by: Mamushka on March 04, 2025, 08:35:22 PM
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Now that I'm wrapping up my NGG I am planning on getting back to my AP topper. It has a bunch of wires (Arduino nano, motor, relay, LED's, etc.). Because of this it's a bit of a rats nest. Would like to make a circuit board to simplify things.
Looking for the best (for a noob) software to draw it up. I tried the Fusion 360 software but was not having much luck. Is there a better way to design it?
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kicad
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kicad
Thanks :)
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Kicad has some good features, however, if you don't have much experience and want to get up and running quickly, try Diptrace. A limited version (300 pin total / connections) is available for free.
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i have heard good things about diptrace.
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i have heard good things about diptrace.
It's no where as full featured as Kicad (which you mentioned) but it is easier to get up and running quickly and includes an autorouter too.
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i used expresspcb back in the day, they have there own design software and it lets you order the boards right via the app.. but it doesnt' generate gerbers, stupid easy, but 100% drm. but 100% us based.
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Kicad has some good features, however, if you don't have much experience and want to get up and running quickly, try Diptrace. A limited version (300 pin total / connections) is available for free.
OK, will look at this also. Will be well under the 300 limit.
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Well with how busy I have been at work (new position) I just do not have the time to learn this, I tried, but the list of components to drop in is pretty overwhelming. I'm sure with enough time I could get up to speed, but it's just not in the cards today.
With that being said, I'm thinking that I can hire someone on Fiverr to draw this out and develop the Gerber files. Any thing I should be looking for in hiring someone? Once again, I have a fully functional prototype. With the wiring it is just a pain in the dick building additional units and a PCB will make the assembly much easier/cleaner.
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Well I fought this board for a while, tried Kicad but the learning curve was too steep. I tried Fiver (where you can hire someone to do the work). The board from $15 turned into a $2500 quote, yea, no thanks :P
I started back with Fusion 360 as I use that often to make drawings for my Bambu X1C (3D printer). Fusion also can make Gerber files (files to make PCB boards). I finally found a YouTube channel that had a good tutorial (although for a older version of Fusion). After about a frustrating month I finally had my file. Sent it off to PCBWay, got the boards, soldered the first one together and... it works like a charm ;D
This was a painful process, but learned allot along the way. If I sell a few of these AP toppers it will be awesome, if not my buddy will have the only one in existence. ;)
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I’d like to see it when you get it done. I might be interested in one.
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based on that board ... you technically could of used that for more than one topper.. looked like a motor/led controller from a game trigger input.
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I’d like to see it when you get it done. I might be interested in one.
The toper is the AP time machine with a 9" spiral disk (looks like disk on playfield). There is a AP figure mounted to the disk, it's a different version (pose and cloths) of the AP on the playfield but from the same toy manufacture so the scale and quality is the same. When the time machine on the playfield is activated it triggers the topper to start spinning with a LED lightshow that shines through the disk. I spent allot of time working on material thickness and infill patterns to make this look good and I'm really happy with the results ;D. When the playfield disk stops the light show stops and the disk continues until the AP figure is upright again (I did not want him sitting at some random angle when not spinning).
I'm going to get my son to put together a video of it in action and will post hopefully within the next week.
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based on that board ... you technically could of used that for more than one topper.. looked like a motor/led controller from a game trigger input.
You are correct sir! I'm sure it's overkill and not elegant for what I'm doing, but I'm normally fixing shit by beating it with a hammer instead of making electrons dance around :D
This board is specifically for the AP but you're correct. I could make a generic one with more inputs. Will not be nearly as difficult after this learning process I just went through.