Cutting standard V3.0 main board down to metric size

Ask questions about DIY board assembly issues, fault finding and testing. (Covers all Megasquirt versions and board.)

Moderators: jsmcortina, muythaibxr

Post Reply
retired
Helpful MS/Extra'er
Posts: 142
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:49 am
Location: Rural Suffolk, UK

Cutting standard V3.0 main board down to metric size

Post by retired »

As per the title really.

The standard USA sourced board and case is 4" wide.

Unfortunately the rest of the world uses metric, and has done for a few decades, which means 100mm is what we buy over here which is slightly narrower (by 1.6mm) than a 4" board (and one hell of a lot cheaper than trying to import a USA 4" case and/or paying the extra for custom PCBs that are 101.6 wide, all the PCB fabrication places I use do metric only).

Because all my add-on boards are, inevitably 100mm, to stay "legal" I have to use a genuine V3.0 board in my case.

So, can i just mill 1.6 mm off the side(s) ?

There is nothing obvious on the outer layers that would suggest this would be a problem but I haven't a clue what the two inner layers are - presumably power and ground layers - but how far does the copper extend to the edges of the PCB ?

Would I be best taking 1.6mm off one side, 0.8mm off both sides, but would either expose the inner planes/traces and short out ground and/or power to the slots in the case ???

Rod.
Classic Mini "A" series 5 port 1360 turbo
MS2-E fully sequential siamese code
14point7 SLC widebands, inner and outer cylinders and after turbo
digital AFR data and digital displays via Tiny-IOx
jsmcortina
Site Admin
Posts: 39585
Joined: Mon May 03, 2004 1:34 am
Location: Birmingham, UK
Contact:

Re: Cutting standard V3.0 main board down to metric size

Post by jsmcortina »

retired wrote:the rest of the world uses metric, and has done for a few decades,
Since the mid 1960s I think.

I'll email Bruce Bowling with your question.

James
I can repair or upgrade Megasquirts in UK. http://www.jamesmurrayengineering.co.uk

My Success story: http://www.msextra.com/forums/viewtopic ... 04&t=34277
MSEXTRA documentation at: http://www.msextra.com/doc/index.html
New users, please read the "Forum Help Page".
Bruce Bowling
Site Admin
Posts: 301
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2004 5:25 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

Re: Cutting standard V3.0 main board down to metric size

Post by Bruce Bowling »

When I designed the board it targeted a specific case (4 inches).

You can take off board material along the top of the board (heatsink area) without any issue.

- Bruce
Post Reply