The accounts@roboteamtwente.nl email is used for every site we order components from, see Accounts. Always check with the financial affairs person before ordering. Also check where you can order it for free/within a budget. The budgets are excluding tax.

Before ordering, always make an appointment with at least Elect to go over the design and what is still missing for them to assemble it properly. It is handy to put all generated file on the Google Drive for later reference.

1. Go to the folder where you saved your project. Here there is a folder called: project outputs for “nameproject”. Make sure you delete everything in here.
2. In altium click on your .PcbDoc file, then go to › File › Fabrication Outputs › Gerber x2, use the settings as shown on the left side in the image below. For the Plot Layers and Plot Drills (second tab) in the bottom of the right side, use Used on.
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3. In your projects outputs folder, put all files in a zip.
4. Log in on the Eurocircuits website.
5. Go to Analyse My Data, and upload the zip file. Processing will take some time. Use a descriptive project name which also includes a version number.
6. There are two things that can happen now, either the PCB is fine and you could order it. Or it gives errors and you can check where things need to be changed. Either way, click on PCB Visualizer. You’ll see something like below.
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7. Most settings are fine as is. Always check your PCB to see whether it is the same as the one you have in Altium (sometimes things can slightly change apparently so check well).
8. In PCB checker you can see what Eurocircuits dislikes about your design and what you might have to change before ordering.
9. When everything is alright, you need to decide how many PCBs you want. Realize that the more you order the cheaper it will be.
10. Then if you want to let elect assemble it, you need to have panels. At delivery format choose eC-panel by Eurocircuits . For the topBoard you can put Repeat in X on 2and Repeat in Y as 1, then you will have 2 boards per panel. You don’t have to order stencils as Elect will provide them.
11. Now when you have set everything up. You can click save changes and continue. You can just leave everything empty so no need to upload new files here.
12. Now select the PCB › Proceed to checkout and order.
13. It takes around 3-5 days to manufacture and then around 1 or 2 days to arrive.

In order to assemble the PCBs you need more information and also the components.

1. Make a BOM, this can be quite a tedious task (so good luck). Start by downloading the BOM in Altium via › Reports › bill of materials. Now you already have the description, designator, value and quantity of your components.
2. Check this generated BOM completely, go over all your schematics and check that nothing is missing.
3. Make the BOM complete. Usually you have these columns:

   Type, Value, Description, Designator, Footprint, Libref, Quantity per PCB, MPN (manufacturer number), Manufacturer, Link, include in order, parts needed in total, price per component, order per, minimum price

   Adding RS number can be useful when sorting components later on. For an example see the Topboard BOM.

4. So look up which components you want to use, check what is already available in the office, add them to the BOM and order the parts you don’t have yet. Elect can also order components for us. We usually ask them to order components that can only be bought in bulk (as it is way cheaper for us that way).
5. Elect does also want the output files zip you uploaded to Eurocircuits, the Pick Place file and the Production Data of Eurocircuits:
   1. Pick Place file can be generated in Altium by › File › Assembly outputs › generates pick and place files.
   2. The Production Data of Eurocircuits can be downloaded from Eurocircuits from the Download production data.
6. Contact Elect via email about the order and they will probably give you an order number, so when you send them a packet with the components and PCB, mention this number on the box. We solder the through hole components ourselves so keep that in mind.
7. The order at elect usually takes a couple of weeks, so where possible soldering one prototype yourself might be the best option.