FreeIMU

Trimming corners off FreeIMU?

Asked by Daniel Sjöstrand

Hi,

Do you think it's possible to trim off the corners from the FreeIMU without damaging any connectors/lines?

So it will look like this:

 _____
/ \
\_____/

instead of this:
_______
| |
|______ |

If so, I'm planning to do it with an Exacto knife (I think a Dremel or other power tool will produce to much shock vibration..)

Thanks for any input,

 Daniel

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Fabio Varesano
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Daniel Sjöstrand (daniel-plustecken) said : 		#1

Hmmm...I tried to do a simple ascii drawing :) but it seems that whitespace was removed; well, anyhow I uploaded an image to Imageshack instead of how I'd like to trim:

http://img263.imageshack.us/i/cuttingcornesofffreeimu.jpg/

/Daniel

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Best Fabio Varesano (fabio-varesano) said : 		#2

Thank you Daniel for taking the time to register and post your question here.
Using this platform and making all the support requests open I hope people will be able to collaborate and share in a better way.

Well, I'd say yes for the top corners and for the bottom left one.. I'm only concerned about the right bottom one.. there is a ground pane there which shouldn't be cut out.. just leave enough space below the C7 capacitor and it should be fine.

This holds true for FreeIMU v0.1 .. in FreeIMU v0.2 there is less free space to cut away.. so I wouldn't suggest that.

Hope this helps,

Fabio

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Daniel Sjöstrand (daniel-plustecken) said : 		#3

Thanks Fabio Varesano, that solved my question.

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Fabio Varesano (fabio-varesano) said : 		#4

Daniel, how did this went? I'd like to see some pictures of the trimmed boards.

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Daniel Sjöstrand (daniel-plustecken) said : 		#5

Hi Fabio!

I haven't gotten around to doing this step yet as I've run in to some other issues that needs to be solved first.
I'll get back when I've done it though!

/Daniel

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Daniel Sjöstrand (daniel-plustecken) said : 		#6

I have trimmed the corners now, it went well.

I started out by using an Exacto knife but this was way too slow, so I used a Dremel instead to sand corners down. The circuit seems to be working well after this!

Some pictures can be found here:

http://img101.imageshack.us/g/finalresulttrimmedwithd.jpg/

I took the risk of trimming the area below C7 just a little bit.
It seems like all of the corners has a ground plane (copper is visible close to top and bottom of board).

I'm not sure if this will affect the reliability of the board in any way

Thanks for pointers and help.

/Daniel

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Fabio Varesano (fabio-varesano) said : 		#7

Looking good! Keep me posted on your project!