Hi I have been asked by a customer to place a circular plated through pad on the edge of the PCB. i.e. the board outline will cut through the pad and only one half of it will remain. He wants to do this to solder wires to the edge of the PCB. Is it possible to do this ? Has anyone done a similar thing ?
Just place the thru-plated hole on the edge of the pcb outline, but tell your manufacturer that it is a Castellated hole just to make sure. Some Chinese proto pcb companies will, unfortunately, throw it out as an error.
Make sure that the pad is big enough as the pcb profile router bit can tear the plating away on anything smaller than say a 1.1mm pad diam. & 0.8mm diam. hole.
All very valid, but you CAN use a semicircular pad. Set the pad style to use 'Offset Bullet' then make the length half the width. That's not normally allowed but this case is a special one. You'll end up with a semicircular pad so it needn't overlap the board edge.
All very valid, but you CAN use a semicircular pad. Set the pad style to use 'Offset Bullet' then make the length half the width. That's not normally allowed but this case is a special one. You'll end up with a semicircular pad so it needn't overlap the board edge.
Thanks Peter your a star that works a treat.
Richard
Edited by - halcyonrichard on 04 Sep 2025 17:26:15
Via or PAD on PCB edge
Posted - 04 Sep 2025 : 13:18:39
that works a treat. 