KevinM Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 Hey there I was wondering about enlarging the four holes that are on the OpenScope MZ. I'd love to drill them out to fit something like a #8 (.175" or or 4.45 mm) screw. Are there any traces running near those four holes that would prevent me from doing that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JColvin Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 Hi @KevinM, I think most of the corners will be okay; I'm finding out for sure though since there's one corner (top left when viewing the top side) that I'm less certain of. I'll let you know what I find out. Thanks, JColvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JColvin Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 Hi @KevinM, I talked with out layout engineer and they let me know that this is definitely not a good idea as the internal planes can short. The aperture in the copper planes/polygons around the 1.5mm mounting holes is 2.5mm in diameter, so you would need to keep within that area (and ensure that the drilling process does not cause any of the external area around it to become crushed/shorted together). Thanks, JColvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinM Posted March 27, 2019 Author Share Posted March 27, 2019 So you believe it's OK to drill the holes out to ~2.4 mm with no ill effects as long as it's done correctly (not some cheesy HSS drill bit, etc)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JColvin Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 Hi @KevinM, The recommendation remains that you should not attempt this. Safely leaving 0.05 mm (just shy of 2 thousandths of an inch) on each side of the hole will be incredibly difficult if not nearly impossible as a common small size for a PCB trace width is 5 or 6 mils. If you are willing to void the warranty on your board (by intentionally drilling a hole into it) and have equipment available to achieve this level of precision and then are able to check that no shorts have occurred via a microscope, then this is theoretically possible to do without ill effect. Good luck, JColvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JColvin Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 Hi @KevinM, I entirely forgot about this, but we have actually designed an acrylic case for the OpenScope MZ (https://store.digilentinc.com/openscope-mz-acrylic-case/) if that accomplishes what you are looking for since you could just use longer screws with it. Thanks, JColvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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