On Wed, 23 Nov 2005, Olin Lathrop wrote:

> Peter wrote:
>> Aren't those pads on the side made such that the hole plating continues
>> on the edge to the full width of the pad ? That would not be done by
>> cutting there.
>
> The ones I made only had the hole plating in the hole.  The were just normal
> round pads with plating sliced in half.

Ok. Was this enough to hold in a soldered pin ? Ime., such cut pads are 
less strong than a 'wide' plated side finger. The next question would 
be, is there a way to specify or order the kind of pad or finger which 
is really metallized on the outside ?

Afaik, the technology for metallizing the edges is the same as the one 
for making the holes but I suppose that the machine has a special holder 
for the board and I think that there must be some way to specify the 
mask for the edge since it would be covered in copper together with the 
holes. I have only seen such pads on relatively expensive boards, so I 
do not think one can order this feature for a small run. Exposing 
photoresist on the edge must be a bear. They probably use silkscreening 
of some sort for this. And I think that those boards were stamped, not 
cut.

Also, would it be an option for the OP to specify side clip-on 'pins' as 
used in certain modules instead of the cut pad ?

Peter
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