I'm on a project where a microUSB connector seems to need a bit more mechanical strength than a surface mount, so I'm looking at through hole receptacles.
The pic is of a Hirose part, bottom of page 6 in THIS PDF, and Molex has similar footprints
A few questions – Do the non-round through holes need to be plated for increased mechanical strength, or is the solder connection to both sides good enough?
If they need to be plated through holes, and I'm using EagleCad, I assume the only way I'm going to get it done right is to communicate with the board house. Does anyone have any experience with non-round plated through holes and Eagle that they can share?
Clipping before soldering leaves a smaller solder blob than otherwise.
Best Answer
If your board house supports internal routing, you can use a 'wire' on layer 46 (milling) to make oblong holes. Basically set the width to 0 (or some small number) and draw the shape using the wire command. Another thing you can do is to create the oblong hole using overlapping drills spaced a distance apart (basically offset). That is the reason why some board houses disallow "overlapping drills", so you will have to check with your board house.