PC-Board know-how

[Michael Buchstaller]

>"EPOXYD- Platinen", are they the "PC-board" or is this something
>totally different.

This is only a designator for the material the boards are made of.

There are basically 2 flavors of materials that one can easily buy in
electronics shops here:

1. "Hartpapier" - that are the cheaper ones, usually light or dark brown
  colored. Easy to drill, but also easy to break.
  OK for most projects, but when those boards get old, humidity can
  make them bad (after several years)

2. "Epoxyd" - glass fiber boards. Approximate 2-3 times the price,
  availabe in various colors. (mostly light green, pale yellow. Blue
  unes look very nice; and i have also seen red colored ones (but
  do not ask me where to get them!))
  You need a special drill for them, because the glass fibers eat normal
  HSS drills after only a few holes. So you need tungsten carbide drills
  (i think these are "Hartmetallbohrer" called in german) the those
  boards.
  Those boards are nearly unbreakable (at least with normal force).


Personally, i am using those "Hartpapier" (what is it´s english name?)
boards nearly always when i an using "Lochrasterplatinen" (those boards
with an array of holes in them), but when i am etching boards that go in
units i do not want to change later, i use those glass fiber boards for their
increased longetivity.

But i am alwas wondering if the copper traces will be corroded long before
the board itself wil go bad... But i have seen discoloration from corrosion on
some of my oldest boards in my junkbox (they are from the mid-80s, when my
interest in electronics begun), but all of them seem to work fine electrically.


-Michael Buchstaller