[sdiy] pcb design sucks.

[Magnus Danielson]

From: Jim Patchell <patchell at silcom.com>
Subject: Re: [sdiy] pcb design sucks.
Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 10:06:53 -0700

> > > I think lot of you already did a pcb for the asm-1 vcf, could someone please
> > > send me an image of it? I'm not lazy, but I would love to see how someone
> > > with more practice (and skill!) did it.
> >
> > Do you now know why the ASM-1 PCB is double sided? ;o)
> >
> > Single-sided PCB layout is an artform of its own.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Magnus
> 
>     Plus, it might be considered masochistic. (Hope I spelt that correctly...).

Your spelling seems fine...

It is actually more masochistic than making double-sided stuff
yourself. The only thing I am missing is the ability to do through
hole plating myself. It should be possible, but seems to be some work.
If anyone has experience I'd love to hear about it...

> If you are going to be etching the boards yourself, I can fully understand why you
> would want to do a single sided board, but, if you are going to send out the board
> (to a PCB house), then you are not really saving anything.  The process most
> houses use these days does not differentiate between single and double sided.

I agree. If you going to send it to a PCB house, go for double sided
and you also get through hole plating to help you out - alot!!!
Soldering on through hole plated allows you to do very neat
tricks. For instance, you can solder resistors from the
above/component side and get a perfectly valid soldering point but
with less work than normally required.

Cheers,
Magnus