[sdiy] Effort?

[Tim Daugard]

From: "Paul Schreiber" <synth1 at airmail.net>
> Really? PC board layout is 100X faster than physical wiring,
especially

I can cut, strip, and wire, a connection between to IC pins in
under a minute. When I'm really humming a long, I bet it takes
less than 30 seconds to connect a resistor to an IC socket pin.

> connecting just the power & ground pins (I just pour a copper
plane to the
> nests, the software does the rest).

With star grounds and power lines on the board, power takes no
longer than anything else - the leads on the filter cap for the
board are spread:

-o-o-o-O-o-o-o-

and there is three (or more) connection points for power and
ground lined up nicely with perfboard holes.

With perfboard, I can complete an old design from clean bench to
power up and tested in under 2 hours. A new design takes longer
(front panel layout and label eat up the most time) - up to a
week. I'm still working my PROM programmer, but that has entailed
delays for design work, a lifetime buy of parts, hurricane
repairs, a vacation, three computer system rebuilds, and two
hurricanes.

> What I like about www.4pcb.com is you get 3 boards. Sell two
off and yours is
> free :))
>
> I also suppose it's what value you place of your 'free time'. I
use $150/hr :)

Do you include the time and effort required to sell off the other
boards in your calculations? In my case, I retired from
professional electronics in 1995, no I do it as a hobby. My
calulations is $ COST / FUN HOURS. I think electronics is cheaper
than going to a movie.

I looked through some receipts last night and was amaxed at how
much I paid for some computer equipment. However, I have to then
consider how much time that equipment was used, and how much it
benefited my son. He has a two year degree in accounting, but is
working as a computer expert at a large goverment contractor. The
two best things he did was take a typing class in high school and
spent a lot of time on computers.

. . . enough of your time. The best way to make a circuit board
is whatever works for you.

Tim Daugard
AG4GZ 30.4078N 86.6227W Alt: 12 feet above MSL
http://home.sprintmail.com/~daugard/synth.htm