[sdiy] PCB layout mistake = Aaron curls up in a ball in the corner and cries

[Matthew Smith]

Quoth David G. Dixon at 2009-06-21 09:00...
> After hearing the sob stories, I'm definitely going to stick to my method of
> laying out one-sided boards by hand, and etching and drilling at home.
> Laying out by hand, and then counting parts for the BOM, one typically
> catches circuit blunders before immortalizing them in copper.  I've made a
> few blunders, but even in the most severe cases where I've decided to make
> an entirely new board (mostly for esthetics), I can usually salvage every
> single part safely, right down to the jumpers (no through-hole plating, and
> I always use IC sockets), and be up and running again later that same
> evening.  I don't think I'd even be doing this hobby if I couldn't make my
> own boards at home.

Even if you're sending stuff off to a board house, you can always print
the tracks on paper and lay your components on this to check.

I make my own boards using the photoresist technique.  Having made a few
stuff-ups (like printing the PDF with 'fit to page' scaling,) I now
print first to paper (rather than expensive transparency film) and then
put devices on to make sure everything is OK.

Cheers

M


-- 
Matthew Smith
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