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

[Adam Schabtach]

> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG!
> 
> That's a couple hundred down the drain.

You have my sympathies. While I don't think that I've blown a couple hundred
all at once, in recent times I have: blown ~$75 on one set of boards awhile
ago because I didn't take one aspect of their physical size into account,
blown $50 by burning up two $25 DACs on the same board, and just today on a
very simple home-etched board I grounded a pin on an SOIC that should have
been tied high and ended up having to lift the leg and jumper it with 30ga
wire.

I'm sure your grandfather would still be proud anyway.

> I figured it out before I started testing, but I still have 
> most of the parts in. My plan is to solder in the vactrols 
> with only a few leads in, so I can clip them back out and 
> reuse them (I can't imaging committing 7 expensive vactrols 
> to a board that requires 22 jumper wires, which I can't 
> imaging are very stable).
 
Danger, Will Robinson! One of the very few--components I've ever killed just
by handling and soldering was a vactrol. I've had two just die on me for no
apparent reason, and that's out of a grand total of ten that I've ever
messed with. If your vactrols are expensive, weigh their cost against the
cost of a new board. (A new board is $2.50/in^2 + $10 at BatchPCB.com -- no,
I'm not affiliated, just a happy customer.)

--Adam