"......and thought how much easier it would be to just do a PCB". -
cunningfellow
I would have agreed with you several years back, but today, in the realm of the "homebrewer" to fabricate the latest and greatest micro sized and complex circuitry with its extreme demands (trace size and multi-layers) for interconnections of the SMDs, trying to emulate PCBs that today are created on multi-million dollar machines is simply not worth the effort.
In "cheating the devil" with our inexpensive modified "home grade" printers has come to an end for multi-layer demands.
It is my contention that the demands of the SMD technology of today exceeds the reasonable and practical fabrication capabilities of most the "homebrewers".
I think you would agree that majority of "homebrewed" projects today are built on a core of "smart" and "networked" technologies (ie:MCUs,WIFI,ZigBee,etc) all in one package.
Is anyone actually building a "power supply" or "MP3 player" you can buy at Radio Shack for $60. ???? I think not, the things we "homebrewers" are designing are novel and clever assemblies utilizing the awesome capabilities of latest ICs.
In my current "homebrewed" project(invisible fence)a UHF GEN2 reader interrogates passive tags in the ground(boundary definition), processed by an MCU and is bi-directionally linked back to my PC via WIFI for e-mail notifacation and parameter adjustments... all of this on just two very small boards embedded into the dog's collar.
The two major challenges being the fabrication of the complex "circuit board" and the code design of the controlling "software" in the MCU.
The "Via-Mag" method suggests full compliance to the intense physical and electronic demands of such devices in reasonably "simple" terms for the "homebrewer". With parts in hand, even this complex circuitry
can be up and running in a day.
I thing I would be 5 generations out before you've seen your first "PCB" assembly.
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "cunningfellow" <andrewm1973@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Richard wrote:
> >
> > Another concept example pic here:
> >
> > <SNIP URL>
>
> Looks like Mr ELM-Chans work is it?
>
> I was always amazed by his point to
> point stuff and thought how much
> easier it would be to just do a PCB.
>