Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

Still waiting for some parts for the MCU version,l but I just ran a
test board and found:

1 - All 5 mm traces are intact.

2 - 5 mil traces/10 mil spaces works perfectly - no shorts, no open
traces, no "near misses".

3 - 5/5 does not. The traces are intact but they spread into the
spaces and short together in many areas. The obvious conclusion is
that the traces are wider than 5 mil.

One solution might be to make the traces even thinner so if they
spread it won't obliterate the spaces.

What I need is a good way to measure the thicknesses. I do have a
stage micrometer for my microscope, but I really would like a USB
microscope with software to measure. Does anyone have a suggestion?

I could also use a test pattern that has a variety of traces/spaces.
Does anyone have one in some common format?

Thanks for your encouragement and suggestions.

Mark