Homebrew PCBs

> Actually, that's what got me going. A while ago, I wanted to get various
> garden electrics going (night lights, pond pump etc.) and I was going to
> have to get an electrician to lay all the cables, connect it all up etc.
>
> So I thought - for that money, I could get a 2nd hand solar panel off an
> ebayer that'd power it. I thought it would be a fun project.
>
> Then I needed to make the night lights automatic, and having meddled a
> little with electronics when I was about 17, I thought it shouldn't be too
> hard. So I bought a couple of voltage comparator ICs, a few passives,
> patch wires, breadboard, strip board etc.
>
> ... and got addicted.
>
> ... within a year of that little project, I had designed and built my own
> 8 bit computer. Now I'm making my own 2 sided PCBs for very fine pitch SMD
> (0.4mm pitch LQFP-80, for adding ethernet to the aforementioned Z80
> computer). Indeed, I can now make a PCB faster for surface mount (fewer
> holes to drill) and hand solder many SMD components faster than I can
> through hole (1206 and 0603 passives are very fast, no wires to clip! SOIC
> is a doddle, as easy as DIL but without the holes to drill. SSOP is
> rather slower though). A future project is to build a reflow toaster oven.
>
> So beware. You, too, may find yourself drawn to the inevitability of
> homebrewing your own computer!

I was looking on my old pc's to see what PCB software I used when I 
first got interested but got to the Win98 box and it wasn't there so it 
must be on the Win95 box! So I guess its been about 10 years since I 
attempted this hobby but had no time. I am going to have to learn a 
bunch of new terminology as I am not too familiar with SMD (surface 
mount device) technology although it looks rather cool. Special 
equipment like hot air and tweezers etc but I will be going the old 
fashioned route for now :) I used to be into Commodore computers so I 
know the 8-bit technology rather well, in fact I still have a bunch of 
Commodore stuff. I used to run a BBS with hard drives (SCSI) connected 
on a C64! I have some learning to do in the electronics department too. 
I have lots of books though but am mainly familiar with simple 
components. I am totally aware though that one could get carried away 
with this stuff as its very interesting. So how did the solar panel 
project end up working? All DC with battery storage or more panels and 
more batteries and an inverter?
Thanks,
Dave
>