Homebrew PCBs

Hi Lean,

Immersion silver works great if you use it fairly quickly. However if
the boards stand for more than a month or so, the silver oxidises and
they become quite difficult to solder.

Les

Leon wrote:
> I've just had a double-sided prototype made by PCB Train using their 
> low-cost Express prototype service (no solder mask or silk) - I got the 
> board in three days for 30 GBP. They use immersion silver for all their 
> PCBs, which is new to me. It seems just as easy to solder as HASL tinning. 
> It might be a useful alternative to immersion tinning for homebrew PCBs, 
> with much better solderability. I don't know how easy it is to use, though.
>
> PCB Train is here, if anyone else is interested in this service:
>
> http://www.pcbtrain.co.uk/welcome.php
>
> They actually make the boards in 24 hours. They don't do any checking of the 
> Gerbers for this service, so you need to make sure that the design conforms 
> to their specifications.
>
> I'm very pleased with the board. It's nearly all surface mount with an 
> Altera MAX II CPLD in a TQFP-100 package. I've assembled enough of it to 
> check that I can program the CPLD via the JTAG connector with my USB Blaster 
> and it's OK so far. I haven't even got any decoupling capacitors or JTAG 
> pullup/pulldown resistors on it yet, so I was a bit surprised that I could 
> program it.
>
> Leon
> --
>