Homebrew PCBs

On Thu, 16 Oct 2008, Henry Liu wrote:

> Most pcb programs assume holes are through plated which isn't the case
> when I make my own double sided board.  Do you guys usually solder
> both the top and bottom of a pin that's through plated?

The answer is "it depends". I try to lay out my boards in such a way to
not make it hard to hand assemble.

I tend to use SIL strips to make up IC sockets, since you can solder these
both sides of the board without too much trouble, and this saves me a lot
of drilling if it can eliminate vias on a large board. For ICs that aren't
socketed and are to be soldered directly, I always make sure there's
enough of a pad on the outside of the chip to make sure I can heat both
the pin and the pad so the solder flows properly.

Also, I tend to hand-route my boards rather than use the autorouter - it
means I think about every pin, pad and via and get it laid out in such a
way I don't make it hard on myself when assembling a board.