Homebrew PCBs

I'm not considering doing such a thing. Curious to understand how a reliable connection is assured in such a PCB. My experience as a technician has exposed me to some through-hole contacts on 2-layer PCBs can sometimes be a problem. Some soldering can usually correct that. Vias must be reliable for the PCB to be of use. Charles  AE5EW

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Dylan Smith <dyls@...> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 11:56:48AM -0000, ae5ew wrote:
> > Ok. I admit I'm ignorant when it comes to this subject. How is an IC 
> > lead connected to say layer 8 on a 16 layer PCB. 
> 
> Via a via :-)
> 
> I presume you're talking about through hole components, in which case 
> the via that forms the hole the IC pin goes through. For SMD, a via must 
> be drilled.
> 
> On a commercially made board this via is through plated and makes 
> contact with the tracks in the inner layer that you have connected to 
> it. Some brave souls homebrew 4 layer boards, there are various 
> strategies for making contact to inner layers in absence of through hole 
> plating (I presume the hole on the top layer is a little larger so that 
> a wire can be soldered to both the inner layer and outer layer to make 
> the connection).
> 
> For me a multi layer board normally means fine pitch SMD (already 
> increases the difficulty level in home making a PCB) as well as multi 
> layers, so I just use a commercial board house since two lots of 
> difficult tasks goes from being a fun challenge to frustration! (If push 
> came to shove, I'd consider a 4 layer board where the inner layers were 
> power and ground planes).
>