Homebrew PCBs

I totally agree. Whilst you don't want to completely waste time and effort repeating others' mistakes, there's a lot to be learned from giving version 1.0 a go and seeing if simple will do.

FWIW, for my first board I just got results that are easily good enough for TSSOP by putting the board on the roof of my van about 20cm below a standard fluorescent (i.e. visible light) in my garage.

Fred

> I'm with the spirit of Paul's reply that simple equipment is all that's
> needed here for a nearly-perfect result. Though I understand (and suffer
> from) the malady myself, this is a case in which there should be less
> perfectionist hand-wringing and more hands-on doing.