Homebrew PCBs

The reson my pcb has no ground plane is because I initially was going
the cnc route. But have been thinking that cnc may not be worth it
labor wise compared to Toner Transfer.

Mike

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Stefan Trethan"
<stefan_trethan@g...> wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 09:55:36 +0200, Phil <phil1960us@y...> wrote:
> 
> >
> > However, I wouldn't focus on using fat traces for avoiding copper
> > removal.  I think that would be the hard way to do it.  I much prefer
> > to create a ground polygon that encompasses the entire board and then
> > let the layout software figure out the actual shape.  In eagle, I put
> > a ground poly on both the top and bottom with isolate set to 24 mil.
> > Then I route the board.  The only places eagle will take copper is for
> > isolation and "orphaned" copper areas (not connected to ground).
> > Look at http://www.geocities.com/pcbs4less/boardtop.gif for an example
> > of this. Red and green are copper areas/traces.  As you can see, this
> > design keeps much more copper than one using just fat traces.  It
> > seems much cleaner and makes for a quieter board, noise-wise, because
> > of the extensive ground areas.
> > Besides, thin traces just look more professional to me
> > Phil
> 
> 
> I agree, reasonably thin looks better.
> I also make groud planes, but i always wondered about islands. You
say you  
> don't leave the copper there, which i only partially understand
(though i  
> do the same, i just don't know exactly why).
> 
> How bad are they? I mean i can imagine they could potentially
provide more  
> capacitive coupling between signals which is unwanted, but is that
really  
> an issue?
> Have you any information about that?
> 
> Sometimes those gaps don't look right, and i'm tempted to leave them.
> 
> I usually use 10mil for signal traces and 20 mil for power, but i've
also  
> made boards with 1mm traces for customers if they want, where 10mil
would  
> have been plenty, and it doesn't look bad if the components are
right for  
> it (only throughhole, not many ICs, ..) Esp. if all traces are that
wide  
> and none are thinner it looks ok.
> 
> ST