Re: Homemade PCBs!

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: Jan Wagner <jwagner-at-cc.hut.fi> 


On Sun, 25 Apr 2004, Tesla list wrote:
 > Original poster: "Jim Mitchell" <Electrontube-at-sbcglobal-dot-net>
 > 1. 5 days
 > 2. Gerber files via email
 > 3. PayPal via bank account or credit card.

In my opinion it would be totally nuts to order a $35+ board and wait 5+
days, just to get a trivial voltage multiplier board built (what the
original poster wanted to build).

Your 3-point list is what many PCB houses do, like olimex. Personally
I don't really think it worth to wait from 5 days for manufacture (huge
clearance for bulky boards) up to some weeks (<0.25mm clearance for SMD
boards), and then additionally wait the time it takes to ship. The only
exception being if it is a multilayer board which'd take ages at home lab
conditions, or you really need a large batch. Or, if it for some reason
must look professional. Or if you're not the highly impatient type to
start with ;-)

In the time it takes to wait and flip thumbs, you'd have finished tens of
boards already, with 10..20 minutes per double-sided board (doing standard
UV photo + etch, DIY spray-coated boards).

Just a critical thought here... ;-)

cheers,
  - Jan

--
****************************************************
  Helsinki University of Technology
  Dept. of Electrical and Communications Engineering
  http://www.hut.fi/~jwagner/ - jwagner-at-cc.hut.fi