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FusionITR said:As someone who extensively used to make pcbs... trust me its not worth it.
Have a fabrication house do it. They can make it professional quality for very cheap if you dont care about soldermask and silkscreening.
philba said:I can't agree with this. yes, you can get much better quality and features with a PCB house. However, once you get the process figured out, you can produce a usable PCB in several hours. I have, literally, designed a circuit, made the board, stuffed it and gotten it working in a single day. hard to beat.
that said, you need to understand what the limitations are:
- most people do single sided board only (though DS isn't that hard)
- no plated through holes. not a huge deal if you design with that in mind.
- no solder mask. this is most significant in reflowing surface mount chips
- fairly coarse geometries. 10 mil is about the lower bound on traces though I use 12 mil most of the time.
- chemicals, materials, ...
Still, there is an incredible sense of satisfaction in making a PCB yourself and have it work.
Phil
!PLEASE NOTE: Developing and etching PCBs is a process that involves chemicals that can burn your skin, have hazardous neurotoxic fumes, can be absorbed into your bloodstream, and CANNOT be disposed of by dumping into ordinary sanitary drains. It should NEVER be done without powered ventilation or in an area accessible by children or pets. Of lesser but significant note is that it is common for these materials to wreak havoc on flooring, furniture, and especially on clothing. (Splash some etchant on your clothes and you might not notice until after you wash them that you suddenly have what looks like a shotgun blast through your jeans.) In short: don't fool with it unless you have proper facilities to do it right, and follow ALL safety cautions mentioned on the materials. You may well be better off to farm out the process to a commercial board maker; some are listed in this list of PCB Fabricators. New . . . you might also want to check with PCB-Quote Free multiple quotes for PCB Layout, Fabrication, Assembly. The E.E. Shop can also help you fabricate a printed circuit board: click here for details on what we need and where to get the photonegatives made.
You are certainly not in the minority. I'm not certain what Fusion_ITR is smoking, but I can make up a board in an hour at home for no more cost than bare copper board and a sheet of photo paper. If it's not right, which sometimes it's not, no matter how carful you are with the design, I'll just make up another one. The board can be whatever size/shape I want and I don't need to wait for any shipping.philba said:I'm probably in the minority, but $59 for 3 boards seems like a lot.
DirtyLude said:You are certainly not in the minority. I'm not certain what Fusion_ITR is smoking, but I can make up a board in an hour at home for no more cost than bare copper board and a sheet of photo paper. If it's not right, which sometimes it's not, no matter how carful you are with the design, I'll just make up another one. The board can be whatever size/shape I want and I don't need to wait for any shipping.
Certainly if I'm going to distribute something I'll get a board made up, but for hobby work, if I had to pay $58.00 every time I wanted to see a schematic become a reality, I'd probably give this hobby up.
This is basicly the method I use:
http://www.eegeek.net/electronics/tutorials/tonertransferpcbtutorial.htm
...and this is what the boards look like:
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This one has more thru holes than usual, because it will be going to a board house eventually:
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I can also make up little test boards on the fly, to test SMD devices on perfboard, like this:
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A laser printer is a requirement, though. It also helps that I have a cheapo drill press for holes.
EDIT: If you want more info and other ideas, you can try out the YahooGroups ML called HomeBrew PCBs. Those guys are serious over there though, with home made milling machines and stuff.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBs/
Excuse me for stating the obvious. I was just illustrating a point. The threadstarter appears to have zero knowledge of the process so maybe everything isn't as obvious to him as it is to you. Also, I've seen some people make their own boards for products they sell. I'm talking 20-50 units at a time, not thousands here. ...If I needed 25 pieces of the same board made I'd go to a manufacturer. In that quantity it's not such an obvious choice. I think you could reasonably go either way with it.Oh and of course you would get it professionally made if your going to sell it, DURRRR THAT IS OBVIOUS!!!!!