jrz126
Active Member
I just etched my first PCB, and the results werent too great, but it's ok because it was my first time. :?
Some of the traces didnt fully transfer, they were near the ends, and I didnt have that big of a 'pour' between the traces and the edge of the board. I was able to use a marker to redraw them, but it wasn't good enough and they were etched anyways. I could have reprinted my circuit and transfered it again, but i would have had to wait until today to do so. (I'm not a very pacient person )
Also, I dont have the greatest cross-slide vice, so the drilling is pretty difficult. Anyone have any suggestions on a good drilling method?
One idea that I have is to set my grid to .1" in my pcb software and line all the holes up along this grid, or as many as I can, a component or two may have different pin spacings. Then after I etch it, I'll take a piece of perf board that also has a .1" spacing and line it up with my holes on my PCB. Then when I drill, I'll use the holes already in the perf board to line up my drill with the holes in the PCB. I already tried this on my 1st board for the DIP's and it worked pretty good (except I made my solder pads a bit too small. Anyone have a better idea?
After experiencing the difficulty with doing a single sided board, I think I might just order the double sided board(s) that I'll need for my roof led project. expresspcb has (3) 3.8X2.5" boards for 59.00 after shipping. I can modify my driver board so that I can use all three boards. (3 shift registers, 3 ULN2803s, a 24 pin header and 3 10-pin headers per board.)
Has anyone ordered from them before, is it quality work? Is there a company that offers better prices? I would like to have the circuit on 1 double sided board, max dimensions of the board are 6.25"X7.25".
Some of the traces didnt fully transfer, they were near the ends, and I didnt have that big of a 'pour' between the traces and the edge of the board. I was able to use a marker to redraw them, but it wasn't good enough and they were etched anyways. I could have reprinted my circuit and transfered it again, but i would have had to wait until today to do so. (I'm not a very pacient person )
Also, I dont have the greatest cross-slide vice, so the drilling is pretty difficult. Anyone have any suggestions on a good drilling method?
One idea that I have is to set my grid to .1" in my pcb software and line all the holes up along this grid, or as many as I can, a component or two may have different pin spacings. Then after I etch it, I'll take a piece of perf board that also has a .1" spacing and line it up with my holes on my PCB. Then when I drill, I'll use the holes already in the perf board to line up my drill with the holes in the PCB. I already tried this on my 1st board for the DIP's and it worked pretty good (except I made my solder pads a bit too small. Anyone have a better idea?
After experiencing the difficulty with doing a single sided board, I think I might just order the double sided board(s) that I'll need for my roof led project. expresspcb has (3) 3.8X2.5" boards for 59.00 after shipping. I can modify my driver board so that I can use all three boards. (3 shift registers, 3 ULN2803s, a 24 pin header and 3 10-pin headers per board.)
Has anyone ordered from them before, is it quality work? Is there a company that offers better prices? I would like to have the circuit on 1 double sided board, max dimensions of the board are 6.25"X7.25".