Homebrew PCBs

> It sure seems like there ought to be a much easier, "cleaner" way,
though.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Tom Gootee


There is.

When I'm doing a one-off, home hack project that will go in a case and
no one will ever see it except me, making a PCB at home is pretty
quick and does the job.

When I'm making a board that has a lot of detail, fine-pitch surface
mount parts, and could be on display or is designed as a prototype for
a client, I simply order from Olimex. $26 for a double-sided 4"x6" PCB
with PTH, solder mask, and silkscreen. Plus you can send them several
different files and a sketch of how they are laid out on the standard
panel, and they'll cut it out for no extra charge no matter how many
you have on there. A lot of surface-mount projects use boards that are
under 2 inches square, so you get a lot of boards for your money.

Making circuit boards at home is a worthwhile skill and has advantages
in certain situations. However, for me, there is a limit to how much
equipment, time, and chemical exposure is worth the added features.
There are so many PCB prototyping and production houses these days, if
you want solder mask, plated holes, and silkscreen they have the
skills and the safety measures already in place. Someday I would like
to see fully-populated board production to be as cheap as PCB
prototyping; that eliminates the hassle of trying to solder BGA and
QFN packages by hand, and gives me more time to design subassemblies
instead of soldering microscopic parts. This will be required at some
point in the future, if we want to advance the hobby to follow the
state of the art. There will still be a lot of work, but we will be
capable of more complex projects.