Homebrew PCBs

Phil wrote:

> there are often good deals on ebay.  I got 10 6"x14" 1 oz, FR4, 0.062
> double sided boards for $25 + $10 (or so) for shipping.  Not exactly a
> lifetime supply but it will last a while.
> 

   Second that, Ebay is great for this if you're not in a hurry and wait for a 
good deal.  I've seen 40 new 12" by 16" boards go for $10 and similar once in a 
while.  Usually not quite that good of a deal though.

   Some other general notes:

For easy project making, try turning off the bottom of the board, not the top. 
Solder everything to the top like a live bug standing up.  No holes for anything 
makes it go much faster.  Connectors at the edges spanning the edge for things 
like DB-9's etc, leave a pad and run a wire to the bottom pins.  Just make sure 
and leave some space to get to components to mount them after other componenets 
are on the board.  A little extra board space is cheap, and no holes at all 
beats even setting up a drilling machine.

Eagle autorouter is excellent, but takes quite a bit of tweaking the settings to 
get it routing reasonably, the defaults can route but really suck for making a 
good board..  Some of the settings seem clear by name, but actually cause 
effects different than you'd think from the name because of how they interact 
with other settings.  And so you don't have to figure it out, 'malus' is a bad 
extra, just like 'bonus' is a good extra.  So 'malus step' is an extra step in 
the wrong direction when the trace is already headed in the wrong direction, for 
costing..

Alan