Homebrew PCBs

"What you're describing here will have little if any functional advantage,
and the 
notable disadvantage that it'll be unlikely to work in a stable manner
across 
time and many holes.  By all means knock yourself out if you want to do it,
just 
realize ahead of time it'll probably be 10 times longer to get it working
and 10 
times more prone to problems once running than a simple wire system."

That's why I think it through first.  If it turns out to be more trouble
then it's worth, I move on.  Once I get all my parts on hand, the plan that
remained on the table is the one I'm following; most likely the wire-cutting
system which was my original plan, but manually (hence the dozens of
copper-wire rolls on hand).

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"A pretty, flat solder via simply isn't really necessary, and will likely
have a 
huge premium to accomplish."

And that's why I think things over for a good while first.  I have other
things to do besides
fabricating little metal pieces and stuff.

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"That is what the dumb mode is for."

I must have missed that part, that's good.

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"And look at what you're comparing it to, Gecko is about 10X more expensive
than it could be.  Serious overkill for 95% of people just wanting to have
basic computer controlled motion."

Yup, Mariss is building the thing to survive a walk in a mine field.  Mariss
is also targetting heavy CNC work too, not light drilling.  His drivers are
going to be up against a lot more resistance that what we need.  I'd like to
be somewhere in the middle, with a unit that can work hardwood and plastics.
I can use the hardwood pieces for silicone mold-making.

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"While it has an intelligent method for doing it's own point to point for 
developing PC software without having to bother doing the low level
stepping, no 
one was planning to be there with a gun to make you use it."

You've never met my wife have you?

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"And for sure no one will worry if you cut out the PIC and only use it for 
drivers.  You could split the board at the drivers and do your own glue and 
control.  Not going to tie the gates together in any fashion on the board 
though, you need seperated gates for braking, chopping, and etc."

I have no intention of modifying your design in any way.  I don't have
anywhere
near enough experience to decide 'my' way is better than yours.  Shoot, I
don't
even know what my way is yet.  I'll know that when I have everything in
front of me,
until then I'm just reviewing my options and making suggestions.

Robert





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