Homemade PCB: Via advice

That'll work just fine...  but why are you doing it?  The places I've
gone to for PC fabrication always plate-through the holes, so I get
vias whether I want them or not.
--
Joseph J. Pfeiffer, Jr., Ph.D.       Phone -- (505) 646-1605
Department of Computer Science       FAX   -- (505) 646-1002
New Mexico State University          http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer
                                     skype:  jjpfeifferjr

It should work fine. Lot's of kits have boards you have to do this with. It
is cheaper to make them this way so it keeps the kit prices down.

tim

    It works, although few people bother with do it
yourself board making today.  The gear you need to
make good boards at today's pin densities costs
more than you'll save.

    There are services that make boards for about $50, so
home-making PCB boards just isn't worth it any more.
Double-sided plated through is now the low end of PC
boards.

    There used to be special through-hole rivets
for making vias, but that, too, is a dead technology.

                John Nagle

Well, you're in for a rough go, when you put IC's into those holes.
You'll have to solder both the top and the bottom. It's very hard to
solder the top pins of an IC with it cover over half the holes. You have
to heat both the pad and the pin at the same time, or you'll have weak,
cold, or no solder connection.

Essentially you'll have two, one-sided PCB's. The pads lift easily from
either side without the metal plated through the hole. Reliability isn't
good, as mechanical forces will tend to break the connection from one of
the sides, by working against the other.

It can be done. It really isn't worth doing, other than for the
experience. Remember, experience is what you get, when you don't get
what you want.

--
Randy M. Dumse
www.newmicros.com
Caution: Objects in mirror are more confused than they appear.

Only if each pin has to be soldered at both top and bottom, which is kind of
an unusual requirement.


--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

everything to make your own pcbs at home:

http://www.pulsar.gs

eyelets to make double side pcb vias

http://www.internationaleyelets.com/

bruno

The only problem is that you cannot place such vias under components,
since solder joint will be in the way.

When making a double side board without through plating, you must also
remember that some components cannot be soldered on the top side. If
you forget, you may, for example, when selecting IC sockets, have to
get the more expensive ones with turned pins.

--
RoRo

I used to make my own PCBs and did this - it works fine.  Here's a
tip: take a length of wire, around 12 or 18 inches or so, strip off
all the insulation, then weave it through all your "vias" without
cutting.  Then solder top and bottom.  THEN clip the wire next to all
the vias to finish up.  Soldering the one long segment in several
places is much easier than soldering many very short segments.

But ... I must say that I don't make PCBs myself any more when I can
get them made professionally for so cheaply at much higher quality
than I could ever hope to make myself.

-Brian
--
Brian Dean
http://www.bdmicro.com/

Thats how I do them.

I think you can get little rivet type things for a "professional" job
but if nobody else is gonna see it, why go to the expense. A small hole
from pad to pad and a piece of component lead soldered in should be
fine.  The tricky bit is lining the pads up when making the board.

Good luck ;)

    Rob

    People did that back in the 1980s, but now that you can get boards made
cheaply with plated through holes, nobody bothers.

                John Nagle

Well I would suggest to make a PCB of your own in a better way, just like
the professional ones.
Get a copper cladded board(available easily), copy your circuit design in a
transparency sheet(used for O.H.Ps), and transfer your design to the board.
Etch the board using copper sulphate.

Good Luck

Regards,
Abhinav

From what I remember of chemistry, ferric chloride works better.

On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:04:33 -0000, "Deep Reset"


I found that sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide to be faster and
cleaner.

50/50 mix?

On Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:27:39 -0800 (PST), "joeshell@gmail.com"


I keep confusing the two, but that should be Hydrochloric acid.

Actually 33/33/33

1/3 Hydrochloric acid, from the hardware store.  Also known as
muriatic acid.  Used to clean concrete.

1/3 hydrogen peroxide, Get 40 volume from a beauty supply store, used
to bleach hair.

1/3 water, get from the tap.  Used for drinking, washing.

O.M.G...
Well my apologies....that was a big blunder...yeh you are right its ferric
chloride...

My experience with home-made PCBs was sufficiently horrible (lots of
mess in exchange for a lousy board) that I've become a fan of online
PCB fab houses.  The particular one I've used is expresspcb.com; their
design layout software works just fine for me, and their prices are
good.

If I could find somebody who used software that didn't require me to
boot into Windows, I'd switch though.