Woa, hold up there. Why not try to build it and order out the board later if you can't seem to make it work... How many vias/density under the smt's are you talking about? I was only trying to warn, not talk you out of it. Most of my curmudgeonry stems from the fact that I hate drilling and sweating over these things only to have something like a burried solderjoint hold me up. I haven't let logic stop me in the past from pursuing something I knew might bite me in the backside. I just did a 188 board with full AD bus + fpga + RTC, and some other stuff using magazine paper, laser printer, and a scrapbook laminator (toner transfer). It can work, it just needs a little more time spent with layout and a good deal of patience. O'course if I counted the amount of time I spent doing that, I could have probably payed an outfit to produce the board for me; but I wanted to prove that I could do it. Anyway, what I was getting at, try to avoid burying the vias on hobby boards if you can. Be aware of the possible problem if you find you have to. I've done some fairly elaborate layouts without having to put vias under the SMT's. Anyway, is there any reason you could'nt lay out the board a little differently (albiet a little larger)? If you've got the time, why not try it. It won't cost you much. It's a useful skill to practice. -Dal ----- Original Message ----- From: "Josh Koffman" To: Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 4:51 PM Subject: Re: [EE]: Ground Plane Question (sorry) > Thanks for the advice Dal. Looks like I will have to shell out the cash > for a real board. Just kills me because I can make them for so much > cheaper (admittedly not counting my time or prettiness factors). It's > just the vias that are holding me up. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics