I understand why saving money is important, but your priorities are misplaced. There is NO substitute for obtaining one or two EXACT prototypes when testing a design. The PCB layout itself is an important part of the design. The best way to do this is to use a prototype shop that will make an exact PCB. If you look carefully, you can locate a reasonable shop. Purchasing 1000 PCBs that are not right is very costly. The chance of you getting the layout correct the first time is impossible; most commercial designs have 7-8 versions before committing to a volume purchase. --Bob L. Barta wrote: > Hi, > > I've designed a pretty complex board and would like to know that the > design > works well before I order a large quantity > made at a board house. > > The problems I'm faced with are these: > > I plan to make the prototype board at home and this board has many holes > that need to be plated through. > Some of these holes will be very difficult, or impossible, to access > after > components are placed on the board (no chance > of being able to solder connections on both sides of the circuit > board). I'd > like to be sure that my design works like it > should bfore I send it out to a board house. The board has about 260 > plated > through holes. > > I'd like to know if there is a method or product I can use to plate > through > these holes on this first board. > > Thanks for responding! > > Lauren > -- Note: To protect our network, attachments must be sent to attach@engineer.cotse.net . 1-866-263-5745 USA/Canada http://beam.to/azengineer -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist