V G wrote:
> I've been going crazy with the posts lately, but that's because I'm
> working on a project for my university and I want to get it right.

Which university?

> I am going to etch my own circuit boards,

That makes no sense.  That's for penny pinching hobbyists that value their
time at next to nothing.  You are doing this for a real job where your hour=
s
cost your employer real money.  For $109 you can 100 square inches of
finished PCB from Gold Phoenix, with silkscreen on top, solder mask top and
bottom, plated thru vias, electrically tested, and delivered.  Unless you
work for the University of Outer Bizzarristan and get paid a bowl of rice
and three yak dung paddies a day, you are doing your employer a disservice
by costing more to make a inferior product.

Also keep in mind that your employer's cost to keep you around is more than
you get paid.  For example, how many yak dung paddies does it take to keep
your office heated, what do they have to pay the yak hearder for the
paddies, etc?

Then consider the extra labor cost putting in jumpers because you don't hav=
e
plated thru holes, fixing the human errors that a good silkscreen would hav=
e
prevented, the solder bridges the solder mask would have prevented, etc.
There is also the initial cost in materials and time to set everything up,
the chemical disposal issues, space to store and maintain the equipment,
etc.  It doesn't add up.


********************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, http://www.embedinc.com/products
(978) 742-9014.  Gold level PIC consultants since 2000.
--=20
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
.