Hi,

I have had some moderate success designing PCBs in Eagle and having them=20
made by BatchPCB.  I currently use a fairly crude method of soldering=20
SMD parts, but it seems to work (info at http://tinyurl.com/2brjyn6).=20
I'm pretty happy with this workflow.

However, the skills I built up manually routing double sided=20
through-hole boards with "huge" components don't translate well to=20
surface mount.

As an example, see the board at http://tinyurl.com/35gdrpx (none of the=20
finishing e.g. silkscreen/ground pours is done yet).  It is a simple=20
breakout for the FT232RL so I can use it with a breadboard, but getting=20
all the wires routed without hundreds of vias is challenging me.

So I would welcome any tips for SMD boards.  Do people use the=20
auto-router?  Would it be more sensible to layout on 2 sides somehow=20
(e.g. Vcc/GND on one, signal on the other).  Do I just need lots more=20
practise at component layout and routing?

And yes, I know you can buy these things.  But I'd rather spend a few=20
weeks reading a datasheet and learning about how things work.

David
--=20
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