Hi all.

I have a question about pours/planes on a PCB. I generally deal with 2
layer PCBs, and one thing I've never quite figured out is how to deal
with a plane/pour. I generally route all my tracks, including ground.
Then I create a pour, but I only connect it to ground close to the
power input on the board. I've always understood that this is to
minimize the possibility of ground loops. This usually means I end up
with a bunch of pour areas that run parallel to actual ground traces.

I've been looking at PCBs designed by other folks, and it seems
somewhat common to do a pour, but have it named the same as the ground
signal, so that it floods over all traces that are ground. This means
the pour can often flood into areas that would be inaccessible
otherwise. I will sometimes do this on very small boards.

So...which is the better way to go? I would imagine that it's highly
dependent on the task at hand. I'm generally not doing much in the way
of RF (though my current board has a Bluetooth module on it). My
processors are usually clocked at no more than 16MHz.

Thoughts? I'm really not sure which way to go on this one.

Thanks!

Josh
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