Mike is that board single-sided?

It's doubled sided. Red is the top layer; green is the bottom.

For me, I think using SMDs is probably easier overall. Maybe it's because the soldering isn't a big issue? (That's what lunch breaks at work are for. )

When I etch my own PCBs, I try to keep it 1-sided and not have to worry about screwing up the alignment. (I just add a couple jumper wires, where I can't get around crossing 'em.)
So, when I can use SMDs, it eliminates most of the drilling. And I really hate all the micro drilling!

And when you have to go 2-sided, there are no sleeves in the vias, either.
So, you end up doing twice the soldering, with thru-hole, to tie the top and bottom annular rings.


Maybe I should get out of the PCB making game and just let a board house do it?!
I'm curious, who did you use to fab it? And did you get stuck with a big setup fee, for the small run? And if it's not too personal....how much?

I spent years in the DIY circuit board camp. Early in my engineering career I did board layout on mylar with paper tape. We'd send the artwork to a photo house for reduction then do the board production in house.

I continued to make boards as a hobbyist up until a few years ago. The low cost of board prototyping services made the DIY effort not worth it. While I can make a board cheaper, I can't make it better.

Currently I use ExpressPCB. They offer a "miniboard" service which is 3 double-sided 2.5" by 3.8" boards, no solder mask, no legend for $51 plus tax, S&H. You must use their software (which is free). The software will cost out other sizes, options, and quantities, as well.

These particular boards were done using the miniboard service. I added a small 2 chip SOIC prototyping area to fill the available area. (See the Aug 9th entry on my site.) Total cost as delivered was $65.75.

I got the firmware together and loaded into the PIC. I added a bit of self-test code since I'm currently too lazy to re-create the PC-based test code I lost awhile back. The self-test code simply increments the data for the air-core movement shaft position each time a PWM cycle completes then sets a flag indicating new data. The PIC executes its code as though it had received a command from the host computer.



As I write this, the PIC is causing the air-core movement to rotate its shaft about once a second, so mostly I'm happy.

The part I've not tested is the comm functionality. I've used the firmware in other projects, so I don't expect any big issues there, however... Something I just read in the PIC docs make me think that using the receive functionality of the USART may preclude using the TX pin for a general output pin. Guess I'll just have to crank up MSVC++ and re-create the PC-based test code.

As it turned out, I had to change the output pins driving the Air-core movement. Bummer, I had to hack my pretty SMD board. Ah well, at least now it works.

Even better, the board will also drive a stepping motor (as long as the firmware is reflashed). I have it driving a Switec automotive stepping motor gauge movement.