Ah, the truth hurts. "Old-fashioned" though it may be, this is the style of PC board that I design most of the time - I probably crank out half a dozen or so of these a year (and the number seems to be going up). Although I have a surface-mount oven (commercial purpose-built - not a modified toaster oven), have made several SM boards, and many more boards with some SM components, my default choice for hobby purposes or limited-run products (such as clocks, or boutique musical electronics) is always through-hole. It's so much easier to hand-assemble and debug, and "blue-wire" modifications are easier too (although I finally seem to be needing fewer of those now days). Once I got used to it, though, routing is a bit easier with SM boards; most of mine are two-layer, with occasional four-layer for larger, more complex designs (>50 ICs).
Your board looks very nice. Above and beyond functionality, your layout is very aesthetically pleasing. The white surface provides a unique look, although it can be difficult to troubleshoot as others have pointed out; I personally prefer black. Also, many of the board vendors offer ENIG gold coating as a surprisingly inexpensive option, and this brings a very high-quality look to a board - much like a piece of 1970s HP test equipment; soldering the ENIG can be a bit more fussy, although not bad (especially if you use good old SnPb solder). I'm looking forward to seeing the case you put this in! ~~ Mark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/82164387-d959-4830-8e0e-db42c175363e%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
