Perf vs. Vero vs. Etched PCB vs. Fabbed PCB

[vigilante397]

On a side note: Parts in general, are technically free for me, I quit smoking over a year ago and all my smoke money now pays for parts, like clockwork, I buy the equivalent in parts instead, every week in celebration.

I don't have a lot to add to this conversation, but I just wanted to say that's awesome pedal building can definitely become an addiction, but it's definitely a lot more healthy

[alanp]

Laying out PCB's is a nice little mind-puzzle. It can be so satisfying when you've wrestled with a pig of a circuit for a few days, where a few long tracks will NOT go nicely, then the mental lightbulb goes on, "OH!", rearrange a few parts, and it all slots together nicely.

In terms of minimizing mistakes, the solder mask on fabbed PCBs is a huge selling point. I don't etch because I don't want to deal with the chemicals, or more to the point, with disposing of them. I don't use vero or perf much because I don't like breaking tracks, and perf needs attention that the top side of the board keeps matching the bottom for the wire bending. (I'll use perf for one-offs, like my Eurorack PSU, but it gets tested with the DMM before it goes live.)

Plus fabbed PCB's look so damn professional

[CodeMonk]

I etch both single sided and double sided PCB's.
IME, the biggest hassle is not the layout or etching, its the drilling
Especially with the double sided. If the sides are not lined up PERFECTLY, the holes don't line up so well.
Most of the time spent with self etching is of the "hurry up and wait" variety though.
If you cut out the layout design, soaking time (After heat transfer of the circuit to the copper clad), and the etching time. something like a Big Muff PCB takes about 30 minutes to make. And most of that time is spent in drilling the PCB.

Overall though, self etching a PCB and building takes less time than doing it all on perfboard, depending on the complexity of the circuit.

The layout design for a Big Muff could take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours, depending on your experience, and how much space you have to work with.
This would apply whether you went with self etch or pre-fabbed.

I've built a few vero boards but never designed a vero layout.
I've got an aversion to jumpers for some odd reason.
Vero is easy to build but does tend to take up more space than a PCB. which can be a concern depending on how big an enclosure you want to use.
Although with perfboard, everything is technically connected via a jumper.
And I've been doing a few quite a perfboard layouts lately.


If you are only making 1 or 2 of something simple and few or no size constraints, vero or perf is the way to go.
But I often find myself etching even for one offs.

[bool]

That's exactly why pad-per-hole perfboards are so good. You can do a (testing) layout fast enough and without the self-etch hassles - and actually verify a layout that in most cases is 1:1 identical to a fabbed layout that you perhaps plan to execute in future (same 100mil pad raster etc). To a great degree you can do that with single-sided layouts, some 2-sided (esp. the ones that have a ground-plane) and some simplistic 2-sided's.

[blackieNYC]

And with pad-per-hole I can make it oh so tiny, much smaller than any of the fine pcbs I've purchased.
That said- I don't thing they look very sellable. Mine are holding up quite solidly at least.  I'd have to start getting a little fussier with the underside wiring. I'm sure karbo's look much better than mine.
Removing a component can suck a little, if I use bent component leads as connecting wire.