Cheap PCB Fabrication

For small run electronic prototyping it's hardly worth stuffing your own boards any more. Macrofab or circuithub can get you fully assembled boards in a few weeks in the $20-$50/unit range.

Too many chemicals. Not nearly worth the time when you can order from JLPCB for $4 a board

It might not be worth it to organize a big order nowadays, PCB fabrication is already super cheap. JLCPCB (and others, but I have the most experience with them) will do 5 boards for $2 + shipping and the first order gets free shipping. I've used this service for prototyping many times and had great experiences.I had been planning to build almost the exact same thing as what the parent posted but had been putting it off because I didn't want to draw up a PCB, so this is perfect.

They go into the details of etching PCBs (=circuit boards) themselves. I have never created a PCB myself but from what I read at various electronics maker pages on the web, this is not recommended since getting them professionally (and successfully!) made is very cheap nowadays.From what I just saw on JLCPCB [0], getting five pieces of a small two-layer PCB made and shipped to anywhere in the world costs about $10 and takes roughly two weeks.[0] <a href="https://jlcpcb.com/"

It's really not anymore. It's trivial to make cheap PCBs and PCB assembly is even free in most cases (checkout jlcpcb.com for example).

Ordering a typical printed circuit board with components placed on it is so cheap nowadays that this is a viable option for electeonic hobbyists nowadays (e.g. just ordered 50 pieces of audio output amplifiers at 3,49 € per piece (customs and shipping included), where 1.60 € would be the parts cost of the two chips on it.Only thing you need for this is:1. An idea and some knowledge about electronics2. An EDA software where you design the schematic and the PCB (Horizon EDA, KiCAD, Eagle,

I think the appeal is the you can print out a couple of pages of chips and wire them up, not send out for chips and PCBs.

Yes, exactly. Would be awesome if those could be designed/ordered as easily and cheaply as PCBs.

You can contract the pcb work out on fiver and have the boards made at one of the Chinese board houses nowdays. I think I've seen people on Fiverr that provide turn key solutions you pay for it in turnaround spread and back and forth though.

You can get boards fabbed at places like OSH Park or JLCPCB for cheap, complete with plated through holes and solder mask. I don’t know a good reason to try to make your own boards these days.