In article ,
Stephen wrote:
Hello,

Are there any web sites you recommend for teaching someone (me) about
pcb design or can you describe the process here?

What software is easy to learn for designing pcbs?

How complex, how many layers, what size?

For small hobby based stuff, Fritzing is reasonable and I've used it to
make many small PCBs, some for my own use, some to sell.

With Fristing - its schematic capture is rubbish. Essentially, it lets
you take a design from breadboard to PCB. You'll see it used a lot on
Arduino and now Raspberry Pi applications. They have their own prorotype
service, but it's stupidly expensive.

So it's far from perfect, but the learning curve is not that steep at all.

Eagle is good too - but stupidly expensive for an individual who wants to
make a small number of commercial boards. Free for hobby use though. Kicad
is next on my list.

I know you can send your pcb design away and someone posts it back to
you; which companies do you recommend for this?

If you tried to make your own pcb by etching or uv, how do you go
about getting all the holes in the right places? Is it just a matter
of being very patient and careful with a pillar drill? That sounds
like a very monotonous job and the most tedious part of the process?

I gave up on home etching, drilling, etc. and just foot the cost for
protptypes - not cheap at all, but for me its been more than worth it. I
get a double sided board back in 5 days with solder mask, silkscreen,
plated through, etc. and they fit as many of my boards on a panel as they
can. e.g. this one: http://unicorn.drogon.net/drobert-test-2.jpg they
got 8 on the panel and it cost me about £90. (I said it wasn't cheap,
but my time costs more)

I use a different company for production who're much cheaper for bigger
numbers, but also take longer - you pay for time more than anything else
with PCB manufacture.

http://www.pcbpanel.co.uk/ is the prototyping place I use.

Gordon