Buying assembled boards highly recommended?

Hi,

today I found a user "Brick man" to "highly recommend" buying fully assembled boards:

[reprap.org]
[reprap.org]

Who says that? Isn't it a better idea to let the individual user to do this decision? On my part, assembling such boards went flawlessly and not assembling them misses the opportunity to learn something.

I'd like to revert this edit.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Go for it. RepRap doesn't do neutral point of view*; it's more the result of thousands of extremely personal decisions, each of them highly partisan and hopefully correct. (* We do try to do fairness.)

(That edit annoyed me too.)

Want to rip out Gen 3 out of the Mendel pages and put in a choose-your-own adventure page pointing at RAMPS, Pollolo, and Gen 6?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2010 06:07AM by SebastienBailard.

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

I've fixed those wiki pages. They now recommend that users etch their own boards.

Edit: And Noobman's board-etching tutorial, which we link to, says etching is fun, but recommends that people buy their own boards. I think everyone will be happy, the best sort of reprap-compromise.

http://reprap.org/wiki/DIY_PCBs_double_sided_toner_transfer

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2010 07:50AM by SebastienBailard.

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

In my limited experience so far, toner transfer printing of one sided boards with home equipment (standard laser printer, clothing iron, pool acid and hydrogen peroxide) is iffy enough that you may need several go rounds before you have a board with no opens or shorts. If you do it more than once or twice, try the PCBfab-in-a-box with special transfer paper and laminator. That makes singled sided boards right the first time much of the time, and makes double sided boards tough but doable. However, even the best home made board does not have plated through holes, and that makes soldering harder on single sided, and vias and top side connections just plan tough on double sided boards. And unless you are REALLY good at drilling very tiny holes exactly where they should go, the commercially made board will be cleaner, neater, and much easier to work with.

The final answer, it cost is the over riding concern, spend time (maybe LOTS of time) on making your own. If you are will to invest in better tools (special paper, special drill bits, a drilling jig, and maybe a through hole barrel, grommet, or plug inserter) then you make make you own boards cheaply and quickly. But if you only do it once or twice, you results will be better with buying a board.

Mike

That's all true, rocket_scientist, but please let this decision do the individual user. RepRap isn't about being cheap and quick, it's about replicatability, after all.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Should I add that I plan on making a new board using toner transfer this weekend? I am willing to decide to use it myself, and even teach it to students, because I have done it before and have some idea of the difficulty. But when recommending it cold to someone I can not give hands on instruction to, I tend to be more cautious. And yes, I am looking forward to when repraps can make their own double sided boards.

Mike

About the tutorial, i made that comment more like a "methodics" note.

It shouldnt be regarded as difficult, but at same time i wouldnt want to have new ppls think that is a prime way to go, for several reasons, among which:
-around open source there are alot of ppls actually trying to make a buck which they hardly deserve (/respect for the hard work of all the devs) and i wouldnt want to undermine that;
-generally speaking since its more about high frequency boards, they would need pcb layouts like microstrip at least if not power planes, alot of heatsinking on stepper chips, etc, so in the end commercial pcbs "should" perform better;
... etc, things like that.

I considered at the time that peoples who already know what to do and etc, will figure out behind all that intro and just go ahead. Initially just wanted to share the Gen3 files because it takes quite some time to prepare them, and few explanations were in order, just they are in text instead of pictorials which would of been better.

On the other hand i wouldnt want some others to try that for the first time and, in the middle of various trouble, to start swearing at me for making things look too easy Because in a picture, anything looks easy enough.

Thats what i meant with "methodics" - dont know if its proper english word for it tho.

It may be just me, but i think toner transfer is generally underrated and alot of ppls lack proper information for it, or if they have an ideea that works - they stop there and thats it, they dont experiment further. Ppls just stick to what works and thats all: this is why most ppls associate "toner transfer" with "single sided", when actually making double sided is quite the same.
In my experience at least toner transfer is quite neat, easy, and can offer great results - i couldnt ask for more. Its so great for prototyping and small scale diy work (dont have words for how good it is) that i dont really understand why ppls do resort to small orders for commercial pcbs for lots of $. In my opinion, should be definatelly considered basic skill in electronics and be presented accordingly in such profile schools.
But again, im from romania and in this country the montly salary is like ~300 eur, so ofc my perspective is kinda biased because of that. I wouldnt personally have it any other way, but again, that may be just me. I can see that someone who earns real money, would rather buy the commercial pcb and have some beer meanwhile, as opposing to me having the money for either one but not both (pcb+beer, metaphorically speaking here). Toner transfer related to reprap should, imo, be regarded as alternative, or lets say "last mile" to poor ppls (like me), and generally for this category the choice is either to go like that - or dont go at all.

I am currently eye-balling the EC 3.6 and MB 2.4 seeing these didnt changed version in some time i will give them a try but probably next year. Just dont really know if there is any firmware for them and how to get it yet. Also i cant find how the mb "module" looks like.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2010 02:17PM by NoobMan.