I am working on a project to make my own PCB with a basic arduino circuit with a couple of relays and wiFly module. I am planing on using the raw components of the module in my own board for cost considerations, unless you suggest otherwise?
Any suggestions welcomed in regards to best practices for my own board and packages (SMD, DIP, etc).. I am worried about the soldering, should i really avoid SMD components altogether? Size is a constraint, but i think i can get around this if SMDs are a not worth the effort... If i go SMD i would go for as many components as i can...
Can you suggest a PCB fab house for low volume (probably 5 boards)?
DIP components are certainly easier to hand solder and can be used with stripboard or perfboard. For a custom PCB design, I would go SMD. Avoid using SMD ICs in QFN packages because these have the pads underneath the chip instead of at the sides. The larger SMD components can be hand-soldered. For the smaller SMD components, a reflow oven is best, but an electric hot plate will suffice for home use. Both are used with solder paste. You will also need desolder braid to remove the inevitable solder bridges you get from using too much solder paste. See Hotplate Surface Mount SMD Soldering Tutorial. That tutorial shows putting solder pate on the desolder braid before you use it, but I wipe it with a no-clean flux pen instead.
For low-volume fab houses, I've seen recommendations for three: batchpcb.com ($10 setup fee, $2.50/in^2) oshpark.com ($5/in^2 for 3 copies) Seeedstudio.com ($10 for 10 ea., 5x5cm boards)
For the components you mention, you could start with the promini design and add the relays & wifi module.
I personally go for the larger SMD parts, 0805 size, the 0603 & 0402 are just a little too small.
Eagle will you pick the components, then change the package size, so you can see what you need for board size.
$20 gets you a variety pack of 5000 0805 resistors in storage boxes. They have a similar deal for SMD caps as well. I highly recommend it for a starter kit.
I just bought a $50 1500W oven at Target, Black & Decker TO1660B, to use.
Am gonna to make my own controller for it, similar to the Sparkfun controller, but Arduino based instead of PIC controller.
Got some parts on hand, ordered an ADC and K-type thermocouple.
Hot air rework is nice, not really the tool for doing complete assembly, can be done tho. If you have small tip soldering iron you can do a lot too.
In eagle, I use the autorouter a lot, set at 2mil routing grid. 1mil works too, lines can end up a little jaggedy tho.
$20 gets you a variety pack of 5000 0805 resistors in storage boxes. They have a similar deal for SMD caps as well. I highly recommend it for a starter kit.
If you look at the values offered in those kits, most will not get used in digital LED/Motor control applications.
A few more might get used if one was doing op-amp circuits.
The rest, you'd have to be doing RF stuff.
I have a whole mini-cabinet full of resistors, 4 values per drawer, the only ones I ever use any more are 1K, 4.7K, 10K, couple in the 220/270/330 ohm range depending on red, blue, green, yellow, white LED, and maybe 150 or 180 for driving NPN transistors.
I'm not doing much audio lately, so I'm not doing any higher values that an op-amp might use.
Same for caps: 22pF, 100nF/0.1uF, 1uF, 10uF. Maybe a big electrolytic to drive a speaker.
I've also mini-cabinet full of ICs - all kinds of parts in the '00, 04, 06, 08, 11, 32, 74, too many to list, of different logic chips and counters and bus drivers and ...
With the '328/'1284 doing all the logic in software now, I rarely use any of them anymore.
Maybe I'll go back & re-visit some of my old high speed parallel bus ADC/DAC circuits now that a PCB is so inexpensive to obtain.
I have this design where I sample a mic in a practice drum pad, use the peak for volume control of playback of EEPROM into a DAC...