Last month I designed my first custom PCBs using a program called "Fritzing" and ordered a small batch of them from an online service. You can order really small quantities, I ordered six each of Tiny84 development board, Tiny85 development board and a bunch of tiny boards to put into some Tiny85-based gadgets I've got planned.
I built the first board in no time. You don't realize how much time you spend cutting up bits of wire, stripping them, tinning them and soldering them until you don't have to do it any more.
It all worked perfectly, here it is blinking its very first LED.
While I was building it I spotted a couple of ways I could improve it, mostly through better labeling of the parts. The labels didn't come out very well because I had to use a very small font to get the text on the board (the PCB is tiny - only 26x17mm, 1 inch x 5/8ths of an inch). I also realized the most logical way to use the device on the table was upside down to the way I designed it.
I don't think I'd change much apart from the labeling though. I had no problems fitting the components apart from the ceramic capacitor which had its legs too far apart (I had to straighten them to get it to fit - no big deal).
Everything worked first shot, no problems uploading the blink program. More testing to follow, but to be
honest it was almost too easy to be a challenge.
retrolefty:
Everything worked first shot, no problems uploading the blink program. More testing to follow, but to be
honest it was almost too easy to be a challenge.
phantomtypist:
Would you be willing to share your files so I can make my own boards?
I think I'm going to keep control of them for the moment.
(it's not exactly a difficult circuit to reproduce though...)
Ok. I just didn't want to waste time reinventing the wheel. I'm not an expert at Eagle so it takes me longer to crank something out. Thanks for the inspiration though.
If you have the money and inclination, consider doing this with surface mount parts. Atmel has parts with really reasonable pitches and 0805 caps and resistors are not at all hard to solder on either. Here is my first surface mount project, quite recent:
I am not sure if you would save a whole lot of space on that board, but on many you save a bunch of space.
phantomtypist:
Ok. I just didn't want to waste time reinventing the wheel. I'm not an expert at Eagle so it takes me longer to crank something out. Thanks for the inspiration though.
You could view it as an experiment for learning Eagle (that's the reason I did it except I used Fritzing, not Eagle).
If you want predesigned boards there's plenty on the web, just google "attiny85 pcb" or similar. eg: Tiny25 Header How To – tinkerlog
I love the ATTiny chips, so versatile, and CHEAP. 
