I never seem to make time to blog about projects I'm working on... but I'm determined to change that!

I have created three blogs that have some redundancy in their subject matter, but it seemed better to at least try and split my dabblings into pieces rather than jam it all in one place...

• cncfun.blogspot.com: computer-controlled machine tools, related electronics and software, and general machining stuff.  Also eventually some CNC-related robotics stuff.
• tinytronics.blogspot.com: miniature electromechanical systems, design and fabrication of tiny electronic circuits, and tools related to those things.
• dztronics.blogspot.com: (this blog) general electronics stuff that doesn't obviously belong in the other blogs.  Also PCB fabrication in my little workshop.

These overlap quite a bit.  For example, I am in the process of building a CNC machine whose major purpose (at least to start with) is to make circuit boards.  Although I want to write about PCB-making here in this blog, the details of machine construction seem more appropriate for cncfun, so I will write about it there.  Once the machine is done, I'll write about trying to actually use it here...

Eh, whatever!  My hope is that the material in this blog will be of interest to fellow electronics enthusiasts.

My training and professional experience (so far) is in Computer Science... whatever electronics knowledge or skill I have has come from studying whatever I needed in order to work on various projects.  I do make some PCBs at home, but my capabilities at this point are not very impressive... I try to stick to 0.3 mm feature sizes (pads, traces, and spaces between) because I can do them reliably.  My methods are normal and straightforward: laser-printed transparencies used to expose presensitized PCBs which are then developed and etched with messy chemicals.  It's nice to be able to have a board in a few hours, but it is time-consuming (between setting up, lining up the transparencies, doing chemical stuff (board etching and solder mask), drilling, hand-soldering wires for vias, cleaning everything up, etc...  I'll probably document my exact process the next time I make a board in case somebody finds it useful...

But for most boards I have the great people at oshpark.com make them for me.  The boards that come back are gorgeous and pretty inexpensive as long as they are small.  Just two problems with that service:  first, it takes about two weeks to get boards, which kind of interrupts the flow of a project (and makes correcting errors quite painful); second, when the boards get larger than a couple of inches, it does get a bit pricey (still very reasonable compared to most prototyping services, but when the boards get more expensive than the components going on them, it causes a bit of pain... :)

I just sent off a large board to ITEAD Studio -- located in China.  When I get them I'll report back here about it...

Anyway, that's enough introduction for now.  In the future, I'll include pictures to make it more interesting.  :)