Produce your own single-sided flexible printed circuits using a solid ink printer, copper-coated polyimide film, and common circuit board etching chemicals. You will find flex PCBs inside most cellphones or similar miniaturized gadgets. Flex PCBs are useful for making tiny cables and extremely lightweight circuits. However, few shops yet make custom flex PCBs for reasonable prices in small volumes.

To design my circuit boards, I use the freeware version of the Eagle Layout Editor by CadSoft Computer GmbH. The software is located in the download area of their site. I give an introduction to Eagle under the category Eagle CAD. For convenience, here is a list of the posts: * Eagle 1: Description * Eagle 2: Libraries * Eagle 3: Setup * Eagle 4: Schematics * Eagle 5: Components * Ground Pour * Setting All Drill Sizes * Setting All Pad Sizes

Alex wrote "Today my first PCBs arrived. Hooray! For me, this is definitely like reaching the next level in DIY technologies. I chose three simple circuits that I wanted to be produced. After some research I decided to go with Olimex, a PCB service in Bulgaria. They are offering a very good price even for small quantities. A double sided PCB with 160mm x 100mm costs 30 €. And you can have multiple layouts on one board."

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