Proto board

Although most modern electronics are made with surface mount technology, many prototypes and most hobby boards are still 0.1 in center based. Many people shy away from making there own boards because of 2 reasons. One is the mess of the "lab" and the other is the problem of drilling (and more difficult, plating-through) the many holes. I have an easy product for the second problem.

Manufactures today still offer many "Proto" boards with various holes and strip arraignment but it is still a bit of a pain to configure the board for stuffing. Cutting traces, jumpers, etc. Most folks seem to say they might as well do it by hand. Not true, but seems that way. But what if the board combined the kind of predefined Proto boards with many general 0.1" on center parts layout with many extra plated through holes strategically spaced. One could then do a layout (on the computer or directly on the board) and make traces, avoiding the holes as needed. If the manufacture included a template of his board for computer layout use, all the better.

Thus, a person could very easily make a small "run" of boards nearly as easily as making one and could do it all in software (except the etching). See Figure 1