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by pathartl 2319 days ago
I have a very wonder Precision Fidelity C7A tube preamp and it has some very wonderful hand drawn traces: https://www.audioasylumtrader.com/images/y2016/06/156317/IMG...

Being from the 90's and only ever seeing CAD-designed PCBs, this blew my mind the first time I took it apart.

3 comments

A while back there was a discussion here about how crosstalk in rectilinear traces (I think there’s a term for this but this is how I think of them) are becoming a bit of a problem and that more organic looking lines (not unlike these) can help.

Audio people are notorious for detecting noise. That hand drawn circuit might be less artistic and more practical than you’d expect.

I do remember that article, but what I took away from it is it only really happens when you're working on the small, extremely dense scale.
I designed a couple of small PCBs using crepe tape and etch-resist transfers. Sometimes this was directly onto the copper, but usually it was onto acetate to be used with UV sensitive etch-resist.

It was fun, but kind of a pain.

Here's a very old (1966, before I was born) article giving instructions for how to do this: http://www.rfcafe.com/references/popular-electronics/etch-pr...

The 8-Bit Guy repaired a Commodore calculator that had what appeared to be a hand-drawn circuit board as well: https://youtu.be/Q0rSv8NfQXQ?t=65