what do you guys do with "coasters"?

InSilico

We all have probably produced a printed circuit board (via homebrew or "professional" methods) that is a failure for some reason. Circuit changes, mistakes in the layout, something screwing up in the board making process, etc... Sparkfun calls these kinds of boards "coasters", implying they are not much more useful than a beverage coaster (https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8477)

But as resourceful people, I'm pretty sure we do more things with it. For me, I use it for solder/drilling practice.

What do you guys do with "coasters"?

steve_b

Cut them in to funny shapes and ignore the existing traces! Then populate it with transistors and LEDs and make ornaments for different seasons!

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<FONT>Steve



What's the best thing to do in a lightning storm? "take a one iron out the bag and hold it straight up above your head, even God cant hit a one iron!"
Lee Travino after the second time being hit by lightning!

Beau Schwabe

I had some unpopulated scrap boards once that were fairly small (1"x3"), and one of the ladies in the office wanted them for "ear rings".

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Beau Schwabe

IC Layout Engineer
Parallax, Inc.

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)

A good way to attract geeks at parties.. [noparse]:)[/noparse] Gotta love it!

OBC

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uxorious

We use the left over boards as well as breakaways for "raw material" to make jigs, fixtures, simple go-no-go gauges, and even scrapers to remove masking dots after wave solder. The FR4 can be "machined" for all sorts of things. Breakaway rails work great because they are typically 0.5" in width with one clean square edge.Just use common sense when dealing with the dust you create.

The first picture is of a simple go-no-go gauge for a connector assembly to ensure proper tightening. The second one is simple gauge to verify lead length of leads coming through the bottom of the board where lead length had to be less than 0.063" (IPC standard is 0.098")

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~~ dRu ~~

Mikerocontroller

·· As kids we used them for bike stunts.· We laid them in the street and when our back tires were over the boards we'd lock our brakes up and go sliding.· Many of us got hurt this way.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

I use one as a feeler gauge on my CNC mill to calibrate tool height. It's s strip about 2" long x 1/2" wide, half-covered with copper and half bare. I jog the Z-axis until the bare part slides under the tool but stops on the copper part. At that point I know the height is exactly 0.0625" above the workpiece and can set it in the CNC controller.

-Phil

Ken Gracey

We use them as "cup spanners" for Tracy Allen's Applied Sensors Stamps in Class book.

One person uses them as joint bearing surfaces in hand-made teddy bears.

We also make clipboards out of them.

A couple of our staff have made jewelry.

Most of it goes to the local HP recycling plant.

Ken

Lab Rat

where can i get this stuff ans big as a sheet of printer paper

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Parallax posesses power beyond belief.

Believe in it.

mirror

At an engineering company I used to work at, at least one of the coasters was called a "skin". Being of hunter - gatherer descent, I guess it makes sense that each project results in at least one "skin" for the trophy wall.

Capdiamont

Some people have made notebook covers out of them.

I had an sx proto board, tha I blew up the sx. I had 1/8 watt with a bunch of LEDs off an SX. Lets just say after doing RB=255, it wouldn't program anymore. So I dremeled off the prototyping area, so I could keep the SMD. Radio Shack doesn't sell SMD prototyping boards.