Careful with those photocopiers! (P'n'P woes)

[sfr]

Photocopy place got new copiers.  Mocked up a sheet of layouts, went to copy them onto the P'n'P.  When the copier asked what I was feeding it, I selected "transparency" as that seems to lay down the heaviest coat of toner, at least, it does on the old copiers I'm used to.

Well, it worked pretty damn well.  Until now, weeks later, I go to actually make the transfers.  I do the first two, am preheating the third board, and I'm looking at the first two, and realize something doesn't look right.  "Tonepad.com" is written on the board backwards.  I start looking at my transfers, and sure enough, they're all backwards.  A little investigating and a call to my friend the manager at said copy shop, and it turns out that the "transparency" setting on those photocopiers also auto-magically flips the image around.  Genius.  So now I've got two boards with the layout on them backwards, (nothing I can't scrub off) and have wasted a sheet of Press and Peel. 

So, uh, I guess the dummy sheet I ran through the copier first was a good idea, but I just should have looked at it a little closer.  Ooops.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

You can always mount the parts on the "wrong" side, if you are careful! Won't be the first time someone here has done that!

[Cardboard Tube Samurai]

You can always mount the parts on the "wrong" side, if you are careful! Won't be the first time someone here has done that!

I'm man enough to own up to doing just that . I hand-drew a DOD OD250, but drew the reversed image...made for some interesting troubleshooting before I realised! None of the IC legs were where they were meant to be!

[Mark Hammer]

It was, in fact, such errors that led to the community practice of actually putting some writing on board layouts, so that people could easily identify when it had been etched/transferred "properly" or inverse.  Some years ago, I had made a Dr Quack using RG Keen's layout, and couldn't get the damn thing to work for loveor money.  Then I realized the pattern had been transferred in the "opposite" manner.  As Paul correctly notes, you can simply bend the pins back of any chips you use (VERY gently), flip around any transistors used, and keep an eye on the capacitor and diode orientation.  Heck, I have a Small Stone made in exactly that way.  It'll drive you nuts for a little while, but they WILL work.

But yes, make sure there is printing on the layout so that people can keep track, and use the manual sheet feeder so that stuff gets printed out like it should.

[343 Salty Beans]

Trying to figure out a circuit is hard enough. Trying to figure it out while it's backwards would my poor head explode.