Going green poll

[Govmnt_Lacky]

"Damnit, I don't care if the board works as advertised, as long as I know the PCB I cannot see inside of the enclosure is the proper color!"

- NO ONE EVER

[Willybomb]

Personally.... I get what I get and I don't get upset.

[EBK]

I think White can look great, you just need to wash the boards.

Yes, white can look great.  But, like a properly set up single-coil strat, it will show the world every place you mess up with exquisite clarity. 

[aion]

One other possible reason. I read recently about the different ways solder mask color is achieved and there was a claim that the materials used for black could become conductive in the wrong situation. I don't know the truth of that but I personally have had a couple cases where I picked up voltages on boards where none should exist. And this has only happened in the last year or so. I can't attribute it to anything in particular but it's for sure caused me to rethink how I have the boards made.

I've heard this as well, maybe from the same articles even... but assuming there's any basis in fact, I would submit that it's more than likely something that happened very early on when black soldermask was first developed and has since been resolved as part of the developmental leaps in PCB manufacturing technology (skyrocketing quality and plummeting costs). Oftentimes those cautionary stories survive long after the need for caution has disappeared.

I see black used all the time in high-end computer motherboards, GPUs, etc. where the slightest bit of soldermask conductivity would cause huge performance issues—applications that are exponentially more complex than our circuits whose technology stopped being leading-edge in 1977!

[madbean]

I've heard this as well, maybe from the same articles even... but assuming there's any basis in fact, I would submit that it's more than likely something that happened very early on when black soldermask was first developed and has since been resolved as part of the developmental leaps in PCB manufacturing technology (skyrocketing quality and plummeting costs). Oftentimes those cautionary stories survive long after the need for caution has disappeared.

I see black used all the time in high-end computer motherboards, GPUs, etc. where the slightest bit of soldermask conductivity would cause huge performance issues—applications that are exponentially more complex than our circuits whose technology stopped being leading-edge in 1977!

Yeah, those are all great points. Myth does abound. I would say as far as hi-end stuff (cough, Apple) using black there's a lot of testing and burn-in built into that production cycle. So, who knows what the rejection ratio is! Any chance, if even remote, is probably not worth the risk if it's one guy building one board. But, I don't take a lot of stock in the conductivity claim, either.

Since green is the favored the next projects and re-stocks will be that. I appreciate the input everyone. I'll save black for the Pro series and ENIG finishing. That's where it looks its best.

[imjonwain]

I'm a fan of purple.

[pickdropper]

"Damnit, I don't care if the board works as advertised, as long as I know the PCB I cannot see inside of the enclosure is the proper color!"

- NO ONE EVER

My guess is that most pedal customers don't care one way or the other.

But for those of us that like looking at the insides, I don't think it's all that strange to care about internal aesthetics.  Personally, I'm tired of green and I like the other colors.  I mostly order boards with black solder mask, but I also order boards that are blue, red, white and occasionally purple.  Green is the one color I almost never order.  If I was building a board that somebody else made, green certainly wouldn't prevent me from buying or building it, but I would have a preference.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

My guess is that most pedal customers don't care one way or the other.

But for those of us that like looking at the insides, I don't think it's all that strange to care about internal aesthetics.  Personally, I'm tired of green and I like the other colors.  I mostly order boards with black solder mask, but I also order boards that are blue, red, white and occasionally purple.  Green is the one color I almost never order.  If I was building a board that somebody else made, green certainly wouldn't prevent me from buying or building it, but I would have a preference.

Although my response may have sounded harsh, it was not meant that way.

I guess I have never been much of an aesthetics person. Although I do like to keep builds tidy and looking good, the color of the PCB never played into it. If green is better for troubleshooting and/or tracing then I'm all for it. Bottom line for me is as long as it works properly then the color is of no consequence.

A thought.... maybe use PCB color to denote build difficulty? Green for the Noob boards up to Black for the hardest builds??

[pickdropper]

My guess is that most pedal customers don't care one way or the other.

But for those of us that like looking at the insides, I don't think it's all that strange to care about internal aesthetics.  Personally, I'm tired of green and I like the other colors.  I mostly order boards with black solder mask, but I also order boards that are blue, red, white and occasionally purple.  Green is the one color I almost never order.  If I was building a board that somebody else made, green certainly wouldn't prevent me from buying or building it, but I would have a preference.

Although my response may have sounded harsh, it was not meant that way.

I guess I have never been much of an aesthetics person. Although I do like to keep builds tidy and looking good, the color of the PCB never played into it. If green is better for troubleshooting and/or tracing then I'm all for it. Bottom line for me is as long as it works properly then the color is of no consequence.

A thought.... maybe use PCB color to denote build difficulty? Green for the Noob boards up to Black for the hardest builds??

Hey, it's all good.  There's nothing wrong with not caring about the color of PCBs.  One could even argue that's a healthy attitude.  I'm well aware that I'm aesthetically picky.  I'm not particularly apologetic about it, but I don't expect everybody to feel the same way, either.

Solder mask color to reflect difficulty is a smart idea, I think.

[alanp]

Not sure I agree on the board colour for difficulty idea.

On the one hand, a black board means hard to read traces, which is a horrible thing to do on a Genius level PCB.

On the other hand, hard to read traces is not a nice thing to do to new builders.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

On the other hand, hard to read traces is not a nice thing to do to new builders.

Well, if you are a NEW builder then jumping into a Genius level build wouldn't be a good thing.

Also, if you are a Genius level builder then you should be able to use the included schematics to troubleshoot... right?

[EBK]

True, and Brian's build docs show the traces quite clearly for handy reference.  No need to squint at the board too hard.

That said, I'd hate to have to figure out where the traces go in a 4-layer board, even with a handy diagram.

Someone please remind me, why are we trying to read traces again?  I buy a PCB so I don't have to worry about the part-to-part connections.