Most of what you need to make your own PC boards at home: the large packs contain pre-sensitised blank PC board (150 x 300mm sheets). In the plastic sachets are measured amounts of sodium metasilicate developer, while the plastic jar contains 600g of etchant - in this case ammonium persulphate. Not shown are the exposure box or the etching tank. (Courtesy Computronics Corp).

Printed circuit boards have revolutionised electronics over the past forty years or so.

It’s no exaggeration to say that they make some projects possible – it would be well nigh impossible to wire up many designs involving ICs, for example, using point-to-point wiring. Just imagine a modern computer without PC boards!

And they also make life easy for hobbyists. Providing you know how to solder AND you start with a clean, bright PC board, assembling a project on a PC board is arguably the most foolproof and mistake-proof method of building (even for projects which could be done other ways).