Quote Originally Posted by Dave View Post
DavyJones, The boards I have designed for test equipment always have the "extra" area layed out as ground plane. This is true for both sides of the board. Then the areas are then stitched together to make 1 ground circuit. This allows for the lowest resistance path for the return. If I had to make my own pcb's this is what I would do also as to save the amount of etching of the copper and prolong the usefullness of the acid...

Dave Purola,
N8NTA
Dave, Thanks For my projects I don't think I would ever have a double sided board. I do like the idea of saving etchant and time. Do you actually tie the ground plane in to all the grounds on all the components too? I've seen some boards that do and I see some that just do it for what looks like saving etchant and time. Not sure what the school of thought there is.
Thanks
David