I’ll write more about this later, but a quick tip for tonight…
when you are printing pdfs for etching your circuits from fritzing, it will create a “something_top” and a “something_top_mirror” pdf. if you are surface mounting, you want the regular one, if you are using throughhole components, you want the mirror image. That way when you etch and flip your board over, you are mounting the components in the right place.
SMD = regular
through hole = mirror.pdf
That’s all!