Pros: very
cheap, very quick, needs no
special parts or tools, easy to integrate into a larger design,
cheapest if you have the breadboard
Cons: larger and less permanent than a real board, difficult to do very
many copies, hard to use non DIP packages
If you want to build a UBW on a breadboard, you can follow either schematic (the 28 pin version or the 44 pin version). You will most likely want to use the DIP versions of the PICs (28 or 40 pin). One of the tricky things will be getting the USB connector to fit into a breadboard. You may want to solder a nice chunky header on to the USB connector, and then plug that header into the board, possibly with unused pins to help mechanically hold the connector to the board during the stress of plugging and unplugging the cable. Other than that, it will be a straight forward build.
Etch a board at home:
Pros:
multiple copies are easier, much
smaller than breadboard, looks pretty good, very cheap if you have all
the materials
Cons: takes special skills and tools, hard to do plated-through holes,
no solder mask or silk screen, can only easily make 28 DIP v1 (which is
single sided)
You could use the Toner Transfer method (which is
what I use for some of my boards), or any of the other etch at home
methods. Use the Eagle board file, and do whatever your process
requires to build the board.
Get UBW boards
built at a board house:
Pros: professional looking, plated through holes,
double sided and silk screen, very simple to make lots of boards (just
pay more $$)
Cons: expensive, have to wait a long time
For this method, get Eagle to generate real
Gerbers for any of the boards, send the Gerbers in to your favorite
board house and have them build you some boards. I have used Olimex (www.olimex.com) for all of my board
building so far, but I really like service offered by SparkFun (www.batchpcb.com) and
want to try them next. With the Spark Fun serivce, you could easily
just order one board, and it would cost less than $20 probably.