DIY PCB thread

I've done several with expresspcb. they are fast, the software is ok, and for the simple stuff I've done, they've been great. Not cheap, but if it will fit on their miniboard, 3/$51 plus shipping isn't bad.

I don't think i have the patience to etch my own, and then do all that fine drilling.

here's a power supply board done most recently

to make the layout, eagle is sort of the standard tool. its free for non commercial use and there are video tutorials on tangents site to get you started. good luck

I use Eagle to design PCBs, because it's relatively easy to use and creates Gerber files, which are the de-facto standard for PCB production.

For PCB prototyping, I use BatchPCB for really small boards - five or six square inches or less. For larger boards, I use Sure Electronics' listings on eBay - five or six double-sided boards, up to sixteen square inches each, for $50 shipped.

For small quantities of production boards, I like MakePCB, because they offer all kinds of options (board thickness, copper weight, finishing, et cetera) at reasonable prices, and produce some really high-quality boards (better than Golden Phoenix, IMO); I also use OurPCB on occasion, as their service is first-rate and their prices vary anywhere from highly competitive to absolutely unbeatable.

My typically cynical observation, after having produced a goodly number of PCBs over the years, is that hobbyist end-users have five principal concerns about finished PCBs. In order: 1, what colour are they; 2, are there mounting holes; 3, how crisp and legible is the silkscreening; 4, how smooth are the edges; 5, does the thing actually work as intended?

You could make a huge 5x7 inch CMoy or A47 PCB with dozens of vias and a just generally ridiculously bad layout, and people would still buy it if it had smooth edges, crisp silkscreening, was blue, red, white, or black, and fit perfectly in a $60 Hammond aluminum enclosure.

for what its worth this is how I do it

My process is
1. Print the layout (DUH) most of the time I use coated matt paper but for this I found some kodak everyday glossy paper and it worked very well.


2. Fine steelwool on the copper, you've got to make a key for the toner to grab


3. Plastic kitchen scouring pad to get rid of any iron filings from the steel wool


4. Clean with acetone using a tissue until the tissue is clean then I dont touch the copper again


5. Iron on max (dry setting) press down fairly hard and don't move the iron for about 30seconds I find this allows the toner to lockin to the copper, then I start ironing leaning in to the tip and covering the edges. I go over it several times.

6. I like to get it into cold soapy water quickly I like it to hiss (don't know if it helps but I like it )

7. after a few minutes I peel off the top layer of the paper and it leaves a thin paper layer which I let soak for 10-20mins.


I can then remove the rest with a plastic scouring pad (GENTLY) Paper off


Etched



Drilled and Toner removed


Last job will be to cut the boards apart with a dremel, the very thin line around the board is used as a guide for cutting out the board and will be removed with by shamfering the edge on a piece of flat sandpaper. That can wait for tomorrow I've got a beer calling

For what its worth thats the way I do it, I stick to this because it was a long learning curve and alot of mistakes along the way. I think the most important is the steel wool and cleaning

Hope its useful

cheers
Fred

Looks good, Fred, and nice pics, too. I have made boards similarly in the past, using scans touched up on the computer for artwork. I just recently started using PDFs generated from ExpressPCB for art, and it works great, at least for single side. Much easier to lay out accurately. I've used glossy photo inkjet paper through the laserprinter with decent results, though I do have to go over any ground planes with a sharpie to help plug pinholes. I've got a disk with some pics of a few PSUs I recently made, but still have to res them down before posting up.

The prospect of cutting FR4 does bring the beer calling... I use a stationary scrollsaw that works pretty well, but you have to go very slowly, and only get about a foot of cutting before the blade is spent. Much of what I have done has been on boards at their purchased size though, which helps.

So true about the quality of board prep/cleaning... make all the difference in how well the toner sticks.

So far, I'm using Multisim/Ultiboard for schematics/PCB layout. I find Ultiboard much better for layout over Eagle.

Process so far:
1. Setup the schematic.
2. Layout the PCB in Ultiboard. This is done with a lot of looking at the rats nest as well as the schematic to ensure that the part is close to where it needs to be as well as getting short traces.
3. Run the autorouter. Either laugh at the results or cancel it as it never finishes
4. Hand route all the traces.

I've used BatchPCB and GoldPhoenix for manufacture. I heard of some issues with BatchPCB in their panellization of some projects. GoldPhoenix I've found easy to deal with, fast results and the boards have been decent. On the boards I've made, there has been some pinholes in the soldermask on top of the ground plane but nothing that caused an issue.

As an aside to Nemo's note about soldermask color, on the boards I've had run at GoldPhoenix, one set had blue soldermask and one set green. The silkscreen was better on the blue boards then the green ones. Considering the extra cost for blue as well as the fact that once cased no-one ever sees the board, I'll be sticking with green.

Recently built some small PSUs on DIY-etched boards. The first one was done with older standing artwork, and has a very loose layout, plus no stuffing guide. The three newer units have stuffing guides fused on that were made from flopped silkscreen prints out of expresspcb.

I was able to make these entirely from parts I already had, including the copper clad, except for two 22uF tantalum caps. Not sure if that's a good thing or not...

Older design, cobbled together from pieces of other scanned patterns:



This one was originally laid out for six smaller leaded filter caps. Adjusted
the layout for some snap-ins I had on hand. The heatsink came out of an
old UPS unit:


This is the pattern for this one, for example:


This one is a little more fitted out:



Made this one to run relays in a balanced power unit. I was originally going
to use the first PSU posted, but found this little pcb-pinned rat shack
transformer in an odd parts box, so made a footprint for it and laid out a
board for it. There is plenty of space in the end chassis, so it was good to
use the little transformer up. It's actually the default size in express:



This is another old one from a few years ago, also from a picture of foil:


Maybe I'm just too much of a dweeb, but I have to say that fiddling and tweaking a layout is somewhat addicting. And being able to drop in a ground plane with thermals is pretty simple with a pcb program, unlike laying out files freehand. Everything looks good, then you grab a pair of components and rotate them 90 degrees, nudge over a bit... next thing you know it's midnight.

I've only done single-sided boards, but being able to lay one out, then burn/etch/drill/build/test in a few hours is great. If it looks like something you might want several of, then you have the option of just sending the file out.

Voodoochile,

How do you get the 'silkscreen' layer on the board? It's a nice touch!

Print the silkscreen layer only (menu option in expressPCB) to PDF. Open the PDF in photoshop and flop it. Print to glossy paper and iron it on after the PCB has been otherwise completed.

I can tell you that the toner sticks a LOT better to plain FR4 than it does to copper. You can really scrub hard when removing the paper residue and it very rarely removes any toner. Once it's clean and dry, I hit the topside with a thin shot of clear matte spray (Krylon artist's fixative). It works pretty well.

I've heard you can do this with front panels too, but I've never tried that.

I've used it on front panels(computer) and it does pretty well, I wasn't sure how it worked on non-metallic surfaces. The boards look great, looks like I'll have to get my laser printer back from work.

Any particular paper you guys recommend for toner transfer?

glossy works best, the cheapest method is to use glossy paper from an old magazine

It takes very little time to do as well, not having to etch/drill/remove toner. Ends up saving more time building than it takes to iron it on.

One other tip I have is to be sure to use corner holes in your layout, even if you don't need them in your design. They make great "registration marks", and they will show up on both the bottom copper layer and the top silkscreen/copper layer, even though it is really a single-sided board.