Black/White PCB? DIY possible?

[kin0kin]

Is it possible to dye the copper clad board to black/white?

 

[diredesire]

not sure about dyes, but if you wanted to have the entire thing black/white, you could always mask off the holes (traces aren't a huge issue) and paint the thing.

 

[kin0kin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by diredesire not sure about dyes, but if you wanted to have the entire thing black/white, you could always mask off the holes (traces aren't a huge issue) and paint the thing.

masking the holes seems like a PITA, might as well paint it before drilling?

btw, I suppose most paints aren't conductive?

 

[Garbz]

It's possible to find different coloured fibre boards. I've seen a board which was blue/copper as apposed to the brown/yellow and copper boards.

 

[skyskraper]

iirc my mobo is either black or a dark dark blue, so it is possible.

but if its just for aesthetics, would probably be easier to simply add more caps to make it look better

 

[DaKi][er]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyskraper iirc my mobo is either black or a dark dark blue, so it is possible. but if its just for aesthetics, would probably be easier to simply add more caps to make it look better

Thats just the solder mask, they come in a wide range of colours, just not something you can DIY (that i know of)

 

[flecom]

I have seen black pcb's with white markings/text so its definately possible...

seen all sorts of pcb colors, regular gree, blue, red, white even, white looks really neat... but my fav is definately blue

 

[1UP]

Yep, my MSI motherboard is black, Aopen did a range, too. Bright red was popular a while ago, Gigabyte did blue, some vid cards are yellow, etc...

 

[n_maher]

The last PCB manufacturer that I talked to would do Green, Blue, Black, Clear, Red or White soldermask. But Green was the cheapest so that's what I went with

.

Nate

 

[mono]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kin0kin Is it possible to dye the copper clad board to black/white?

Dye, no, paint, yes.

As already mentioned, you'd have to mask any areas you wanted to solder later. Peelable mask can be bought online, or you might be able to use thick latex paint (if the board is smooth enough, so it can be easily scratched off with a soft/plastic tool or fingernail/whatever later), though that will take longer to dry.

It'd depend on whether you wanted completely opaque color too. You might find translucent colored spray lacquer, but that's not going to work so well for black and white rather than some other bright color tinting unless you put it on really thick, and that may be a mess or very time consuming to get enough coverage without having it run.