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DIY Stompboxes => Building your own stompbox => Topic started by: ericohman on February 20, 2011, 08:31:41 AM

Title: Vintagifying PCB layout
Post by: ericohman on February 20, 2011, 08:31:41 AM
Can't say enough times that you have to make sure to double and triple check all traces when doing this.
I don't do PCB myself but I know if I did, this is how I would want them to look :)

I made a tutorial here:
http://djoman.dyndns.org/diystompboxes/pcb-blur/
Title: Re: Vintagifying PCB layout
Post by: R.G. on February 20, 2011, 09:36:52 AM
Neat photo retouching trick to get teardrops on the pad/trace intersections.

The blending of the junctions of the pads and traces is know in the PCB biz as "teardropping" and the advanced PCB packages have this as an automatic option.
Title: Re: Vintagifying PCB layout
Post by: teemuk on February 20, 2011, 11:37:13 AM
Nice trick. Less "etchant traps" (etchant tangling into sharp corners causing more corrosion than intented, or alternatively etchant not flowing freely into every section).
Title: Re: Vintagifying PCB layout
Post by: ericohman on February 20, 2011, 11:51:06 AM
It's almost the same thing as a median filter which most image editors include.
However, the median filter looks like it's built using a box blur algorithm rather than the gaussian algorithm (gaussian which results in smoother bends)

Would be cool to get something like this going on though:
http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/DRAGONFLY-LAYOUTS_0/album18/FUZZ+PCB/VINTAGE+STYLE+FUZZ+FACE+-+SILICON_001.GIF.html

Might give that a try one day.
Title: Re: Vintagifying PCB layout
Post by: Paul Marossy on February 21, 2011, 12:11:52 AM
That's a cool trick. I like the look of vintage PCBs, more like art than the new ones are.
Title: Re: Vintagifying PCB layout
Post by: jbgron on February 21, 2011, 04:52:33 PM
There is a great open source raster to vector program called potrace to do exactly this;

http://potrace.sourceforge.net

For Linux users there is also a gui;

http://potracegui.sourceforge.net

For Ubuntu/Debian users you can just; sudo apt-get install potracegui
Title: Re: Vintagifying PCB layout
Post by: ericohman on February 21, 2011, 08:10:18 PM
Nice find! Gonna try that.