Home made PCB's without a laser printer...

[rockgardenlove]

So I don't have a laser printer, but would like some PCB's...any ways to get around my printer problems?

[Nalo1022]

well you can always eyeball it and draw the traces on with an etchant resistant pen but thats neverworked to well for me

[Also Wik]

where can you get an etchant resistant pen?

[ildar]

Etchant resistant pen=Sharpie.

[R.G.]

Once or twice a year, there's a new group that has to learn the basics.

Go read the Guitar Effects FAQ at GEO - http://www.geofex.com . There's a whole section in there on making PCBs, including some manual methods that work nicely.

Lots of answers to questions you haven't thought of yet, too.

[nosamiam]

Laser COPIER will work with Press'n'Peel.  Not sure if it works with photo paper. Do you maybe work someplace that has a copy machine?

[Also Wik]

how odd - so all you have to is draw on the copper with a sharpie?

[Marcos - Munky]

You can hand draw the layout in the board using a sharpie, or use a photocopy machine and the method descripted in the last board thread.

[rockgardenlove]

Couldn't find the page RG, I looked all over too.

[Also Wik]

Does GEO sell project boards...? I keep seeing them mentioned, but i dont see a link or anything..

[R.G.]

Couldn't find the page RG, I looked all over too.

It's there - just well hidden. Go to the GEO first page, then the Effects FAQ; the link at the top of this page goes there as well. The pick "building effects", "Skills and tools...", and in the paragraph "Basic construction skills" you find a link to "making printed circuit boards".

It's not a huge, whizzy graphics page, harking back as it does to the days before there was a world wide web, only usenet news groups, which were all text.

You're interested in the drill-and-draw section. What you do is lay out your stuff on 0.100" grid holes, then use an all holes perfboard to guide you in drilling only the holes you need into a blank PCB. Once you have the holes drawn, have at it with your resist pen. I have used Sharpie, but there are a lot of voids that almost etch through. One of the Staedler permanent pens gave me better results. The Radio Shack etch resist pen may well *be* a relabeled Sharpie. But in any case, use the pre-drilled holes and a paper print out and draw in your circuit.

I did this with an Apple II back in the day - I actually predrilled and drew in the lines to make an Apple Clone.  I had more time then...

The drill holes locate stuff and your components will actually fit when you get done.

[R.G.]

Does GEO sell project boards...? I keep seeing them mentioned, but i dont see a link or anything..

I was not only the first person of the current era to sell PCBs for clone effects, I think I was the first one to stop. That's OK, though. Other people join the fray pretty often.

No, I'm not selling PCBs now. However, I licensed all of my boards to General Guitar Gadgets, and get a royalty on each board of my layout that gets sold there, so GEO boards live on.

By the way - the NeoVibe board was first released over a decade ago. I need to dig out the exact date. I oughta have a decade party 

[rockgardenlove]

Couldn't find the page RG, I looked all over too.

It's there - just well hidden. Go to the GEO first page, then the Effects FAQ; the link at the top of this page goes there as well. The pick "building effects", "Skills and tools...", and in the paragraph "Basic construction skills" you find a link to "making printed circuit boards".

It's not a huge, whizzy graphics page, harking back as it does to the days before there was a world wide web, only usenet news groups, which were all text.

You're interested in the drill-and-draw section. What you do is lay out your stuff on 0.100" grid holes, then use an all holes perfboard to guide you in drilling only the holes you need into a blank PCB. Once you have the holes drawn, have at it with your resist pen. I have used Sharpie, but there are a lot of voids that almost etch through. One of the Staedler permanent pens gave me better results. The Radio Shack etch resist pen may well *be* a relabeled Sharpie. But in any case, use the pre-drilled holes and a paper print out and draw in your circuit.

I did this with an Apple II back in the day - I actually predrilled and drew in the lines to make an Apple Clone.  I had more time then...

The drill holes locate stuff and your components will actually fit when you get done.

Wow very nicely hidden indeed.

Thanks!

[Also Wik]

I was just wondering about the boards because I wanted to check out that ther OMNIDRIVE! Looks like a very fun little gizmo... Don't remember seeing it over at GGG though... time to do my daily snooping.

[guitar_199]

While your mileage may vary......

I have used Hammermill Transparencies  available locally at WalMart.  Transparencies for inkjet ONLY.

I get them scaled with my photo package until they print "just right" on paper, then put a sheet in according to directions, set the printer for best print quality, print it, and let it dry real good.

I hten, tim it and use pre-sensitized photosensitive PC boards, expose them using a nice terrarium lamp, develop using their developer, and etch.  I have had that work really nicely several times, in fact it has not failed me yet.

Bob

[Mark Hammer]

Here's a very good idea for those without the appropriate supplies and equipment at home.

1) Print out (to the appropriate scale) all the various PCB masks you think you might want to use over the next little while.  Be sure you trim all the unnecessary stuff from around them, and be sure you print out two copies so you can mess up the first one and still have one left over.

2) Trim off everything except the PCB from the sheet.

3) With clear mate tape arrange them on an 8-1/2 x 11" sheet of paper so that you can get the most patterns on one sheet.

4) Make sure you label on the white side of the back of the sheet of paper which pattern is which in case they don't all have the name of the circuit on them.

5) Bring the sheet to a photocopy outlet and ask them to print it to a piece of glossy onto paper in black and white.  Suggest that they turn up the darkness a bit so that the black comes out very black.  That probably should not cost you more than $1.

6) Bring your sheet home, cut it up into individual patterns with scissors and store them in an envelope until you need them.

[R.G.]

That's good advice, Mark.

Back when I was selling PCBs, I could get what I needed by having a local graphics arts company take a real-sized PDF and print at 2400dpi on clear. This cost me under $12 for an 8.5x11 sheet. If you're making many boards - as I was - I could stuff the whole area with board size images. In fact, many of the boards were laid out to fit the available presensitized boards and then printed this way.

If you happen to want several different boards, just arrange them to print correctly on the PDF and ship them off to the graphics arts company.

$12 is a trivial amount compared to what the rest of the stuff (including your labor) will cost you on most effects.

And presensitized photo is a much more accurate, repeatable way to do boards than Press-N-Peel, athough it's not as quickly gratifying.

[Connoisseur of Distortion]

that's exactly how i do it, mark.

good advice to turn up the black, too. if you don't get enough, you will not realize it until it is waaaaay too late. as in, until you etch and your traces are thin and spotty.

also, try bringing in layouts on a disk for best resolution possible (not always an option, but...). I just move them onto Word and resize as needed.

[rockgardenlove]

ARGHH!  Just ruined a board 

I'm so sick of using sharpie.  When it works it works great, but its such a waste of board if it turns out badly.  I'll try the photopaper/transparency thing sometime this week, and I'll see how that goes. 

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Trouble with sharpie is, it is kind of hard to see how thick the layr is (and, if you try to make it thicker by going over it, you are just as likely to scrub off what is already there). Maybe nail varnish is more like it.
And the trouble with resist pens from Radio Shack,is that they have been sitting there so long, they have dried out, like as not.