how i print my own electronic circuits ?
Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at
6:48 am
if i designed a circuit how i print it on real (you know the green plastic thing that has gold lines representing the electricity flow)how i make one ?
Tagged with: electricity flow • gold lines
Filed under: Electronic Circuit Designs
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If you are not into electronics – I suggest you use the "Try boards" for prototyping
But, as suggested earlier – you could use some software to create the PCB design. Then print the design(negative of the original design – just like photography) to Butter Paper having width at least 100GSM using a laser printer only( for professional result use photo plotter)
Then buy some copper clad board and Liquid Photo Resist, etching solution like ferric chloride. Cut the PCB to required size, apply the LPR, Remember, up to this step – the board should never be exposed to any sort of light – make your room dark and use some red bulb for low level lighting. Now, take the printed paper and put it upside down( to keep the component layer at right place – read PCB software documentation for that) on the copper side. Fix the design to PCB, so that it may not leave its place and then put it under some bulb (say 200 watt) or sunlight – after couple of hours – remove the paper design – the design is imprinted on the PCB – now you can use the etching solution to remove unwanted copper. That's it !!!!
When printing through computer, notice the difference between component layer and soldering layer.
The other method is to buy PCB with LPR applied on them from local radio shack, RS components, (Jaycar in Australia) or other electronic shops – they come in different sizes. The provide all the instructions too through documentation.
It is quite simple if you can find the raw materials.
First is rthe blank Grid, and an ordinary permanent marker (sharpee). Draw your circuit design on the blank grid with the marker and then dip it in a solution called ferous chloride and you'll see that green thing like in regular circuit boards, actually it is colored coppery gold, but manafacturers uses a coating to avoid short circuits.
Another method is just using what you have. An ordinary cardboard and some wires and then just use the wires as your circuit lines. And you can still solder the electronic parts to the wires!
Goodluck!
The easiest thing to do is go to http://www.expresspcb.com and download their free software, which includes schematic capture and PC layout software. You can then order PC boards over the internet for a very reasonable price, $51 for 3 PCB's.
You could also go the route of a making your own with the chemical process, but it's a lot more effort and takes a lot more skill to get a good board.