First PCB!

[davent]

Showing up fine here, look real good!
dave

[karbomusic]

I keep my iron on maximum heat.
Pressure and timing are far more critical factors IMO when doing thermal transfer.

I wonder if that is related to being an iron and that the iron's net heat that gets to the PnP isn't as hot as it measures. If the temp is right, I would think available timing is extended quite a bit but if it isn't or in a less controlled scenario has to make up for the excessive heat; however I would agree on too much pressure also playing a part (need to test more, yay!). I had done some slightly more controlled testing with a t-shirt press and the below occurs somewhere over and above 300F. It stopped doing that when I backed the heat down to 265ish. It isn't wrinkled, it's mushed from melting instead of just transferring. AFAIK, there is a fusing temp and a melting temp where the latter is higher than the former and the goal is to stay in between those two.



Granted, I was never able to get it that bad with an iron but I can see the effect to a smaller degree in some of my older boards. In the interest of academia I'll go back and do some more testing because it sounds like fun.  

Your boards look great btw, here are a few I of the ones from previous testing and getting (what I think) is good heat and even pressure...





I cheated on this one, it's a photoresist etch...

[graylensman]

CodeMonk, thanks for the kind words. Your photos are quite inspirational - I have a goal, now, to get crisp etches like y'alls. As CodeMonk observed, I did lean into the iron. I'm still tickled pink that I got a useable result.

On a slightly off-topic direction, I see circuit layouts that have fine traces, some with "fatter" areas, and like some of karbomusic's examples, just enough copper etched away around the traces. Is there any advantage to these techniques? Or is it just a matter of style or taste?

[davent]

karbonmusic, you've experienced the joy that is photoresist etching and yet you still toy with toner transfrer, that's masochistic!

graylensman; Less copper to etch off, more boards etched per volume of etchant and should result in a quicker etch.

[karbomusic]

karbonmusic, you've experienced the joy that is photoresist etching and yet you still toy with toner transfrer, that's masochistic!

Less copper to etch off, more boards etched per volume of etchant and should result in a quicker etch.

I was so excited that my dreams of PCB domination were going to reveal themselves as realities when I did the first photo etch.    They didn't... Like everything, it has its own challenges (I'm sure this is old news to you guys). Printing on transparencies is tricky (for this purpose) and I typically need to stack a couple of them. The resist is much more fragile. For example if I use the sponge method for etching, any foreign matter will scratch the resist in spots while etching but I can scrub away on toner. The reason that matters is because normal etching by soaking and agitating might take me 30 minutes, with a sponge, it's more like 3 minutes.

I do really like it though, if I can get the transparencies printing better and back to sponging, I'll probably keep doing it because once the transparency is printed, I can keep using it over and over etc.

[karbomusic]

I'm still tickled pink that I got a useable result.

You should be, you did good and there is something about pulling it off and making a working circuit that just feels good. 

On a slightly off-topic direction, I see circuit layouts that have fine traces, some with "fatter" areas, and like some of karbomusic's examples, just enough copper etched away around the traces. Is there any advantage to these techniques? Or is it just a matter of style or taste?

It's called a ground plane. I must admit, my use of it is related to being lazy and liking the way it looks (others know much more about the potential electronic downsides, or lack of when ground planes than I do). It's faster and easier to use a ground plane than it is to trace them individually. For me anyway. It also keeps all that extra copper out of my etchant.

[CodeMonk]

CodeMonk, thanks for the kind words. Your photos are quite inspirational - I have a goal, now, to get crisp etches like y'alls. As CodeMonk observed, I did lean into the iron. I'm still tickled pink that I got a useable result.

On a slightly off-topic direction, I see circuit layouts that have fine traces, some with "fatter" areas, and like some of karbomusic's examples, just enough copper etched away around the traces. Is there any advantage to these techniques? Or is it just a matter of style or taste?

It takes practice.
I use very little pressure and it only took maybe 2 minutes with the iron on the smaller boards and maybe 3 minutes or so with the larger boards.
I don't use much more pressure than the weight of the iron itself, maybe a few pounds of pressure.
Oh, and I use an iron I got at Walmart for like $4.
And like I said, it takes practice to figure out what method works best for you.
Still, I need to work on the ground plane sections a little better. I still haven't gotten those down quite right yet.

Its taken me a long time to get to where I am today and still, its not always good enough.
BTW, this is the other side of those boards.
Yes, they are double sided and thats a whole 'mother nightmare to deal with.
Figuring out a method to make sure the holes are perfectly lined up took a lot of testing with a lot of different methods, and ruining a bunch of copper clad before I was satisfied with the results.
And I still screwed up drilling some of the holes by not centering the bit perfectly.
My eyes aren't as good as they used to be.
But I'm working on some kind of magnification rig for that.
Yeah I know someone will suggest a USB microscope, but I'm a bit broke and have to make do with what I can dig up around the house.
Maybe someday though

[davent]

If you get a chance... for diminished eyesight i went with a $13 usb endoscope (cheapest i found), free webcam software and free crosshair software. The Dremel/drillpress stand and full drillpress i already had. The tricky bit was rigging the endoscope but i know you'd have no problems finding a solution for that.

[CodeMonk]

If you get a chance... for diminished eyesight i went with a $13 usb endoscope (cheapest i found), free webcam software and free crosshair software. The Dremel/drillpress stand and full drillpress i already had. The tricky bit was rigging the endoscope but i know you'd have no problems finding a solution for that.

I may end up getting and endoscope or USB microscope at some point.
I did get lucky at a casino last week, but I'm saving some of that money to get some powder coating and silk screening done on some enclosures.
Depending on how much is left will determine what route I take.
I REALLY do like that cross hair feature. Thats a MUST HAVE as far as I am concerned.

In the meantime, I picked these up at Harbor freight for about $5.
(Click on link for Harbor Freight page)


While they work ok, they could be better.
The eye loop part magnifies it REALLY good.
The down side to that is I have to get my face about 3 inches away from a drill bit that is spinning at 3000RPM. I'm not real comfortable with doing that.
So I removed the eye loop piece.
Then I set one of my drilled PCB's down on the bench, put the head piece on, and stuck a pencil in the hole where the eye loop mounted and moved the eye loop down the pencil until I got a sharp and clear image.
The distance was about 156mm.

So, this is my mod, a small wood dowel and a 4x5/8 wood screw. Total cost for the mod, under $3:


I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but probably will sometime in the next week or so.

[graylensman]

So, I finally got the drill bits in... and discovered the collet on my Dremel was too big. Fortunately, Lowe's had the right size on sale. Went merrily to the task of drilling out the board. I used the magnifying glass on my "extra hands" unit to see. I think I did a very good job, with only a few off-center holes.

I began to collect the components to build, and to my utter disappointment discovered that I had failed to order the 78L05 IC.    So, looks like another two weeks before I actually get to building this sucker.

[karbomusic]

So, I finally got the drill bits in... and discovered the collet on my Dremel was too big.

These come in pretty handy with our sort of work...

http://www.amazon.com/Dremel-4486-MultiPro-Keyless-Chuck/dp/B0000302ZV