How can you make a PCB at home?

1) what are the methods available to make home made single side PCB?
2) which method is cost effective?
3) which method gives good result?
4) how to make it?

Re: how to make PCB in home?

Two common methods: By using laser printer or by UV lamp.

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http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-printed-circuit-board-PCB-using-th/

The laser printer type costs less and easy.

Re: how to make PCB in home?

dead cheap method is always the toner transfer method. google it and you'll be surprised.

Re: how to make PCB in home?

hi,
to make a PCB at home, you can use the corrosion method with acid. The most available acid to do this is the clorhidric (i think it's called hydrochloric in english) acid. For smaller projects with few discrete components () you can draw the PCB with hand on a piece of paper. Then you fix the paper with the drawing on the coopered side of the PCB and you drill the holes with 1 mm drill. After that you draw the board (on the cooperd side) just like you did on the paper (hou just have to draw the holes and connect them like on the paper) using a thin permanent marker or using paint and a toothpick (paint is *** when using other acid ) . When the drawing is dry you put the plate in acid and you wait the corrosion to do the job..... You check the plate from time to time and when the unpainted cooper is disappeared you will see only the drawing on the board, this means that the PCB is ready. After cleaning the board you can start soldering the components.
When dealing with complex projects with many components Ic's ... you can use the same process but you can help yourself by using special computer programs to draw the PCB like Eagle or Spice or whatever (you need to loock which program has better component librarry's for you). Furthermore if you have a *** laser printer you can print that drawing (with the highest dpi of the printer ->>300-) and iron it on the cooper side of the PCB. You carefully remove the paper in whater (the iron will burn the paper a little to the board) and you alredy can put the PCB in acid.
These are the most common low cost methods.....

*** luck

Re: how to make PCB at home?

mailus said:

1) what are the methods available to make home made single side PCB?
2) which method is cost effective?
3) which method gives good result?
4) how to make it?

Click to expand...

You can use photo procedure with UV lamp and UV resistive PCB, or you can use toner transfer technique.

With toner transfer you can have good quality even for SMD TQFP cases.

https://www.dr-lex.be/hardware/tonertransfer.html


From my expirience use HP LaserJet with higher resolution 600dpi or best is 1200dpi, with high density toner.

Major thing in this process is right paper and proper heating iron and temperature.

From my expirience best paper is Verbatim Glossy Photo Paper 150g (only one side is right for printing).

Re: how to make PCB in home?

Ps: to drill the holes for the components there is no need to buy some fancy drills for the beginning , you can easily build a cheep drill .... You need a 1 dollar engine (or from a broken casette recorder ), a 1 mm drill , a tube from a empty pen, push button and wires (see pic)....... there is more joy when you do things by yourself ......

Re: how to make PCB in home?

For UV Exposure Box you can use case from some old thick scanner :

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Re: how to make PCB in home?

Hello everyone!

I want to design a board with components on top part and tracks on the bottom of the board[single layered PCB] but i am facing problem regarding the orientation of parts.(i am not able to put 555 timer on the top).

I have designed the PCB using Eagle Free version.

Is there any way to print the artwork in the correct way.
These are the PCBs i designed.


The first diagram as it is and the second one is mirrored.
I am not able to get the proper alignment of pins in both of these PCB patterns.

This is the PCB with all the layers


I am using toner transfer method and laser printer.I am able to successfully tranfer the pattern on board but alignment problem persists.

Is your pin gaps are smaller or larger than it should???? How you are printing the pcb image? By just copy-paste or exporting to a file?? Try to print directly to a page from eagle...

From your last image, it looks like the artwork is combined with some mask layer too, hence all the blobs are blocking the holes. Looks like you need to investigate your software.

But, frankly, just don't bother with the artwork side. It seems a waste of effort on such a small board - the risk of error during assembly seems very small. Even some reasonably complex boards don't really need artwork if it is a prototype. Besides, your text is so small it may not even appear on the board (rendering the artwork less useful).

Lots of qustions about making PCB at home lately, but understandable. In our case we have company for making proffesional PCBs, but generaly they are slow for prototyping.
We tried a few methods, but we like one with electric iron because it is fast, lines are good, it is possible to make 10 mills lines.
For more information visit links:
https://www.electronics-base.com/in...60-how-to-make-pcb-in-30-minutes-at-your-home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A1lYIZy-K8

If you have more questions, just ask....

For home made PCB problem is linking PCB sides together. PCB manufacturers will use hole plating / galvanisation but that process at home can be done with special material but is expensive.

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But you can use thin wire to link PCB sides :




Or get this kit (watch video) :

LPKF ProConduct® In-House PCB Through-Hole Plating without Chemicals
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Or you can get this rivets and make it fine and easy (finest copper rivets are around 15eur 1000 pieces price):

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http://www.megauk.com/through_hole_rivets.php


Also you can solder legs of IC, resistors, leds,.... on both PCB sides :




Soldering mask can be done also with toner transfer or with LPKF ProMask and LPKF ProLegend Solder-Resist Masks and Legend Printing for PCBs (watch videos) :

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Can i print the PCB using toner transfer method using this artwork attached below.


This is the bottom layer[in EAGLE it will be shown by blue traces].

Yes you can why not. But you can make better design in Eagle.

I export image from Eagle to image at 300dpi, then open that image in Adobe PhotoShop and make fine readjusting in several steps, clearing space, and sharpening, then printing from PS.

Eagle have poor printing facility, maybe this is improved in Eagle 6 I didnt try yet version 6.

PCB obtained by toner transfer method.

Yes like DeepOne shows toner transfer can give good quality and can be fast method to make PCB. For Hobbyst/Home users and for prototyping is good technique.

Also there is Direct Printing method, where printing is done direct on PCB copper :

http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcb/etch/cx4200-vs.htm



http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=13656

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How to remove oxidation and how to prevent tracks from oxidation?

mailus said:

How to remove oxidation and how to prevent tracks from oxidation?

Click to expand...

Before soldering I use fine emery with water, after that soldering is done in short time, testing, cleaning with isopropylen alchohole, and final I use protective varnishing on complete PCB, even over SMD parts.

Also very important things is good drill, here is few inspirations :

DIY PCB Drill Press
http://thefickletinkerer.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/diy-pcb-drill-press/





Improved illumination for drilling PCBs
http://www.jave.de/blog2/?p=59

@tpetar: It would be nicer to put your own photos or articles instead links to other sites with copied photos.

eg. https://zastos.com/wp/