Yesterday, I made my first PCB since about 1978! I used the toner transfer method, and it worked really well. It’s a little break-out board for an Atmel AVR, the ATmega8. I’ve also allowed space on the board for a couple of extra chips (up to 18 pins) and four TO-220 driver transistors, for things like stepper motors. Today, I’m drilling the holes in the board (1mm) and I expect I’ll solder in the parts this evening.
we want pictures 
i’ve
we want pictures i’ve never made one myself, i could take some inspiration
**yeah!!! pictures!! **
yeah!!! pictures!!
Toner Transfer
I make Quiet a lot of toner transfer PCB’s mostly for my side business.
I get great results, use a lamainator for the transfer and a rechargeable cupric chloride bath for the etching.
WARNING ITS A BIG PICTURE
http://www.neutronfluxlabs.com/Picture/Efie1Board.jpg
If you have questions or run into bumps just let me know and i would be glad to advise.
i’m going to try to make a custom PCB home for my future LMR Olympic entry. if i take the time and put the work in on it… it seems the games are on hold until we get more entries… this is the olympics right so i better make it good.
Thanks,
: : : Wes : : :
Press’n’Peel
Yeah. I make these boards all the time. Yours looks good, but I have one piece of advice: etch less.
I used to make boards like yours: every square thou of copper was etched away except the conductors. I was going thorugh gallons of ferric chloride. Then I discovered that if I made a mask which only etched away the unused bits of copper (ie, leaving a lot of uneccessary copper on the board) a pint of etchant lasted me for months! It’s also useful because thin copper tracks can’t carry an awful lot of current, so if you’re driving big motors, the more copper on the tracks, the more current they can conduct. AND the more heat dissipation you get!
Here’s one of mine:
A definition of “toner”…?
I have been etching PCB’s for a while now, but have allways used just a sharpie to draw the lines… I have seen the iron-on and soak-off method however I am led to believe it will only work with one kind of printer… Could anyone give me some more specifics of exactly what kind of printer and paper I should be using? By the by, I have been using Eagle as a design tool (I don’t think that should make any difference as to the etching process)
-Thanks, yo.
"Toner Transfer"
As long as you get the layout right it really doesn’t matter which software i use pcbexpress and you would normally order but i print the bottom layer to Tiff export into gimp crop. and line up the pcb’s i get about 40 pcb’s out of a 12x12 inch copper clad for a product i sell.
good questions on the printer and paper. you are gunning for a glossy paper that glossy layer desolves in water… you’ll need a Laser printer as the toner is actually plastic attached by an electro static charge and fused with a fuser(heat) module. my recommendations are to go With a HP laser or other brands… just about anything OTHER than a Brother printer… there toner doesn’t cut the cheese. the best method is to buy Staples Photo Basic Glos in a 50 sheet pack Item # 648181 this is the BEST paper i have found out of all options works as good as Press-N-peel when used with Xerox Toner and a Laminator.
i normally lay my pcb’s out for multiple projects as images and the drop them into a word doc and take to Office max to run off on there Color Xerox . Get them to print it in best quality and without color. Xerox has a pantented toner formula that i get the best results from. you could just print your PCB and take it to pay per copy stand and load up your staples paper. run it through the laminator 8-15 times and soak in soapy water 20 min. the transfer is so strong i get after the remaining paper with a toothbrush… no trace damage.
i then etch in re-generative cupric chloride. some consider it nasty stuff. keeping the whole picture in mind and that if i maintain the bath correctly its the cleanest as i never have to find a disposal method.
links to follow
http://www.camcor.com/cgi-bin/cat/id=1216649527&src=fg
http://knightscrest.com/weblog/?page_id=41
http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/pcbs.html
http://www.riccibitti.com/pcb/pcb.htm
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~eseychell/PCB/etching_CuCl/index.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-using-Ferric-Chloride-etchant!–A-better-etc/
… this one is a lot of just text
http://www.fullnet.com/~tomg/gooteepc.htm
but reading it all and understanding it will provide the best results. after looking at all these links go shopping. i had most of the things on hand including the laminator so… my total PCB cost is next to nothing … total money spent for my PCB fab lab… was something like 30 bucks for a the right acid proof plastic aquarium bubbler and the acid and 4 bottles of Peroxide.
Press-n-peel
I’ve used press-n-peel for ages. I used to print my layout on an inkjet and take it into the office to photocopy it onto the proper paper with a Xerox. I’ve also had it work with an HP laser printer and Iwas recently given a Samsung with which it works just fine.
The bottom line is it has to be a laser printer or copier.
Toner is…
Toner is the black powder used by laser printers and photocopiers to form an image on the paper. It’s made of carbon (for the blackness) and plastic (to make it stick to the paper when heated). So toner transfer involves re-heating the toner while pressing it onto the copper PCB material. Toner transfer will only work with an image that has been made by a laser printer or photocopier.
Personally, I used an HP LaserJet 4+ that I got from FreeCycle. For the paper, I used semi-glossy but very flimsy junk-mail. It’s cheap paper, and breaks apart easily when soaked in water. I used a hot smoothing iron for just a minute or so, pressing quite hard. The paper took quite a long time to soak off,but I was reluctant to scrub it. As it turned out, the toner had stuck to the copper much more strongly than I had expected. I etched with Ferric Chloride and cleaned off the toner with acetone (nail varnish remover).
Another photo with parts installed
This should be sufficient to connect up to the AVR programmer and test. Just the ATmega8 chip, the reset circuit, the clock crystal and the six-pin ISP header. Oh, and an orange power-on LED!
OK, here’s a picture!
This is the finished board, with the toner removed and the holes drilled, but no parts installed yet. Overall size is 3.7 inches by 2.1 inches.It's an Atmel AVR board, inspired by the Evil Mad Scientist Labs business card:
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/card
Electrolysis?
Hey BOA, have you tried that electrolysis thing I’d heard of? Think I’d mentioned it here once, but hadn’t tried it since I didn’t etch my own so much. Was just wanting to see a picture of a copper covered nail!
Salt water etching
Salt Water etching is very dangerous more so than Cupric Cloride, Ferric Chloride, etc. etc. as you’ll be breathing some chlorine gas.
=(
Cool board!
This is a pretty cool little board, and not a bad idea from the Evil Mad Scientists. Ought ot be a lot of fun. I got a little point to point wired AT90S2313 board I’d made long ago, but haven’t done much with. I should have put some kind of ISP header on it, but AVRs were using the 10 pin ones at the time, the 6 pin looks better.
Not what I was typing about
I had mentioned in another thread a technique I’d heard of, for regenerating Ferric Chloride after it had been through a number of etchings and was “filled” (chemically bonded) with copper. What I’d heard some folks do, was to place an iron nail as one electrode, and something else as another electrode, and then pass a DC current through it. The nail winds up being coated in copper, which has been electroplated on from the provided current.
Ok, found a reference, with some details :
If you look about a quarter page down, a tip from Robert A LaBudde talks about low voltage (1 volt) medium current (1 A) with an iron anode (negative) and a copper cathode (positive) in the nearly spent etchant. He does mention the possibility of generating bad gasses if the voltage is too high, that I had not remembered. Think I might have read about it initially from Don Lancasters Tinaja site.
There are some other PCB etching ideas on that page too.
Electrolysis
I’d heard that. I’d like to try it with a bit less electrolyte. I electrolysed about 2L of hydrogen once from a basin of salty water. It took about 2 days, so the chlorine never got a chance to build up substantially. I reckon it’d be safe if you do it slow enough.
Gonna give it a go
I’m gonna try this. Ferric Chloride is not that expensive to buy, but I can’t find an environmentally responsible way to dispose of the spent stuff. I refuse to chuck it down the drain. I’ll give this a go with a nice, low current.
…which brings about my moral dilemma: I will use electricity in this process and therefore, fossil fuel. Might it be better for the environment if I just tip the FeCl down the drain?
Alternative power
Maybe slapping a solar cell to the apparatus will work, they can be low voltage! But wait, how much fossil fuel energy was spent making the cell…
Uh, wood fire? Think that generates something too.
Methane? Eat lotsa beans and then … Dunno about that one either.
Please tell me what do you
Please tell me what do you use to get the holes in the copper board and where can I get one. My son made himself a small drill for copper and tried it on my copper bathroom sink because he had nothing else to try it on. So now I have a scratch on it because the drill wasn’t powerful enough.
Drilling copper-clad PCBs
I use a Dremel-type hand-held electric drill for drilling the tiny holes in these PCBs. For this board, I used a 1.0mm tungsten-carbide bit, but I now have a 0.8mm bit, which I used for some new boards:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anachrocomputer/sets/72157607701477131
You can get drills like this from DIY shops, hobby shops and of course on-line. Dremel is the best-known make, but there are others, such as Proxxon. Mine is a Black & Decker. There’s a photo of it here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anachrocomputer/2840023402
It’s best for PCB drilling to use a stand, or a press, too. This keeps the drill accurately vertical, and reduces the chances of breaking the bit.