DIY PCB etching kit

[dazzystar]

Hi All,

Can anyone recommend a DIY PCB etching kit? Need to produce one small PCB quickly and cheaply. 

Thanks

Daz

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Its been a long while since I did any home made PCB stuff, till have the heat bath and stuff mind. However, I think if I did it again I would be really tempted to get it made for me, they seem pretty cheap these days and by the time you buy the Ferric Chloride, copper clad board, small drills etc (if not SM components) probably not much more and will be a better job.
Or if it is small can you not use veroboard ?

Steve

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I don't know of a 'kit' per se, but I just use Eagle to design & generate a layout, which I then print onto a clear plastic film (using an old HP ink jet printer), then using a UV box transfer onto copper sheet, then etch in a ferric chloride bath...

If I want something better looking and pre-drilled etc,, and sometimes even populated (especially if I want to use SMD components), then I'll either use EasyEda (https://easyeda.com/) or JLCPCB (https://jlcpcb.com/)

[dazzystar]

Yes, I got some made in China a few weeks ago but I need this quickly.

[vlaiv]

Depends how many boards do you need to make.

I recently saw quite affordable milling machine that can route PCBs quite accurately.

 

[malc-c]

To be honest its cheaper to send the gerbers to JLCPCB in china.  I've had loads of boards made by them with even their standard turnaround and DHL shipping taking less than a week.  - You get 5 professional standard boards without the mess of using chemicals in the kitchen, and cheaper than buying toner transfer film, chloride or a UV box and photo sensitive boards....

 

[kbrown]

I have made PCBs in the past and I have also used JLCPCB. Both have pros and cons. Last time with JLCPCB I got caught by customs fees (prior brexit) that took me by surprise. It's still a lot easier way of getting professional PCBs done without the hassle and mess.

Yet at the moment I'm planning to make a PCB at home mainly due to it being a bit of a challenge mechanically. I have a CNC router which I will be using to drill all the holes and mill the outlines with. For etching I laser print on Laserstar film and UV expose it with an old facial solar lamp on a pre-coated photoresist PCB. Then develop in slightly warmed up developer solution and etch with ferric chloride. My ferric chloride is in a plastic container with a fish tank heater and pump to keep the solution warm and moving which accelerates the etching process. It is a lot of work and messy I have to be honest. I don't like doing it unless I have to.

You can see one of my PCBs here. Another thing to keep in mind is that doing double sided PCBs is a lot trickier than it sounds. I often design my PCBs as double sided but use the top side sparingly and replace all the copper tracks on it with jumper wires.

Edited January 26, 2022 by kbrown

[kbrown]

Like others have already pointed out, vero boards are an option, if the circuit is fairly simple. Have a look at this: https://veecad.com/

It's a handy vero board designer that can take a netlist from KiCad for example and you can plan the vero board (fairly) easy.

[BCN_Sean]

If it's small stuff, or a fast prototype, then it's perf-board and point to point; if not it's a fast turn around short order from a fab house in China as it's a lot easier (and when time is calculated in, cheaper as well) than listening to the other half nag on about nasty brew in the kitchen.

[malc-c]

I remember faffing about with various photo papers to see which would transfer better to the PCB as the "official" film form Maplin was getting expensive.  Unless the design required a 1.6mm thick board I used to make all my DIY boards form 0.8mm thick copper clad as it fitted running through the laminator better.... and then there was the mess and smell of ferric, and no matter how careful you were there would always be a drop that would stain the work top, sink or eat its way into your clothes. Then at the end after cleaning the board you find several parts didn't take and bodging is in the order to fix it.

I now prototype any projects on solderless breadboards, then once any bugs or issues have been ironed out design a board in DipTrace and fire off the gerbers as mentioned above.   Yes you have to watch out for the duty/VAT if the value of goods are above the threshold, but unless you are ordering a lot of boards or large boards most work out to just a few $$.  Years ago I enquired at a local company how  much a small 16cm x 10cm (Euro card sized) would be and was quoted almost £500 for a single prototype, half of that was "tooling".  I then discovered PCBWay and was gobsmacked to get 5 boards for less than £35 shipped (£25 of that was DHL costs !!)  I've since changed to JLCPCB which seem a fair bit cheaper these days.  

[Alien 13]

I do a lot of prototyping and use a combination of vero board of the FR4 kind (more expensive but far better) and simple hand drawn designs using Humbrol Enamel as the etch resist, I do use a drawing package to produce a template though.

Alan

[dazzystar]

Only need 1 board for my autofocuser

[dazzystar]

2 hours ago, kbrown said:

Like others have already pointed out, vero boards are an option, if the circuit is fairly simple. Have a look at this: https://veecad.com/

It's a handy vero board designer that can take a netlist from KiCad for example and you can plan the vero board (fairly) easy.

It's very simple. An Arduino Nano, TMC2209 driver and a resistor. Plus power and small socket for the stepper motor

[malc-c]

17 hours ago, dazzystar said:

It's very simple. An Arduino Nano, TMC2209 driver and a resistor. Plus power and small socket for the stepper motor

No need for a PCB - Vero strip board with a 2.54mm pitch will do the job

[dazzystar]

Pulling my hair out a bit now. Trying to use a piece of software called veecad.com to design the simple schematic onto a piece of stripboard but every time I try and do it, I end up screwing something up...it's like a puzzle!.  Can anyone help please?

 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Have you downloaded TinyCad to draw the schematic first ?

TinyCAD

Steve

[dazzystar]

No and it probably wouldn't do me much good as it's the linking with wires and cutting of the tracks that I'm struggling with!

[chemistorge]

I bought these boards for prototyping: Protob oards Amazon

 

very little cutting of tracks needed, I have pictured a possible layout for you. I could probably put that circuit above on these boards in under an hour.

Edited January 27, 2022 by chemistorge

[chemistorge]

Note: I have not used stripboard for years, horrible stuff, much better solutions out there now.

[malc-c]

5 hours ago, dazzystar said:

Pulling my hair out a bit now. Trying to use a piece of software called veecad.com to design the simple schematic onto a piece of stripboard but every time I try and do it, I end up screwing something up...it's like a puzzle!.  Can anyone help please?

 

Strange design... grounds are not common and he uses the USB socket on the NANO to power it, meaning you have to have it plugged into a USB charger or batter bank, unless the Nano connects to a computer to receive instructions?  

If you are not sure about strip board, you can use protoboard like that shown in the post above, or simply mount the Nano and driver below each other in the same way , then use a 3mm drill bit between your fingers to brake all the tracks underneath the parts thus isolating all the pins.  Then use solid core wire (telephone extension cable is good for this) and the connect pin to pin on the schematic, eg D8 on the nano to pin 1 of the driver, D7 to pin 2 of the driver....

[malc-c]

OK there is one problem that will make using any prototype / strip board build very difficult.  The above schematic uses a pin on the module PCB labelled DIAG. as shown in the top half of this image I found on the web

 

The problem is the VREF and DIAG pins are all in line with the ENable pin and at standard 0.1" pitch, so effectively shorting them together when placed on a proto / strip board. 

It would also seem that the 2225 has been replaced by the 2226.  I've checked the component library in DipTrace and the TMC2225 doesn't exist so I'll have to modify one of the existing driver boards to create a new component and then if I get time will design a small PCB based on the schematic and upload  the gerbers.  It's up to the OP if he wants to send them off to a Chinese PCB house and have them made.  It won't be anything fantastic, just a crude slap together design

 

[chemistorge]

7 hours ago, malc-c said:

OK there is one problem that will make using any prototype / strip board build very difficult.  The above schematic uses a pin on the module PCB labelled DIAG. as shown in the top half of this image I found on the web

 

The problem is the VREF and DIAG pins are all in line with the ENable pin and at standard 0.1" pitch, so effectively shorting them together when placed on a proto / strip board. 

It would also seem that the 2225 has been replaced by the 2226.  I've checked the component library in DipTrace and the TMC2225 doesn't exist so I'll have to modify one of the existing driver boards to create a new component and then if I get time will design a small PCB based on the schematic and upload  the gerbers.  It's up to the OP if he wants to send them off to a Chinese PCB house and have them made.  It won't be anything fantastic, just a crude slap together design

 

Hi, you just need to cut the traces and then use small wire to jump across to nearby track.

[dazzystar]

9 hours ago, malc-c said:

Strange design... grounds are not common and he uses the USB socket on the NANO to power it, meaning you have to have it plugged into a USB charger or batter bank, unless the Nano connects to a computer to receive instructions?  

If you are not sure about strip board, you can use protoboard like that shown in the post above, or simply mount the Nano and driver below each other in the same way , then use a 3mm drill bit between your fingers to brake all the tracks underneath the parts thus isolating all the pins.  Then use solid core wire (telephone extension cable is good for this) and the connect pin to pin on the schematic, eg D8 on the nano to pin 1 of the driver, D7 to pin 2 of the driver....

Yes Malcolm. The Nano is connected to the PC to control the autofocuser.

[dazzystar]

8 hours ago, malc-c said:

OK there is one problem that will make using any prototype / strip board build very difficult.  The above schematic uses a pin on the module PCB labelled DIAG. as shown in the top half of this image I found on the web

 

The problem is the VREF and DIAG pins are all in line with the ENable pin and at standard 0.1" pitch, so effectively shorting them together when placed on a proto / strip board. 

It would also seem that the 2225 has been replaced by the 2226.  I've checked the component library in DipTrace and the TMC2225 doesn't exist so I'll have to modify one of the existing driver boards to create a new component and then if I get time will design a small PCB based on the schematic and upload  the gerbers.  It's up to the OP if he wants to send them off to a Chinese PCB house and have them made.  It won't be anything fantastic, just a crude slap together design

 

Using the 2209 Malcolm. Can't wait for the PCBs to arrive from China hence stripboard. Just need the board really for rigidity. Going to cut all tracks, solder the items to the board and try and wire it up using small jumper wires.

[malc-c]

1 hour ago, chemistorge said:

Hi, you just need to cut the traces and then use small wire to jump across to nearby track.

Cutting the same track between two 0.1" pitch pins may be possible, but as the cut would be small there would be a risk of jumping it with solder.  The only way I can think of doing it is to lift the section of track under these two pins and use sumper wires soldered directly... messy but doable