What is Digg?17 Comments
- Eaglefire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Of course the costs aren't the only consideration. When you make your own PCBs you can have them the same day you design them - commercial PCB makers often have a delay of up to 2 weeks before you will get your boards. To the casual hobbyist this may be unacceptable. A project may have a fine timeline or you might lose interest in the project waiting for so long.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1dude it's takes less than 5 minutes
The damage may not be as quick as looking into an arc welder, but it most certainly does damage. The problem with it is that your can't see it. I'm talking UV-C range less than 280nm.. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Normally UV lamps will cause sunburn of the eyes if one looks at them for as long he did. If a sun tanning bulb is all he could find then more power to him, but leave real UV to the pros who know how to work with it..
- JamesNewton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1While UV is great for fine traces, the extra equipment, time and special coated PCB stock is a major pain.
A much faster and lower cost method has just been developed: Directly printing the echant resist to standard PCB stock via a modified, old Epson InkJet printer. Traces down to 3 mils are quite possible and the registration for double sided boards is quite good since the InkJet printers are very repeatable. See: http://digg.com/hardware/Finally_Direct_to_PCB_InkJet_Resist_Printing_Make_your_own_PCBs_for_cheap for details. - Baddox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sure, you could make the wooden box yourself, but who's making PCB's that would need this in their basement?
- Camper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I like this laser printer method
http://max8888.orcon.net.nz/pcbs.htm
or
http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg/gooteepc.htm - Lostcosmos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The spectrum of the bulbs used does not go that far into the UV: http://scienceprog.vhost.lt/drupal/images/UV80/image018.jpg . Might be better off using industrial black lights in the 210nm range.
- Haplo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I use UV LEDs for scorpion detection, and when I made the detector I avoided looking even sideways at the LEDs, and yet at the end of the day my eyes felt a little odd, so I doubt a lens is going to protect your eyes. Moreover, I just put a lens on top of a fluorescent piece of paper, and I couldn't see a difference. Put the lens on top of the skin of a scorpion, and still it was glowing. If the UV can make the skin of a scorpion glow from several inches distant, it can certainly hurt your eyes.
scorpions and UV? read on: http://johnbokma.com/pet/scorpion/detection-using-uv-leds.html - throwaway18, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Making your own PCB's is fun. Just considering the costs it's not worth it anymore. If you just make a few boards a year it works out cheaper to use one of the many prototype PCB manufacturers. People in the UK/Europe can get cheap boards from Bulgaria, I'm told there is no import duty because they are going to join the EU in a few years.
There are a few services in the USA that put several people's designs together onto one big sheet and have it made in China.
Professionally made boards generally come out much better then homemade boards and you get a soldermask which you can't do at home without lots of work or expense.
You can get a load of prototype PCB's made for the cost of a UV box, a heated etching tank, material, etching chemicals, 1mm drill bits, going to the shops for a new tea towel because you got etching fluid on it etc. - MrUnderbridge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0And yet the guy can still see. I doubt he sat and stared at the thing for 5 minutes. Also, people who work at tanning salons and get casual exposure to these things for years can still see. The power on those bulbs isn't as string as you seem to think it is.
- luma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Certainly a nice project, but I'm wondering about the necessity of all this. I've done single-sided UV etch boards by simply placing them below a standard workshop florescent lamp with fantastic results.
For those of you who haven't tried photo-etch PCBs, I highly recommend trying it out sometime. The boards are fairly inexpensive, and the process is dead simple. The results, in my experience, are far better than those I was ever able to achieve using toner transfers or (shudder) rub-on dry transfers. Laser-crisp lines and very consistent results. - bejurin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Google the phrase "PCB exposure" to see what it means to the rest of the world...
- MrUnderbridge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I didn't see the part where he sat and stared at them for hours. Opening a tanning booth long enough to take a picture of it is unlikely to cause "sunburn of the eyes." Presumably one could prove this since the guy seems to still have his sight.
- RealmySG1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0If he's wearing glass lenses of any kind, he's got nothing to worry about, no matter how long he stares at it ;-)
- mindaugasu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Current link now is: http://www.scienceprog.com/ultraviolet-light-source-uv-80-for-pcb-exposure/
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