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Is it common for the HN audience to be able to fabricate their own PCBs? I believe none of my local hacker spaces have fabrication facilities. Whenever I see t

by maweki 4y ago

Is it common for the HN audience to be able to fabricate their own PCBs? I believe none of my local hacker spaces have fabrication facilities. Whenever I see that, it means having to pay somebody quite a bit instead of do it yourself.

Kuinox 4y ago
I built one. But without PCB. I just used wires and soldered it.
idiotsecant 4y ago
You can make your own PCBs quite easily with cheap chemicals, a laser printer, and some tubs to agitate the mixture. It's a bad idea though, when you can design them and get them made online incredibly cheaply.
aidenn0 4y ago
I haven't had any made in a while but last time I got 2 index-card sized PCBs with silk-screen and solder mask for under $40 after shipping.
dgacmu 4y ago
There are some home-brewable ways for single layer boards, particularly one sided -- you can do the old school copper board + mask + etch with something like ferric chloride. It's pretty easy but you do want to be careful as the chemicals are a bit nasty. Newer school is to print the mask and transfer using a laminator. You can also physically etch with a milling machine. It's a bit more expensive but low startup cost if you already have a small cnc mill. You probably have access to one at a maker space. That's most likely the easiest way to go.
jazzyjackson 4y ago
I guess I wouldn't say common - but hackerspaces and especially fablabs will often have a Roland CNC machine capable of carving PCBs out of copper-coated-fiberglass - but once you go through all that (paying for a couple broken 1/64" routing bits as you learn to use the machine...) it starts to make sense to pay $5 per square inch at oshpark
ted_dunning 4y ago
It is incredibly easy to use an on-line service to specify and fabricate PCBs. I just did it for an adapted multi-sensor temperature system and the boards were about $5 and tooling costs were minimal. The quality far exceeded anything that I have ever been able to do by myself. Self-etching is a royal pain for a medieval quality result. It probably winds up costing more than ordering the boards from PCBWay or similar manufacturer.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  It's basically impossible to made a modern PCB at home; you can certainly make something that's not even at the quality level of an early 1970s PCB: single-layer, single-sided, no solder mask, but that's about it. For modern circuitry, you want at a minimum double-sided, plated thru-holes, immersion tinned, and a solder mask. For more complex circuits or those needing better power/ground shielding to keep noise down, you need 4 layers, which is totally impossible at home.

by maweki 4y ago

Kuinox 4y ago

I built one. But without PCB. I just used wires and soldered it.

idiotsecant 4y ago

You can make your own PCBs quite easily with cheap chemicals, a laser printer, and some tubs to agitate the mixture. It's a bad idea though, when you can design them and get them made online incredibly cheaply.

aidenn0 4y ago

I haven't had any made in a while but last time I got 2 index-card sized PCBs with silk-screen and solder mask for under $40 after shipping.

dgacmu 4y ago

There are some home-brewable ways for single layer boards, particularly one sided -- you can do the old school copper board + mask + etch with something like ferric chloride. It's pretty easy but you do want to be careful as the chemicals are a bit nasty. Newer school is to print the mask and transfer using a laminator. You can also physically etch with a milling machine. It's a bit more expensive but low startup cost if you already have a small cnc mill. You probably have access to one at a maker space. That's most likely the easiest way to go.

jazzyjackson 4y ago

I guess I wouldn't say common - but hackerspaces and especially fablabs will often have a Roland CNC machine capable of carving PCBs out of copper-coated-fiberglass - but once you go through all that (paying for a couple broken 1/64" routing bits as you learn to use the machine...) it starts to make sense to pay $5 per square inch at oshpark

ted_dunning 4y ago

It is incredibly easy to use an on-line service to specify and fabricate PCBs. I just did it for an adapted multi-sensor temperature system and the boards were about $5 and tooling costs were minimal. The quality far exceeded anything that I have ever been able to do by myself. Self-etching is a royal pain for a medieval quality result. It probably winds up costing more than ordering the boards from PCBWay or similar manufacturer.

midoridensha 4y ago
It's basically impossible to made a modern PCB at home; you can certainly make something that's not even at the quality level of an early 1970s PCB: single-layer, single-sided, no solder mask, but that's about it. For modern circuitry, you want at a minimum double-sided, plated thru-holes, immersion tinned, and a solder mask. For more complex circuits or those needing better power/ground shielding to keep noise down, you need 4 layers, which is totally impossible at home.