Homebrew PCBs

>
>  Also, have you thought about skipping the red laser part and just 
>drawing on a board with UV directly?  Thought about it some myself 
>before, and lower power non-cutting UV lasers aren't so bad pricewise 
>compared to the cutters really.  Still like the idea of a simple inkjet 
>though for now, few of my boards are tight resolution.  Of course I want 
>a billion watt cutting UV laser anyway..
>
>  
>


  Just did a little looking, and sure enough the UV LEDs I have are in 
the correct range for exposing a board.  Should've thought of that a 
year ago..  Saw off the inbuilt lens, mount the LED and a better lens so 
it's focused onto the board, and have an apeture hole near the board to 
block any stray light.  Feed the board vertically, have a second setup 
on the other side, and do both sides at once.  Do 4 or 8 LEDs on each 
side to cut the exposure time too.  Wouldn't even care if it took hours 
personally, it'd still be great for small test boards and pretty simple 
to build up..

  Of course looks like the inkjet will end up being more practical, but 
heck should've already built this a long time ago.  Might even do it 
sometime just for fun, should be easy to do a simple version on an old 
printer mechanism.

Alan