Yahoo Groups archive

Homebrew PCBs

Index last updated: 2026-04-28 23:05 UTC

Message

Re: Dissapearing Tracks in deveoper

2004-02-05 by tboneuk_2000

Thanks for the idea of measuring the powder, I hadn't thought of 
that way to do it.
Adam wrote:-
"Before worrying about exposure times, try as I said before, and 
expose a
piece of PCB in the sun for 20+ minutes, put some black PVC tape on 
one
half to block out the light. Then you have guaranteed exposure. 
Develope
the PCB and see how it goes."
I live in the uk and at the moment the weather is rain and them some 
more rain, so the chance of sun is very slim.

I did however try exposing a peice of board for only 2 mins and 
another at 1hr 10 mins but with no image showing on the board before 
developing as stated by Stefan:-

"with the boards i used one could see a yellow/green discoloration
if you hold it at an agle against the light."
and Leon
"There should be a faint image visible if the exposure was OK"

So Now I have tried boards without film and with film for the 
following times
2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30 and 1hr 10 mins.
 I get no colour change what so ever to the board.
So with this in mind I think:-
a/ The problem may be that I am using Phillips TL 8W / 08 F8 T5 /BLB 
blacklight tubes and not pcb exposure tubes (which are now back in 
stock). Maybe these tubes do not produce the uv required to expose 
the board or 
b/ the glass is stopping the uv from passing to to the board (this 
was salvaged from a
cheap photoframe)
To eliminate the possibility of the uv being stopped by the glass I
secured the film to the board, placed it in the bottom of the
exposure unit under the uv tubes and exposed for 14 mins.

Still get no image , thinking the presensitized board is faulty
allthough it looks the same as some other board I purchased from a
seperate source at a different time.

anybody use this "fotoboard 2" make before (available from maplin in 
the uk)

Getting desperate

Tbone

Attachments

Move to quarantaine

This moves the raw source file on disk only. The archive index is not changed automatically, so you still need to run a manual refresh afterward.