Homebrew PCBs

damn...

just noticed the posts i wrote the last week didn't show up at all...
(at least is seems so..)
i used the wrong adress i think, you will get them all at once now..
sorry for so many messages at once...


FIRST THING:

PLEASE EVERYONE MAKING Toner Transfer LIST RESULTS IN DATABASE SECTION,
I'm going to buy another printer and need to know which ones work.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBs/database?method=reportRows&tbl=4>
thank you very much..


resolution:

Had some free space on a small pcb and decided to do some testing.
one patten consisting of lines from 8 to 3 mil,
result: 8 and 7 mil look exactly the same, 6,5,4,3 look also exactly the 
same.

another pattern: 1 mil lines with center to center spacing of 1 to 7 mil.
only 7 mil shows clearance at all(i would not rely on it without testing).
The interesting thing is the 1 mil lines have the same thickness as the 
6,5,4,3 in the
experiment above.

so that leaves me thinking the printer always outputs 6,66 mil if under 
6,66 mil.
(not 3,33 below 3,33).
But the 6,66mil looks pretty reliable, i would trust it without second 
thought (ok visual
inspection).

i had to fuse it a bit longer because of pinholes (my printer seems to have
noticed i plan to replace it and so he has decided to make no proper 
printout ever again).
This means with only standard fusing the 7 mil spacing would maybe get 
more reliable.


so you see, the 300dpi would be enough for 6.66 mil traces which is more 
than i ever
asked for. if the damn tqfp wouldn't have metric spacing or the damn 
printer wouldn't have
imperial resolution there would be no problem i guess.
As much as we europeans always complain about the mil, sometimes it is not 
that bad.

would love to hear of someone with a 600 or 1200 dpi printer doing the 
"staggered spacing"
and "staggered width" experiment and writing up what he gets. it takes 
less than a square cm
and it looks even a bit decorative..

Damn it is late already - didn't notice.. considering the last sentence 
you might have noticed
already.

ST