Homebrew PCBs

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 10:55:52 -0000, iulian_dbc <iulian_dbc@...>  
wrote:

>
>
>> I thik your price would find some buyers, but i would have to think
> a lot
>> about it because i'm always short on money.
> OK i understand your point.  i will work out a model of paying in
> small monthly fees around 10-50 USD is this ok?

No, i don't believe in that, or debt for that matter.
Either i can afford it, or can't. If i can't i must either wait until i  
have the money or not buy it.

> For the more skilled most probably i will set up a web site with
> detailes about construction of the device.
>

Of course i'd love to see that.

>> What i wonder is how well it really works, considering the trouble
> we had
>> when trying.
> When you said that there is a company already doing soldermask
> printing i searched the web and i found several companies doing
> soldermask,uv resist and component legend printing so it is achievable.
>

Bt too hard without the industrial backing we didn't have.


>> I expect you can only disclose limited amount of information, just
> say if
>> you can't tell, i understand.
>>
>> What sort of printhead do you use? piezo or thermo? commercial
> product?
>> Industrial or consumer?
>>

> Actually you can do it yourself. The idea came from some devices used
> in industrial enviorements. I saw some devices like that and i think
> they can be adapted to our needs. I saw several thesis about printing
> onto special materials like glass and metal.
> so the printhead will probably be piezo. Therm cannot work due to the
> fact that the ink vaporization is a critical problem and the ink
> viscosity is high. Being a solvent based ink the thermal is out of the
> question.
>

I see, we had considered those printheads but none seemed cheap enough  
back then, not knowing if it would work.

>> What sort of ink do you use? solvent based / water based? UV cure?
> other?
>>
>> What colors can you print? Can you supply the ink / at what cost? Is
> the
>> ink resistant against chemicals?

> when the tests will start i will put the pictures along with the ink
> composition onto the web site. So anybody who want's to use the print
> head to be able to make his/her own ink. Of course i can supply the
> ink if this is what you want...
>

I guess surely some would buy ink. If it works with consumer-level piezo  
heads (like in epson printers) i'd certainly buy some.

>> Do you have trouble with clogged nozzles? Can we see results?

> Clogged nozzles are still a concern. I am trying to figure out a way
> of stopping solvent evaporation and deposit in print head. For the
> long term idle states like changing boards and overnight shutdown i
> pulled up a way of cleaning the print head by replacing the working
> ink with a cleaning fluid. So if you have long term idle states the
> print head wil sense that and automatically will replace the ink with
> the cleaning fluid. This of course will give some delay in startup but
>  i think that you can live with that.

That was suggested back then, yes. maybe even something simple as a wet  
sponge could prevent short-term clogging and clean the head.

>
>> How many nozzes does your printhead have? What resolution?
> well ... the tubing for the nozzled did not arrived yet so i dont know
> what resolution i can achieve and this is highly depending on ink.
> will keep you posted. i am building now the site and the device as we
> speak so please be patient.

Ok, please let s know when things change.

ST