Homebrew PCBs

I'm taking pictures of every step of the Pulsar process and taking notes on
problems that pop up along the way.  So far, I think the Pulsar technique is
the most accurate for the money.  Yes, it is a bit tedious the 1st time
through.  I printed the checklist and followed it step by step.

The 1st time, I made it all the way to the silk screen process regardless of
errors.  I figured I better run through all steps to learn as much off one
bad board.  My silkscreen was 'weak', the transfer was uneven, my etching
was just a tad off, problems with the laminator.

The 2nd time (in progress) looks extremely promising.  I'm not quite as fast
as they are, I have wife, kids, guests, lawnmowing, tree-trimming, real life
things to deal with.  :)  So I do a step here and there during the day, but
I spend a lot of 'thinking' time on this run, trying to avoid any potential
problem.  I trying to say I'm lazy and slow without actually saying it.  :D

So far I've avoided every previous problem, but I've encountered a new one.
I'm documenting everything with pics and notes and I'll upload a HTML later.
The Pulsar is probably a tad expensive if you plan on making small
production runs, but for one-off prototyping and small runs, it's excellent.

The 3rd test will be trying to reproduce the kinds of results they
advertise; fine traces.  Of course they are experts at their technique, it's
normal for them to have perfect results.  They even have a comment that
their process is not 'perfect every time', but I think it can be made darn
quite close with some attention to detail.

One thing I had not considered was the toner, I'm using a Konica/Minolta
PagePro 1350W laser.  The green foil is not adhering 'perfectly'.  At first
I thought it was the heating process, but I just realized it might be the
toner quality.  I have a HP LaserJet 2100 ready for test #3, I have yet
heard any negative results with HP toner.

Robert
:)


-----Message d'origine-----
De : Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com] De
la part de hjf2k2
Envoyé : juillet 24 2005 17:18
À : Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Objet : [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Experimental method


Hey everyone. I posted the pictures as promised. Here they are:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBs/files/PhotoEtching/

It's a RAR file with the pictures. Sadly the board came out seriously bad,
as it seems that I "underdeveloped" it, that is, didn't clean it out
properly :(, but you can see that even in that case there are pretty good
results.




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