Sybren A. StüvelA new PCB in the making. This one will control the lights above the kitchen counter & the coffee station. Two touch pads will connect to an ESP32, which uses two MOSFETS to dim the LED strips.
Ölbaum@sybren Is that a good technique? My local FabLab has a CNC, I’m considering trying that.
@oscherler it's fiddly, but it works. A bit of a hassle, and noisy, and it takes long, but at least it also can do the drilling of holes and cutting out the final shape of the PCB. And it doesn't require any chemicals like FeCl.
@sybren I wanted to try the toner transfer method, but I stopped when I realised I had to modify the laminator, and that printing on inkjet paper for better transfer left white dust on the printer rollers.
I was wondering if spraying a couple of layers of black paint and then removing it with a laser cutter would allow me to etch it.
@oscherler I've seen people on YouTube do that, but I haven't tried it yet. Also I'm a bit afraid of damaging the laser module when the beam reflects off the copper (once the paint is gone).
Jajcuś@oscherler @sybren I did it a few times, but eventually I consider this waste of time. It requires time, precision, takes a lot of effort (sometimes wasted material and broken bits too) and in the end you get a PCB without any soldermask or metalized holes, that is quite hard to work with.
Worth trying just play with it, though, as it is quite interesting technique.
Worth trying just play with it, though, as it is quite interesting technique.
@oscherler @jajcus I go from breadboard to PCB. Actually, I started making my own PCBs because designing & building breadboards was super annoying 😹
That's also how I switched to SMD: too annoyed that I had to drill (by hand, at the time) all those holes for through-hole components. As it turns out, SMD is a lot easier to work with than many people claim.
@sybren @oscherler I also prefer SMD over through hole. In the end soldering dozen or more 0603 resistors is lees work than the same with through hole ones (I did 0402 too). Integrated circuits, even with small pin spacing, are also not a big problem... provided the tracks are precise enough and soldermask is in place... that is why I order my PCBs in China now rather than cut them myself on CNC.
Metin SevenCool! @[email protected], you'll probably like this. 😃👍