I used to make boards like this all the time. Its often easier just to buy a pack of paper made for the transfer purpose (such as http://www.techniks.com/) since you know it will work.
If you use ferric chloride really take heed to the part about staining clothing, seems to always end up ruining some clothing so make sure to wear crappy stuff.
There is also a problem doing them the way he has done... if you use pads that are filled (as they are there) it can be difficult to drill the holes if using through-hole components. The drill bit will walk, or just bend because its so thin... using pads with holes in the middle makes it much easier. If you have a bigger board it becomes really annoying, especially if you have ICs with a lot of pins... they wont line up well.
I didn't make PCBs by myself anymore, but to me the messiest part was dealing with ferric chloride, so I expected this article to present some ways to avoid that material... Putting the mask on the copper surface was easier part (with that regards, the article presents a cool way to do it, though).
mhb is right. This may look easy, but is actually a pain in the ass. It is fine for small circuits, like in the example. For big projects, drilling out all the vias or thru-holes is tedious. There are also registration issues and etch time issues.
There is a reason why commercially made prototype circuit boards are so popular.
about an alternative to ferric cloride, acid cupric cloride. It is easier to buy, since all you are doing is mixing 2 parts oxygenated water with 1 part muriatic acid/HCl (@33%), which can be obtained at any hardware store. It shares the same problem with Ferric Cloride: after etching, the resulting solution is hazardous and should be disposed accordingly (€€/$$).
I've done this at home just like the original article but with this other solution and after 3-4 tries got pretty good results. Good enough for some basic SMD circuits.
This is amazing, wish I would have know how to do this before I made my microcomputer board. I ordered mine from 4pcb.com, but making it yourself is pretty sweet. Whenever I do something myself, it adds a lot of extra meaning to what I did.
Wire wrap creates a huge tangle of wires that is hard to debug. With careful PCB layout, you can create circuits that operate at microwave frequencies due to the lower parasitics.
Wire wrap circuits can't operate at high frequencies. There is too much series inductance and cross-coupling.
Also, chips are increasingly moving towards surface mount only packaging.
By the way, where are you getting your wire wrap supplies? I didn't know they still made wire wrap guns. I don't know anyone who has used one in the last 15 years.
True Story: My first experience in making PCB's didn't go so well.
I was in junior high and just started getting into electronics because I was obsessed with the dream of creating my own car-audio amps (think Kicker, JBL, etc). Note I was way to young for even a driver's license but that didn't stop me from planning out for when I was old enough to roll (aka Weird Al - White & Nerdy)
Anyway, I created my first PCB in autocad and took it out into the garage for etching...
"Hmmm I needed something to pour the etching acid into... Something that I could throw away when I'm done... Ah! This pie tin will work out nicely!"
So I took the pie tin and placed it on the surface of my Dad's table saw and then placed my unetched PCB in the tin. Then next step of course was to pour the acid in the tin......
$%^&!!!!!
The acid reacted violently with the metal of the tin and within seconds the bottom of the tin was completed digested by the acid which then proceeded to flow out of the tin, onto the table saw, and then all over the garage floor.
To this day, the table saw still has a rusty look to it and there is a nice brown stain in the concrete.
Tom Gootee's article is worth reading. He did a lot of the heavy lifting summarized in this article.
I've tried this and it works -- but...
You must be very, very careful with the solution -- whether it's Ferric Chloride from Radio Shack or a muriatic/peroxide homebrew. Gootee's article and others show how to create safe 'bubblers' for this step. Look at these first.
Please be careful. You are entering 'Breaking Bad' territory here.
Beautiful article - just in time for me to prototype my graduation project.
Personally, I prefer the extremely time-consuming method of building the very first prototype on a perfboard w/ wire-wrap; just because it gives me the flexibility of changing connections then-and-there as I attempt to get a working design and only then convert to PCB.
Unless your ironing technique is exceedingly thorough and your boards perfectly smooth, you will get pitted/broken traces. I found that the more traditional photographic method is just as quick, and the supplies cost approximately the same.
how important are thru-holes? my friends and i are making a cheap desktop circuitboard miller. it mills away the copper with a blade rather than etching.
it can do both sides of the board in series, but no thru-holes. is this something anyone would be interested in?
[+] [-] ejs|17 years ago|reply
If you use ferric chloride really take heed to the part about staining clothing, seems to always end up ruining some clothing so make sure to wear crappy stuff.
There is also a problem doing them the way he has done... if you use pads that are filled (as they are there) it can be difficult to drill the holes if using through-hole components. The drill bit will walk, or just bend because its so thin... using pads with holes in the middle makes it much easier. If you have a bigger board it becomes really annoying, especially if you have ICs with a lot of pins... they wont line up well.
[+] [-] ph0rque|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shiro|17 years ago|reply
I didn't make PCBs by myself anymore, but to me the messiest part was dealing with ferric chloride, so I expected this article to present some ways to avoid that material... Putting the mask on the copper surface was easier part (with that regards, the article presents a cool way to do it, though).
[+] [-] mhb|17 years ago|reply
Other people have also been happy with http://www.expresspcb.com/ which offers free layout software.
[+] [-] blackguardx|17 years ago|reply
There is a reason why commercially made prototype circuit boards are so popular.
[+] [-] zaius|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fsilva|17 years ago|reply
about an alternative to ferric cloride, acid cupric cloride. It is easier to buy, since all you are doing is mixing 2 parts oxygenated water with 1 part muriatic acid/HCl (@33%), which can be obtained at any hardware store. It shares the same problem with Ferric Cloride: after etching, the resulting solution is hazardous and should be disposed accordingly (€€/$$).
I've done this at home just like the original article but with this other solution and after 3-4 tries got pretty good results. Good enough for some basic SMD circuits.
[+] [-] sokoloff|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] waratuman|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wyday|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blackguardx|17 years ago|reply
Wire wrap circuits can't operate at high frequencies. There is too much series inductance and cross-coupling.
Also, chips are increasingly moving towards surface mount only packaging.
By the way, where are you getting your wire wrap supplies? I didn't know they still made wire wrap guns. I don't know anyone who has used one in the last 15 years.
[+] [-] proee|17 years ago|reply
I was in junior high and just started getting into electronics because I was obsessed with the dream of creating my own car-audio amps (think Kicker, JBL, etc). Note I was way to young for even a driver's license but that didn't stop me from planning out for when I was old enough to roll (aka Weird Al - White & Nerdy)
Anyway, I created my first PCB in autocad and took it out into the garage for etching...
"Hmmm I needed something to pour the etching acid into... Something that I could throw away when I'm done... Ah! This pie tin will work out nicely!"
So I took the pie tin and placed it on the surface of my Dad's table saw and then placed my unetched PCB in the tin. Then next step of course was to pour the acid in the tin......
$%^&!!!!!
The acid reacted violently with the metal of the tin and within seconds the bottom of the tin was completed digested by the acid which then proceeded to flow out of the tin, onto the table saw, and then all over the garage floor.
To this day, the table saw still has a rusty look to it and there is a nice brown stain in the concrete.
My career as a "EE" was founded on pure genius!
[+] [-] apstuff|17 years ago|reply
I've tried this and it works -- but...
You must be very, very careful with the solution -- whether it's Ferric Chloride from Radio Shack or a muriatic/peroxide homebrew. Gootee's article and others show how to create safe 'bubblers' for this step. Look at these first.
Please be careful. You are entering 'Breaking Bad' territory here.
[+] [-] mucachino|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ph0rque|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ComputerGuru|17 years ago|reply
Personally, I prefer the extremely time-consuming method of building the very first prototype on a perfboard w/ wire-wrap; just because it gives me the flexibility of changing connections then-and-there as I attempt to get a working design and only then convert to PCB.
[+] [-] asciilifeform|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Steve0|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dfox|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] diN0bot|17 years ago|reply
it can do both sides of the board in series, but no thru-holes. is this something anyone would be interested in?
[+] [-] Alex3917|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] erlanger|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattchew|17 years ago|reply