DIY PCBers - New Project - New Experiments

idbruce

Several years have passed and I still have not put my PCB Drilling CNC together. Always too many irons in the fire and too many ideas. As mentioned in a couple of other threads, I have several PCBs to make and now I am wishing I had that machine already built. Oh well, I guess I will have to do it the hard way and drill them without a CNC, but that does not mean that I have to strain my eyes or drill inaccurate holes.

I came across an interesting article some time ago and bookmarked it for future reference. In that article, a gentlemen purchased a USB microscope and used this microscope to set up an alignment device for accurately drilling through holes in PCBs. Without going into detail about his article, I will simply provide a link, so that you may see what he actually did. That article is here: http://www.turtlesarehere.com/html/pcb_drill.html

After reviewing his article for probably the fourth time, I decided to try some experiments, with an old webcam I had laying around. I believe it is a Logitech Webcam Express. Initially I became discouraged, because it was not turning out well for me. In fact, I almost gave up on the webcam and was getting ready to purchase a USB microscope. Considering I found the experiments with the webcam quite interesting, I decided to give it another try, and what do you know, I was getting better results. So I tried a little more of this and that, and I kept making advances. Finally this evening, I was able to achieve a highly magnified and crystal clear image of my PCB holes. In fact, my resolution is better than the pic he provides in his article. You can only imagine my delight.

I must admit that I do not have the cross hair yet, but it won't be long now. I wanted to make sure everything was working properly, before I started assembly procedures. When it is all done, I think it will be a pretty sweet setup.

__red__

idbruce wrote: »

After reviewing his article for probably the fourth time, I decided to try some experiments, with an old webcam I had laying around. I believe it is a Logitech Webcam Express. Initially I became discouraged, because it was not turning out well for me. In fact, I almost gave up on the webcam and was getting ready to purchase a USB microscope. Considering I found the experiments with the webcam quite interesting, I decided to give it another try, and what do you know, I was getting better results. So I tried a little more of this and that, and I kept making advances. Finally this evening, I was able to achieve a highly magnified and crystal clear image of my PCB holes. In fact, my resolution is better than the pic he provides in his article. You can only imagine my delight.

I must admit that I do not have the cross hair yet, but it won't be long now. I wanted to make sure everything was working properly, before I started assembly procedures. When it is all done, I think it will be a pretty sweet setup.

There's probably enough in common with your current project and mine that me dropping a random screen-shot may be relevant:

I'll warn you, it's serious addictive to watch video-streams of microscopes panning across PCBs :-)

I'm trying to get all the processing and control in the browser because it is my intent to attempt to move the robotic control and webserver onto a propeller.

A web-controlled propeller-based Pick and Place machine. Now y'all know why I was paying so much attention to the propeller based 3D printer thread :-)



Red

Gadgetman

I remeber a PCB drill I used once.

It was a taable-top model with the drill mounted 'upside down' in a box, the PCB was mounted in a moving frame on top, and above that was a Plastic lens with crosshairs.

You moved the PCB until the hole was centered in the crosshairs, then stepped on a pedal, and the drill would rise up and make a hole exactly where you wanted it.

You just had to make certain the drill bit was seated correctly, or it would rise too high and possibly damage the lens...
(There was a gap of about 1mm between the PCB and the lens.)

Leon

I used a large professional free-standing PCB drilling machine once that used the same technique. I was offered it for nothing when it was scrapped, but transporting it would have been expensive and difficult - it was made of cast iron and was very large and heavy.

idbruce

Leon

I used a large professional free-standing PCB drilling machine once that used the same technique. I was offered it for nothing when it was scrapped, but transporting it would have been expensive and difficult - it was made of cast iron and was very large and heavy.

That is a shame that it was so bulky and heavy, because it would have been a nice tool to have.

idbruce

I now have the main component pretty close to being dialed in, however I need to reduce my standoff height to allow more light to hit the board. Here is the output so far.

EDIT: I added another pic to show how brightness and contrast affects the outcome.