How to make a PCB for my minature - inkjet ?

Archiver

They UV expose boards, Resist Pen mark boards, route boards, why
don't they (we) inkjet directly onto boards?

I can buy a cake with a picture on it that was inkjetted
onto the frosting. So it seems that someone should
make a way to print directly from an inkjet onto a
board and skip all the fussing around.


Dave




--- In basicstamps@egroups.com, nags <nags@c...> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm at a point where I'd like to make PCB for my minature robot.
Presently,
> it has three 1" x 1" Radio Shack general purpose PCBs stacked one
above the
> other using some spacers. I have 30 day trial version of the
Protel's s/w. I
> guess my question is many fold:
>
> 1. How to tell Protel the dimensions of my board
> 2. After done drawing, how do I go about making the pcb -
with
> steps involved.
>
> I know most of you guys have a lot of experience doing PCB stuff -
if you
> can throw some light and point me to some text (or web site)
explaining the
> process, that'll be really great!!!
>
> Thanks in advance
> nagi

Archiver

At 10/3/2000 +0000 03:07 AM, you wrote:
>They UV expose boards, Resist Pen mark boards, route boards, why
>don't they (we) inkjet directly onto boards?
>
>I can buy a cake with a picture on it that was inkjetted
>onto the frosting. So it seems that someone should
>make a way to print directly from an inkjet onto a
>board and skip all the fussing around.

Essentially, that's what a plotter could do.

A printer (per se) is a bit out of the question, due to the media routing
within the
unit. An x-y plotter is what they use to make vinyl signs, and they are
certainly images. Wheter the resolution is there, is probably a measure of
the accuracy and resolution of the steppers & the software; the spray
pattern would need to be optimized for whatever fluids are sprayed. As a
practical matter, it's probaby too expensive, UNLESS you had an old plotter
to HACK.


>Just my 2 cents.



>Dave
>
>
>
>
>--- In basicstamps@egroups.com, nags <nags@c...> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm at a point where I'd like to make PCB for my minature robot.
>Presently,
> > it has three 1" x 1" Radio Shack general purpose PCBs stacked one
>above the
> > other using some spacers. I have 30 day trial version of the
>Protel's s/w. I
> > guess my question is many fold:
> >
> > 1. How to tell Protel the dimensions of my board
> > 2. After done drawing, how do I go about making the pcb -
> with
> > steps involved.
> >
> > I know most of you guys have a lot of experience doing PCB stuff -
>if you
> > can throw some light and point me to some text (or web site)
>explaining the
> > process, that'll be really great!!!
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> > nagi

Archiver

Dave, they do, or at least they can, but very few of us can afford the
equipment, and a PCB just doesn't bend very well thru a regular ink jet :-)

In fact, they can make ink jet printers for almost any application but the
custom guys cost a LOT of money. I have worked in the CNC field for large
industrial woodworking machinery for the past 16 years and we even ink jet
bar code and/or just about any other info the customer might want directly
onto the wood product.

Randy A

Archiver

As a matter of fact I have heard of some guys taking old plotters and turning
them into resist printers for PCB. However, there is no ink spray as they
use pens and you have to "customize" the pens or pen holders so you can put
in a Sharpie or something like that to draw the patterns. Doing very thin
traces would be a problem for sure, but not so much due to the precision of
the plotter, which is usually very wgood, but because when you "draw" with
the pin you don't get all that thick of a resist coating.

I have a HP 1120C series Pro ink jet printer which can also be used as a
plotter but alas, it too must roll the paper around some rollers etc. to
print, even the 12" x 18" sheets or the 11" x 17" ones.

It would be perfect if not for the paper feed problem.

Randy