making circuit boards

In order to fulfill part of the manufacutring requirement, Kyle and I constructed circuit boards to house the circuitry for the H-Bridge and sensors required to control two motors with arduino (discussed below).


The circuitry diagram (left) was completed as vector lines by kyle, and printed out on glossy card stock. The original instructions suggested photo paper, but the print shop where we got this printed didn't have the capabilities to lazer print on photo paper.
Lazer printing on the glossy paper lives a slight ridge to the ink. This is transferred to the copper substrate with an iron. The iron makes the ink stick to the surface.
The plate is then soaked in hot water, until the excess paper comes away. This required some delicate coercion with a paint brush. It's important to be gentle with the boards, and not to rub of the ink when peeling away paper.

This is a photo of the board taken after the transfer had been made from the paper. At the top, some of the circuitry lines had come off with the paper, making for an incomplete circuit. To fix this, a permanent marker can redraw the lines before the board in placed in the chemical bath.

The board soaks, slowly removing the remaining exposed copper. The copper that has been covered remains, and the circuitry is complete.

Labels: technical work

posted by chelsea @ 8:55 AM