>Etching you own Circuit Boards
Out of frustration and a great deal of curiosity, I decided to etch my own PCBs. Why? Because it makes things easy. When you are fiddling around with wire, soldering irons and ICs, having a path to follow, places for solder to flow and a solid base make all the difference. I really hate vero board as it globs everywhere. Solderless breadboard is ok for temporary stuff and when you have good wire that stays put. But in the end, using a proper PCB is the best.
This is part of my spy-cam time lapse experiment and the solar powered router build. I've decided to build boards to mount these components safely as both need to be rugged and in the case of the former, keeping everything in place and not bumping around is very important.
To etch PCBs you need:
A Design Printed on overhead transparencies times 2
Positive photo sensitive board
Developer Liquid
Etching Liquid
Two Pyrex Dishes (or plastic tubs you dont really need!)
Gloves
Tin Snips
UV Light
Agitation!
The first step is to get a design together. You can download your own or use the excellent EAGLE program. Using EAGLE is a tutorial in itself but its a great program. You should print off two such copies of your design, one of them backwards. Place them back to back so that any missing spots due to the printer are averaged out.
Once this is done, line them up over your board. Developing board means exposing it to light, specifically UV. I used a proper developing box but other light bulbs (possibly a 'natural light' blub) work quite well. The PCB board I used takes around 8 minutes to develop. Dont worry about taking the wrapper off in normal light, but don't be slow with it either.
Once this is done, place in the developer. This only takes around 3-5 minutes or so. Rinse off the board and prepare the etching liquid. This stuff is EVIL and will STAIN ANYTHING! Be careful and make sure you have gloves on. Etching a board takes around 45 minutes. During this time you'll need to agitate the board. This means sloshing it around. Some people do this for the first 5 minutes. If you have a friend who is quite inventive, you can build something to rock your pyrex.
This is an arduino powering a servo which rocks a little seesaw. Genius!
Once this process is finished, you should have a set of boards ready to be cut. I tried dremels and saws but the best by far is the set of what appear to be tin-snips in the picture. They worked perfectly with the board I used.
Many thinks to Solexious at the London Hackspace for all his help. The London Hackspace has an excellent guide with links to the resources you need. Also, there is a great video here on youtube that I used as a reference.
I must admit, making your own boards is a great idea and it's the way forward for me from now on.
