My eyesight is not as good as it used to be, and trying to see copper on khaki is very hard even at the best of times for me.
I have searched Farnell and a few others, but I cannot seem to find green or other dark coloured copper clad boards.
I realise that these may cost a bit more, especially for a hobbyist but where can these be obtain from?
I've rarely encountered coloured fibreglass substrate material, but it does exist, e.g.:
You can of course get many colours in solder mask on manufactured boards. What about if you simply tin-plate your board for better contrast? Would a lower cost CEM substrate board provide better contrast?
What's the real issue here? Being able to inspect the tracking after home etching??
Dave.
-- ================================================ Check out my Electronics Engineering Video Blog & Podcast: http://www.alternatezone.com/eevblog/
Both the inspection and soldering are the issue with fine pitch components. A FTD232RL's pins blend so well with the copper and the khaki board even under a magnifying lens.
I had a spare green PCB template board - even without the lens, I could see what I was doing.
I have read about tin-plating the board, and just as an experiment I used some solder. It made it easier to 'cement' the connection, but not to see though.
Is there a paint that I might be able to use, even if all it does is stain the board? I have a collection of Tamiya, Humbrol, Revell, and Testor enamel and acrylic paints.
No idea about staining fibreglass.
Why don't you just get properly made gold plated solder masked boards made by someone like PCBcart? Soldering is much less of a problem with the solder mask, and the gold plated pads should provide better contrast with the tinned component pins.
Dave.
-- ================================================ Check out my Electronics Engineering Video Blog & Podcast: http://www.alternatezone.com/eevblog/
:My eyesight is not as good as it used to be, and trying to see copper on :khaki is very hard even at the best of times for me. : :I have searched Farnell and a few others, but I cannot seem to find :green or other dark coloured copper clad boards. : :I realise that these may cost a bit more, especially for a hobbyist but :where can these be obtain from?
There are FR4 materials in a couple of shades of green and I have seen it in red as well. The only way you can get contrast to make it easy to see the tracks is to specify that the pcb maker colour the copper tracks. For example, back when I was specifying pcb's from various manufacturers back in the late 80's, I would often specify a light green FR4 material with the copper tracks in black oxide. This was extremely effective.
Never seen a khaki fibreglass board myself.
I had a Soltek PC mainboard that was a vey nice shade of purple ! Pity the electro's all spewed their guts....
geoff
Most of the different colours are achieved using the solder mask which may be either wet ink or dry film and is put on after the boards are etched. These can be a variety of different colours.
This was solid purple right thru. I checked it when I broke it in half ( in a fit of rage).
geoff
The OP is asking about different colours in the FR4 material itself, which is fairly rare, but available. Most likely not an option at the hobby level.
Dave.
-- ================================================ Check out my Electronics Engineering Video Blog & Podcast: http://www.alternatezone.com/eevblog/
Thank you for all the responses. Just as a test, I used heavily thinned emerald green enamel paint, and using a dish cloth wiped it across the surface.
The paint did not adhere to the copper, but it did stain the epoxy which made it easier to see where the copper was.
I then used an electric fry-pan to heat the board so I could melt some solder over the tracks. This made it very easy to see what I was doing when placing small pitch components.
? 2009?6?23???? UTC
+8??1:21:32?Wayne.???
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