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Pen-Plot Track as Continuous Line?? Protel 99SE

Pen-Plot Track as Continuous Line?? Protel 99SE

I'm trying to plot on copper to make circuit boards. I need 8 mil lines to a TQFP-64-1010. Yes, I know it's a stretch, but it's almost working...

Protel outputs Gerber. I translate the Gerber to run the plotter.

If line segments are plotted individually, there are distortions where segments meet and the pen picks up partially dried ink that makes subsequent lines wider.

I'm thinking I could solve most of this by plotting each track in one continuous line. By messing with the layers, I can separate tracks from pads and plot groups separately in sequence with different pens.

The thing that's missing is connecting the line segments. Selecting vector and optimization in the cam menu doesn't do it. I could sort the gerber and connect the segments, but that's a major undertaking.

Is there a simpler way to do this? I'd hate to go to all this effort and find out all I needed was to check a box or download an existing utility.

Again, Instead of line segments plotted out of order, I want the whole track to be plotted without lifting the pen.

Thanks, mike

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Reply to
mike
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Why bother to read the original posting? Well, we do that so we can make relevant input.

I'm plotting on copper. Most laser printers won't print on conductive material. Most can't handle tiny squares of .062" circuit board material. And yes, $10 is EXTREMELY bad news.

But thanks for the input. mike

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Reply to
mike

The Pulsonix software I use will output HPGL.

Leon

Reply to
Leon Heller

i my self have a X,Y,Z plotter table that i designed a spray head for that will project blue dye at very small sizes using a controlled dc Motor for jet and retract, its connected to a mini barrow with has a very small drill bit used as a screw pump which forces that through a jet hole on the end cap. the Z position of the table when set up starts will go down until it makes contact with the board which has a ground connection on it, then it retracts aprox 0.005. from there on, current sensing is used to maintain distance and acknowledgment of the blue dye making contact with the surface when it its requires to spray depending on the foil cad print. small amounts of voltage is used that conducts via the ink stream. the set distance current point is remembered in case different batches of dye causes current changes. this system works vary well, and i can say that other than now and then the jets plugging up (which i have firm wire in the interface that allows me to correct on the fly) its a good way to place the image on the surface how ever, its not that fast! // THe second alternative that i use and works well enough for simple things including double sided is a Laser printer on Photo paper. you simply print at darkness level, iron. then wash paper off. actually, paper can be used but it a little harder to remove due to fibers hanging out.

Reply to
Jamie

I don't have a problem with the format. It's the order that the trace segments come out that's the issue. I'm using Protel, not Pulsonix. Thanks, mike

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Reply to
mike

Way cool!!! Can you put some numbers on the spray head technique? How small is small? I'm trying to plot 8mil tracks on 20 mil centers. Got any pictures and more detail on construction of the spray head? I already have the xyz.

Tell me more about the laser printer on photo paper. I can't seem to get the clay coating off the board. The traces look ok, the paper comes off, but the clay coating stays stuck in the tiny spaces between tracks. I'm using the Staples Picture Paper that's touted on the web as the best for this kind of thing. Tried other stuff with lesser success.

Been experimenting with electrostatic toner transfer. Bunch of that currently in discussion at

formatting link

Thanks, mike

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Return address is VALID.
500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 $2200
http://nm7u.tripod.com/homepage/te.html
Wanted, 12.1" LCD for Gateway Solo 5300. Samsung LT121SU-121
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
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Reply to
mike

I hate to bring you bad news... but it'll cost you less than $10 to take it down to a professional printer and have them print it on a nice 1200 dpi laser printer so why bother ???

Simon

Reply to
Simon Peacock

That usually works. The problem with this layout is that if I try to make the pen thickness smaller than 10 mil I get a Big fat line where 16 TQFP pads used to be on two sides of the chip. Other two sides are fine???

I thought it was going to be conceptually trivial. Just scan the gerber and sort into groups of "draw" points. Then go find start and end points that match up. Resequence the groups removing the extraneous "moves". This makes the assumption that the cad program does indeed match points at the beginning and ends of line segments making up a track. I'm not at all sure that's a valid assumption. I'm getting line breaks at some corners when I plot with a 0.2mm pen. If it just gets close and expects the aperture width to make it connect, the problem gets more complex.

I'm both dyslexic and feeble minded. Would take me weeks to get all the bugs out ;-(

The cad program knows how the segments of the track connect. That's the right place to fix it.

Eagle has some interesting tools to get inside the database and do anything you want. I didn't give it a fair test, but I was initially unimipressed with the autorouter in Eagle.

Sure would be nice to have a tool that did every step of the process well...and was free!!!!

mike

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Return address is VALID.
500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 $2200
http://nm7u.tripod.com/homepage/te.html
Wanted, 12.1" LCD for Gateway Solo 5300. Samsung LT121SU-121
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/
Reply to
mike

Hi, I would also like to have an answer to your question. What does help, is to misrepresent the pen thickness, say 1mil thinner than it actually is, so the plotter have to go over the track twice. Non-contact spray inkjet technology would be nice, but would probably cost too much. I have not come across any DIY or kit type of method for this. On the other hand, I have not looked into the Gerber output as yet, perhaps it would not be too much to write a program to order the Gerber output as you would like. Can you post some examples of how the original and the re-arranged compare? Which files must be scanned and re-arranged? Examples please. Do far I have used Tango DOS, but is going over to Protel 99. Regards Johan Smit

Reply to
Johan Smit

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