How to turn green PCBs from green to black

Aug 09, 2018 49 Replies

We have 92 PCBs that have been made for us and they used green solder mask. We need black.



The board is 233 x 353 mm. Each board has 216 SMD LEDs.



Unfortunately, we had a miscommunication with our supplier in there somewhere and we have no documentation to back up our verbal instructions. We have properly chastised ourselves for this oversight by probably eating the cost.



Any ideas?



TIA, JohnS


Glasses with red lenses?

Cheers

Clive

Ask them how much to add a black solder mask on top along with the silkscreen again? I suppose your boards are already de-panelized? I don't know if they can easily handle separate boards rather than full panels.

Rick C.

Are they assembled?

Stick-on overlay? Mask and spray? Paint with tiny brushes?

PCB fab drawings have to be complete, or bad things happen. And there are really no standards for fab notes.

We say

  1. Solder mask, color BLUE

  1. Silkscreen parts side, color YELLOW

with those colors in a big font.

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc picosecond timing precision measurement jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com http://www.highlandtechnology.com

Stuff them and then spray Krylon #1602. Pity about the light transmission, but you can't have everything. ;)

Actually that might work if you peel the paint off the LEDs with sticky tape.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com

dye? Not with salt of course.

NT

YES, I used black permanent marker But the peeseebee was only small..

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D D would love it, job creation. Maybe you could put the pen in an xy plotter.

Provided the markers are not made in China that is.

Hmm if you could push the leds (on the pcb) down onto some 'release stuff' (Some sort of wax that comes off with water... I don't know.) Then paint with black Krylon, then release the 'wax' on top of the leds.

How much are you eating for each pcb?

George H.

Cook it at 200C for a few hours/days? :^)

Tim

-- Seven Transistor Labs, LLC Electrical Engineering Consultation and Design Website:

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Yes

I don't know. Can you elaborate on the processes for each?

I know. We have not yet learned what info was lost on this job.

$7000/92 or about $76 per board.

I have no idea how to do that. Thanks.

Got it! I'll get started on it now. Thanks!

torsdag den 9. august 2018 kl. 19.24.55 UTC+2 skrev John S:

can you show a picture of the board?

I don't know how. I can print a pdf of the board from eagle, but I don't think I can attach it to the message. I do not have an account with one of those image posting sites. Sorry.

you don't need and account on imgur (unless you want to delete it again), just drag and drop and copy the link

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If the boards are not assembled you could get use regular silk screen process to fix this. Depending on the size of the boards you may be able to do this in house or at a screening shop. I've had some success playing with the laser printed screens:

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One of many suppliers:

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If they are assembled then perhaps some sort of stamp? One with 216 holes...

John :-#)#

My regrets, John, for leaving out that crucial info. The boards are assembled.

Depending on how close the LEDs are together, can you perhaps get a piece of opaque vinyl produced, laser cut, that will fit over the LEDs?

If you want to post a picture with dimensions folks may have better suggestions...tape over any proprietary stuff of course!

John :-#)#

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