PCB Encapsulants to Annoy Copy Pirates

Example:

I can see the disc capacitors,resistors,jumpers and all traces.

But what an xray won't show chip functions and discrete part values.

imo ..encapsulation makes scope probing difficult.

How do you like getting products made that way?

It's: Privacy by Encapsulation vs Design Disclosure by Patent Owner.

Who's the winner going to be?

An x-ray does not mean a good analysis would result.

Use Aluminum traces and they are invisible to X-rays. Ha!

Have fun soldering or basically getting a good electrical bond on all the nodes though.

You could can it in PCB media with 100% ground plane and ad a nice thick layer of LEADED solder on it, OR little sheets of lead soldered onto it. :-)

The high temp polymer dust is not the best stuff to be breathing either. I would not recommend doing any high speed power sanding on basically anything inside your house.

It is not that kind of plastic. Use an engraving tool to gouge stripes into it and that will obscure the numbering.

If it is laser etched, it is one of the only solutions. You have to move or remove media to remove etched info.

There are not too many solvents that will attack the plastics most ICs are packaged in. The print used is pretty hardy stuff too. Usually an epoxy "ink".

It is called "Conap" and there are no substitutes, as far as NASA is concerned, and it is VERY expensive, but I am sure there are plenty of good 'turgid' other brand polyurethane encapsulants out there.

Looks like an old floppy controller card.

Unless YOU QUOTE who you are responding to, nobody will know who or what the f*ck you are talking about.

Not everyone reads or looks at there news the same way.

Relying on threaded views is retarded.

QUOTE what you are referring to. D'oh!

It says vinegar will remove resin 'that is starting to harden'....

Doesn't it shrink on curing, possibly damaging components?

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onetribe - Occult Talk Show

I used to manufacture a product that was encapsulated and nobody ever copied it. Then I stopped encapsulating, sales went up, and still nobody copied it. Why? Because it used a micro. Last time I checked it costs over $20K to read a locked micro. Also, the firmware was pretty easy - no self-respecting programmer would pay $20K for someone else's lousy object code, so they did it themselves and never got a faithful copy.

If all you're protecting is a circuit design, don't count on epoxy potting compound - it simply disintegrates under the heat and pressure of an ordinary soldering iron, allowing you to drill down wherever you need access. An x-ray would make the task almost routine.

More reasons for not encapsulating:

1) Honest dealing. Would you choose an encapsulated product over an open one if there was no actual need for encapsulation? What are the encapsulators hiding besides the functions? 2) A horrible mess. Epoxy is formulated to flow wherever it can, and it does. Especially into DIP switches, connectors, and all over your tools and work space. 3) Diagnostics and repair. How do you diagnose an encapsulated device that fails. How do you repair it? 4) Expensive and time-consuming addtional steps to manufacture. 5) Environmentally unfriendly: for you, the customer and everyone else.

-- Joe

Nearly any large atom works. The trick would be to make the masking material very nonuniform. Here's an idea for doing it:

Dip coat the board twice and let each dip dry completely.

Dip the PCB a 3rd time and then roll in random bits of metal from a machine shop.

Dip the PCB and let it dry again.

Dip the PCB and then cover with bits of scrap wire.

Pot the whole mess.

You didn't check overseas.

Hubris is a great protection mechanism, at least in the West.

Good points all.

D from BC Inscribed thus:

You could additionally use a multi layer board with ground planes top & bottom ! That could get around the Xray machine.

--
Best Regards:
                Baron.

Don't count on it.....

RL

I smell a bot.

Sorry. I didn't mean to imply vinegar removes cured epoxy.

Pitch and replace. Doh! Some products cost far more to service than to simply replace, and that includes even many that are not ever encapsulated.

Cured potting compounds pose no environmental threat (nearly all), and even when uncured they only pose a threat to the environment if you or another of your dopes gets the shit all over the place.

Use some brains.,