PCB prototyping idea

that would be a very Rube Goldberg way of doing it when you can just print a regular transparency on a normal printer

-Lasse

I **DID** 3 prototypes by photoetching with dry film resist. Even the resist becomes a bit of a cost when you are doing 6 x 12" panels. If there were flex PCB makers that would do it cheaply, that would be great. I think the best I've found is $18 for a 6 x 12" piece, so that is $0.25 per square inch. Not really bad, but this is a cost-sensitive application, and the guy behind this already let himself be conned into selling two prototypes at half of the materials cost.

Jon

On Sunday, May 29, 2016 at 3:29:01 PM UTC-7, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wro te:

A 'normal printer' transparency is not as flawless and contrast-y as an old school crepe-tape layout; I'd deduct quality points from a laser-print on t ransparency, and take off elegance points from the taped oldschool layout.

I've done laser-print onto paper, and used the paper negative (with rather long UV exposures) and (Scotchcal? Kodalith?) graphic-arts internegative. It works pretty well, and you can file the paper away for future reuse.

Postscript printers have fine-adjust on the magnification, you really NEED that kind of control if you want to try that route. I had a process camera ava ilable for one run, and sized the image by squinting at a ruler in the darkroom. Software is better.

Might be worth looking at marine & aerospace applications. They use adhesive tapes that a) are peelable initially, then when pressed hard they stick like rock b) can stick reliably to the outside of supersonic planes etc

NT