I would watch Clive solder 128 connections, because he would start telling stories that end with things like "and the transformer explosion lifted the lorrie 3 feet into the air; quite exciting!" and then he would take a sip of ginger beer and rum.
The stories that accompany these videos are one of the best parts of the channel. Although I sometimes solder in the region of 128 connections and find it tedious towards the end, it's quite therapeutic watching someone else doing it.
Funnily enough I have the exact same iron, which has been used for all sorts of stuff, but it's never ever seen an item of clothing other than to iron on transfers. I call mine 'Burny' :)
We own an iron, I think my wife is under the impression it's an ornament though. Occasionally I use it for dealing with transfers etc... Life's too short to iron clothes.
This is what I keep attempting to tell my better half, I think the message is slowly getting home although she does still iron school uniform which is sort of acceptable IMO. Good to know there is a valid and genuine use for the iron though after all...
_To anyone interested in etching their own boards:_ By no means am I the expert here,... but I've experimented a lot over the last year. The biggest thing that helped me with my photoresist setup was someone that recommended I try "Dupont Riston 215" photoresist film. The film itself is nice but not substantially different from the cheap Chinese stuff (as long as it's fresh film). The big difference for me was the datasheet. There is an actual datasheet available online with detailed specs for developing film. Of course these specifications pertain to industrial standard equipment and environments. However they are excellent as a general ballpark guide. The datasheet also mentioned things like the "Stouffer 21 Step Guide." This sent me on a search that resulted in the creation of my own transparency for testing exposure times with fine resolution traces. The trick is to setup a board with the test pattern and cover it with a sheet of light blocking paper or, like I use, cardboard. This cover is removed a little bit at a time periodically. How fast this is done depends on the power of your exposure source. As an example, in the Southern California sun between ~11am to ~3pm my ideal exposure time is just under 3 seconds for photoresist (5 seconds for Dupont Dynamask dry film solder mask). A weaker light source will take longer. When I was establishing how long to expose my photoresist I moved the exposure cover every .5 seconds for 10 steps across the board. I had these steps marked on the transparency too. Once I'm done I recover everything and develop the resist film. If you have a super fine resolution design on your test transparency with difficult to resolve details you'll quickly see exactly how long to expose your film. IIRC Dupont Riston 215 film is specified for a maximum resolution of ~200nm. That's smaller than any hobbyist design will ever be. This requires industrial equipment to achieve anyways. However, during the test I managed to resolve a hair and dust if that gives you an idea of the possibilities. This test revealed I was over exposing my photoresist and also adding too much developer to my solution in order to compensate for the exposure. Using the datasheet I came up with a development solution ratio of 3.9g of sodium carbonate to 1000mL of distilled water. The trick is to get the water up to a temperature that is about as warm as you can comfortably put your hands in. With this combo my film develops in well under 1 minute and inside of the datasheet specification. The datasheet also has a fairly tight tolerance spec for how hot to heat the film. I found I was overheating my film too. After seeing the temperature spec, I used a thermocouple with my DMM to dial in the temperature of my iron. I used a travel iron (bc no steam holes) before I got an Amazon basics laminator. I marked the temperature on the dial of the iron. This fixed lots of my problems too. Also, I switched to cleaning with 00 fine steel wool. That helped a bit. However, the big improvement to my prep was someone mentioning white powdered dishwasher detergent. The protective coating chemical used for preventing copper clad's oxidation is hydrophobic (causes water to bead). This must be completely removed. Only when water sheets off completely evenly is the board clean. White powdered dishwasher detergent will achieve this. Last thing I'll mention, I sprayed water on my boards to apply film and still do for smaller boards. I ruined a bunch of film doing this on my first few projects larger than 10cmX10cm (1st was actually 210mmX180mm). My solution was to submerge the entire board in water and apply the film under water first, placing the film and getting it started while submerged. Then I remove and squeegee the rest of the water. With my larger boards and sprayed water I had all kinds of trouble with alignment and wrinkles ruining film. GL. I hope this helps someone like my past self :-) -Jake
My own recent experiments have involved cleaning the PCB with dish soap and a green scouring pad. I then place the PCB under a slow running tap and glide the film under the flow and onto the PCB before squeegeeing out the water. To set it I used water that had just boiled so it was as hot as possible without risking making the trapped humidity steam and cause blisters in the film. I've been using 1g sodium carbonate per 50ml warm water.
@@user-gx6jb6wc5g Thanks, I came looking for the upload where you talked about the pcb holder you have. I was telling someone else about it and realized I hadn't saved the reference. ...then got sidetracked and watched this one again for the inkjet silkscreen transparency paper. My laser printer's toner deposition rate with transparencies is my biggest challenge to overcome right now. I have to basically use a marker over everything but the very edge of the toner print to get perfect results. I've tried stuff like doubling up the print Mr Carlson style but I can barely get 1 sheet perfectly butted up to the board. Two is just a terrible idea in my attempts. I still haven't built a good exposure light box setup I like, but here in SoCal we have about a month of cloudy days between late May and early June. This got me trying a toner transfer and a suggestion someone mentioned to me about a month ago. I tried using inkjet photopaper with my laser printer. I tried some I already had, one glossy HP branded and one old semi-gloss Kodak branded. The HP stuff basically glued itself to my board. It took a stainless steel scrubber to remove, -not so great. The Kodak stuff was a lighter weight paper. It still stuck to the board worse than any other papers I've tried, (except the HP). However, both of these inkjet photopapers picked up more laser toner than anything else I've seen, and by a long shot too. I printed them on my "transparency" print setting as this has the maximum toner on my old Brother printer. Anyways I soaked the kodak paper in water for about an hour just to see if I could get the paper off. It didn't seem to help. I ended up trying a pink block type pencil eraser to remove the last layer of paper, and that actually did the job quite well, no damage either. I was just making a little LCD breakout board. This toner transfer is the best results I've ever seen from a transfer. I've tried various papers from news print, to glossy mags, to old books, and even Avery label backing sheets, nothing compares to this inkjet photopaper. I went back and thanked the guy that suggested it. He mentioned trying even lighter weight papers if I can find them. He also said to wet the board prior to ironing the transfer. I was shocked at the quality from this setup. I mean I've done a few dozen transfers so far and this was well beyond my expectations. The LCD flat flex was a 14pin 0.5mm pitch. I thought I was really pushing it to try to add the breakout header pinout between my traces in 4pt/1.5mm positive text. I've done this with photoresist and negative text but not positive and this small. They came out perfect with the transfer. I even manually tinned the whole board without problems lifting the text. For anything small I'll probably use this technique from now on if I keep getting these results. I also heated some old ferric chloride for the first etch above room temp with it. I was hoping I could still use it instead of making another batch of hydrochloric acid mix. The last time I used it at room temp the board took 45 minutes to etch and thats with my microwave turntable agitator setup too. With heat the board was done in under 5 minutes. I just used an old 1970's electric casserole warmer thingy I got from the local junk store for $1. It doesn't even have a temperature setting...or switch. Heck it barely gets warm, but it makes a giant difference for the etch time. I was about to retire this mix as it's around 3-4 years old and is well used...or so I thought. Anyways, if you ever have the inclination to try a toner transfer again, try inkjet photo paper in a laser printer I highly recommend it :-)
Love watching these step-by-step's, Clive. Don't care that you've showed your process before. I'm always on board for more like this. Please don't stop yourself from doing these project build-a-longs if you start to think they're repetitive. They are a favorite of mine.
I have become much more confident in my soldering since I started watching some bearded Scottish git to it so masterfully. Because if you gotta ape someone, ape someone with a bear- er, ape someone who knows what they're doing. So thank you Clive, without you I wouldn't have a desk fan now.
What a nice, chatty "electronics enthusiast"! I loved how he patiently (and lovingly) rubbed and twiddled the pcb in clearly under-strength developer for around 6 times longer than I would have waited for. I've added this vid to my likes so that I can watch it on my 'off' days and be re-inspired by Clive's patience. Thank you Clive!
After a lot of frustration, what made the difference for me was making the mask really opaque, when you print on a foil and hold it in front of a light, you can see that the black ink or toner is still quite transparent and you'll expose everything a little bit. I printed two layers of toner on the same sheet and that made it black as night. After that I didn't have to rub anything, the unexposed stuff came clean off in less than a minute.
@@Kalumbatsch Excellent observation! What I usually do, is print two adjacent masks on the same trasparency. I then cut one of them out and place it over the other. I am careful to align the tracks so that the two masks exactly coincide. I then sellotape the edges of the top mask to keep it in position. In this way I overcome the problem of see-through solid areas. I find this easier than overprinting on the same transparency. Overprinting often misaligns the first and second prints, at least it does on my Samsung laser printer.
You can bake bicarb in the oven at 100 C for a while to make sodium carbonate. It reverts back after a while as it absorbs water from the air. Also happens to your store bought carbonate, so store it airtight. Good video. I've also used that printing film. VERY expensive stuff, but it works well on a pigment based inkjet - not for dye based inks.
When I was in training for electronics back in the 90's we used PCB that had the photo sensitive coating already on it with a black protective peel away. That stuff was a bluish green but only changed colour very very faintly to a yellowish colour when exposed to the UV unit. It was quite posh I believe they were clinical tubes in a briefcase style housing, looking almost like a flatbed scanner. You locked down the lid, set the timer and waited lol. I have no idea what the developing solution was but the developer, etching and wash chemicals were in a 3 stage bath thing with lidded baskets where you moved your boards from one bath to the next. I remember the etching bath had that same horrid yellow black chemical with a heater and bubble blower built in it. I miss those days, you always remind me of the things I miss in electronics. The experiments, the explosions, the fun times and the headaches when things just wont work lol :D
I drill my holes with a very similar hand tool built from a small DC brushed motor fitted with a pin chuck. It's wired with a foot switch to start and stop the motor. When you let your foot off the switch the motor armature is also shorted, the back emf instantly stops the motor. This allows you to position the drill in the dimple hole of the next pad with the motor stopped reducing the chance of breaking the drill bit.
Just for info, sodium bicarbonate decomposes into sodium carbonate, water and CO2 at 200C. A bit of time in the oven, and your very ordinary baking soda magically becomes your very special developer.
@@cmotdibbler4454 At 200 F it would take an hour or so from what I'm reading. At 200 C it's 15mins. I don't think our normal food ovens get hot enough to cause a problem for sodium bicarbonate. It melts at 3000 C so prolly keep it less than that I reckon ;)
??? I've never known one not to even back in the old school days using manually placed tape on clear film. It drills so much easier and faster without the need to worry about breaking drill bits. Drilling through copper just wears out the bits faster for no reason.
There's a lot we all don't know. For example, copper sure doesn't wear out tungsten carbide bits. Fiberglass, otoh, is fairly bit-abrasive. Copper 3 vs. glass 5.5: geology.com/minerals/mohs-hardness-scale.shtml
In the mechatronics lab we made PCBs using an amped up awards laser engraver that could do two sides, but mainly used for single sides. Applied a varnish over the copper, and the laser burned off everything but the trace. Then flip the board and it could drill the holes and burn in other designs. Those were the days.
Your solution with that special transparent sheet seems better than glueing two sheets together, lol. Also, when people use laminators they are usually modded for a higher temperature.
Cheers! I can always count on The Big Clive video archive to have what I need. Plus lots of good experience based information that you don't get from the manufacturers!
Seeing this makes me want to see you build a sort of "firecracker string" Out of components like LEDs, capacitors, and the like. Basically, one pops, which causes the next to fail then the next and so on. Dramatically of course!
You can convert sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate quite easily in the oven. Just heat it to above 70 degrees Celsius for an hour or so and you'll be fine (yes, I do metric (and so should everyone!)) This process will convert the bicarbonate to carbonate, CO2 and water. The time it takes will depend on the volume you make and the thickness of it. I learned this trick from a sausage maker in Norway.
Well explained as usual. There seem to be a lot of videos on RUclips explaining how to etch homemade pcbs but not so many great videos about how to apply a solder mask to homemade pcbs.
I've been trying to find a reliable detailed way to etch brass plaque and name tags for a solid 2 months now. Cant believe I found all the information I needed from a pcb etching video from a channel I've been subscribed to for over 2 years. Goes to show you'll find it when your not looking.
honestly first time i watched from first second to the last one. Normally i watch 50% and listen 50% while working. Like the way you showed a whole process from etching to soldering to explaining and showing. good video clive!
When I did this I printed the layout with a b/w laser on paper and shone the UW through the paper direct to the photoresist. Skipping the transparency. Toner side to the resist made for super sharp contours!
Just a tip, *you can easily turn Sodium Bicarbonate into Sodium Carbonate* by putting it in the oven at a fairly low temperature. Slightly above the boiling point of water works great, so 105°C (220°F) for an hour will do the trick. Technically the decomposition reaction occurs above 50°C, but it's faster the hotter it is, but you don't want it TOO hot, as there are diminishing returns above about 100°C and you might cause unwanted side reactions. The high temp causes the NaHCO3 *(Sodium Bicarbonate)* to decompose to produce Na2CO3 *(Sodium Carbonate),* H2O (Water, which evaporates) and CO (Carbon Monoxide, which is a gas.) The full reaction is: *_2NaHCO3 > NaCO3 + H2O + CO_* So if you've only got Sodium Bicarbonate, don't fret!
I used Shipley AZ111liquid pos photresist for years, the developer was the same sodium carbonate but it also contained a surfacant (detergent) to help out the development process. I would experiment adding a little laundry detergent to your sodium carbonate solution and see how that works. I started with the ferric chloride, but switched to ammonium persulfate because it was supplied dry and did not stain like the ferric chloride and was less caustic. The down side is that it needs to be heated to work. Also used the muriatic acid -- hydrogen peroxide etchant which works quite nicely. To strip the resist -- acetone, or strong Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) solution. But now I get the boards built by JLC PCB in China, can't buy the blank boards for the price JLC charges
My sister, who's a dentist, has an x-ray development box - very simple and, I think, not expensive. It's made or a red acrylic and has holes with sleeves for the hands. I think Clive should try before buying the box because after seeing the pimball machine video I noticed the dude is really - I mean really really - big.
For beginners and more experienced users ... EasyEDA is: 1. multiplatform (Linux, Windoze or MAC) 2. Online OR local 3. Can do schematic to PCB 4. Can do PCB direct 5. Has multiple output options 6. VERY easy to use and learn, especially for anyone with any previous board design experience 7. 100% FREE 8. No time limit on use 9. No restriction on board size (unlike some free offerings) 10. Double OR single sided. 11. Produces separate layers for: - top & bottom circuit for layout - top & bottom silk screen layout 12. SMD &/or Through Hole components. Many other useful features As someone who (DECADES ago!) used to design boards using ChartPak adhesive tapes, dots, outlines etc on. 4x size sheet (20 cm X 10cm board = 80 cm X 40cm) using EasyEDA instead is an absolute doddle! Highly recommended. And if you don't like it ... Ditch it ... It costs NOTHING after all!
Great video mate, I searched for a video about using dry film photoresist, I knew that when I saw your name the video would provide all the answers I knew I wanted and others that I didn't know I wanted :) Just wanted to add that incase you don't know, if all you have is sodium bicarbonate but you want sodium carbonate. Preheat your oven to 200C and bake the bicarb for 15 mins. At temperatures above 80C, sodium bicarbonate breaks down to sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Since it's in a hot oven, after 15min all you have left is sodium carbonate. BTW, I'm not a chemist. I heard this ages ago and just googled it, gave you this info from a scientific amercan chemistry project for kids called "Vanishing Baking Soda".
Actually LEDS work more efficiently when switched at a hi frequency than a DC voltage. It is also much brighter, The driving voltage threshold is almost enough to destroy the LED, if it isn't switched off in time.
Humble suggestions: 1) Please go thru the steps of printing the negative transparency, exposing the UV on camera. You seem to spend of lot of time on washing off the resist and etching. Could have spent some of that time on covering all the other steps...thanks for the video. Look forward to more :)
Where "baking soda" is sodium bicarbonate, "washing soda" is sodium carbonate AKA soda ash. cheap easy access from the supermarket, at least in the states. Thanks for all your great videos Clive!
I also like to paint the PCB with some rosin/acetone mixture before soldering. It evaporates quickly, makes soldering really easy and protects copper from oxidizing over time.
I usually put my board so it floats on top of the etchant but I do have a proper water tank thingy that allows you to see how its etching I stand mine above the radiator to warm it up I have also used my iron to apply transfers veneers soften hot melt glued cardboard boxes even cooked some baked beans ! I have yet to iron a shirt with it !
If you make a saturated solution of sodium carbonate and pour in spent ferric chloride it reacts to produce sodium chloride (salt) and an insoluble iron carbonate. Over time the precipitate combines with oxygen to form red iron oxide aka rouge or rust. The clear salty water goes down the sink and the solid stuff is safe to put in the bin, or make thermite with it.
I suppose there's quite a lot of copper, in with the iron (because 2FeCl3 + Cu => 2FeCl2 + CuCl2) , but that might even be an advantage for thermite :-)
Cllive: Look... still has the old tag on, never even drilled it. Dadygee: [points his finger] You've never drilled...? Clive: Don't touch it! Dadygee: We'll I wasn't going to touch it, I was just pointing at it. Clive: Well... don't point! It can't be drilled. Dadygee: Don't point, okay. Can I look at it? Clive: No. no. That's it, you've seen enough of that one.
Did you use glossy magazine pages as it is recommended with the toner transfer method? If I remember correctly the paper is glossy because it has got a layer of ceramic material. "For decades, glossy paper, the type used in magazines, was made using a white clay called kaolin (named after the Chinese region Kao-Ling where it was mined to produce porcelain). The clay is used to fill the spaces between the fibers in the paper and to coat the paper so that it will have a smooth surface. This makes the paper more suitable for the reproduction of photographs, especially color photos."
I tried glossy photo paper and magazine paper. Both had issues with desired toner coming off when trying to wash away the paper/clay residue in detailed areas.
you can also use hydrogen peroxide, salt, and an acid (vinegar works but a more concentrated acid will work faster), which will form a cupric chloride etch, just add copper
I don't know if it is a big thing, but when I did my last etches years ago, I just put a sticky tape to the back of the PCB, and carefully laid it to the ferrite chloride. It floated on the top of it, and had nice etch, while every possible residue just went down to the bottom of the container, and with the sticky tape I was able to get it out with clear hands. Have to check for bubbles though :)
How about making a series where you explain how to make cool electronic gadgets from scratch in a way that's understandable for people with no formal electronic or electrical education? Such series would also explain where to order components online, what to look for so you won't get screwed over by bad sellers and so on. I think such thing would rock and you'd be very good at it, this video proves enough that you have a knack for teaching and it would bring many new viewers to tge channel.
9:00 It's pretty easy to make Sodium Carbonate from Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda). Simply heat it on a stove or flame with a suitable pan. It will appear to boil as the extra Carbon Dioxide escapes. Leaving Sodium Carbonate.
Have you tried building one of the 8 by 8 LED cubes yet? I know they're old hat now, but they are mesmerizing to see them go through their light sequences. With your advanced knowledge, maybe a 16 by 16 or 32 by 32 is an adventurous possibility.
The cubes are built in layers. The biggest challenge of LED cubes is actually coming up with a way to hold the damn LEDs in place while soldering them into a layer, ie. making your own jig. From there, it becomes trivial to just repeat the process of bending leads, arranging the LEDs, and soldering. One method that works rather well with 2/3/4 LEDs is an array of breadboards (just the middle pieces without the power rails) where you plug in bits of header pins (as this guy did: emalliab.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/icstation-4x4x4-led-cube-shield-for-arduino-hardware-build/). Others just poke the (round) LEDs through cardboard or drilled plywood, bending the legs a bit differently. It's really no wizardry. Enjoy!
Worse comes to worst, you can always chemically alter sodium bicarbonate by baking it for a couple of hours in a normal kitchen oven, turning it into sodium carbonate.
When cutting LED leads, I cut them wonky so that the positive is still the longer. I can very rarely tell where the flat but is as I find it indistinct.
bloody hell! now i need to buy a clothes iron as well! i have already pinched my mums soda crystals, plastic trays, and washing up gloves, but i think she would miss her Iron.
Thanks for the vid, Clive...and thanks for doing it in real time. The kit I got came with a packet of "Developer" powder and another packet of "Release Agent" powder. Sadly with only Chinese labeling (which I translated) I presume the release agent is to remove the resist after etching. My intent is to use the UV 3d printer for exposure. Wish me luck...
I understand this is an old video so there's a chance no one will read this but if you don't have access to a laser printer or fancy printing surfaces, you can use normal paper and put cooking oil on it and then lay normal paper on it. This makes the paper translucent enough you can cure the film under it with the uv light.
I've read that heating sodium bicarbonate will give you sodium carbonate. The byproducts are carbon dioxide and water, so if that's correct, this is safe to do in your home oven.
Depends on the box. Is it a metric box or an imperial one? Troy or Avoirdupois? Long box or short box? Is it biscuit bicarb or cake bicarb? Is it a vegan box? Does it come with batteries? Does it work under water?
And also for etching add citric acid,i bought powder on ebay,this will act as a de-smut and will speed up the etching process ,this concoction is know as "EDINBURGH ETCHANT". It works well compared to plain ferric chloride. I was etching brass facia plates for tube amps and the brass was taking ages with the copper-zinc alloy a lot of gunk was on the surface of the metal and constant cleaning with a plastic brush was needed,the citric acid did the job.
I'm obviously 4 years late to the party, but ... when exposed properly, the parts of the photosensitive film that are not supposed to receive ANY light (i.e., your inkjet black geometries) will easily wash completely off. No need to endlessly rub with a gloved finger. What your situation shows is that SOME light is getting through the dark areas (no surprise there), causing the photosensitive film to partially gel, needing to be scrubbed a bit to remove the slight residual film. This means that you are exposing your film too long. Back off on your exposure time. In the process, it should also result a crisper image. There is also such a thing as too LITTLE light hitting the board (for instance, 5 seconds of exposure time). The goal is to find the sweet spot between too little and too much exposure time for your given printer and exposure light. I think you are currently running on the "too much exposure time" side of the equation.
I think the resistor in series with the input voltage is needed because at start the capacitor is a short circuit. If you had bad luck and plugs it when the voltage is on it's maximum value, you could blow the LEDs.
I'm suddenly wondering if a laser cutter could do the etching and "drilling" for circuit boards. Something like the Glowforge can etch materials as well as cut them, so maybe it could be adjusted to vaporize the copper instead of using etch as well as cutting the holes in the fibreglass.
For your problem with direct toner transfer it sounds to me that you used the wrong paper to print on . Reichelt catalog paper is great for that, because it has a fine closed glossy surface and thin paper (toner sits on top), but the fibres take on soapwater very nice and loosen. If you dont get off all paper fibres just throw em into the acid with the rest, doesnt matter 😅
Somewhere I think I have a minicraft jigsaw, almost identical to that little drill. Same black plastic, same on off switch. Also from RME about 1000 yers ago. I'll need to dig around and see if I can find it.
May I ask why you went with the full name Big Clive Dot Com? it's not something that can be skimmed by robots, so I'm slightly confused why keep the dot.
After using the Ferric Chloride, Place a peace of IRON into it. Large Bolt or peace of plate works fine . All the depleted copper will be attracted to the iron and replenish your Ferric Chloride for further uses. You can reuse the same solution many many times doing it that way.
"Washing soda" isn't hard to get, but in a pinch one can dissolve baking soda in water and heat it to boiling and the sodium bicarbonate will decompose to sodium carbonate, or washing soda. I'll leave it to my fellow Big Clive watchers to work out the stoichiometric yield from a given amount of baking soda.
Thank you Clive! Appreciate the reply!! Is there a particular brand of resist you use? I am trying to use the process to etch my knife blades, so obviously I can't use a laminator either!
Trying to get the hang of this method. I used to use the pre-sensitised boards from Maplin years ago, but this method is much cheaper. For the exposure I have tried a 200W incandescent bulb, with the bulb about 10cm from the board an exposure time of 15 mins seems about right. I also have an eprom eraser I am thinking of trying, but i think the incandescent lamp may be a more 'gentle' way to expose the board and less time critical. I have an 11W UV CFL bulb but this seems inferior. My laser printer doesn't do too well with transparencies as the toner doesnt stick properly, leaving poor opacity and a smeary 'trail' down the page. Tracing paper seems ok, but one other method worthy of further investigation is to use ordinary paper with a few drops of baby oil soaked in. The oil makes the paper transparent and the oil helps it to stick to the board. Developing seems the tricky part for me, it all looks well until the last remnants of photo resist remain on the board, then I get tracks peeling off all of a sudden. After 3 days of trying to perfect this method, I have made some progress but am still not quite happy with the results. Another idea I have is to apply toner reactive film to the transparency/tracing paper, this stuff is supposed to stick only to the toner so should increase the opacity of the artwork, it is available cheaply and is intended for making your own greetings cards, etc. I got the idea watching a video where someone used 'trf' film along with the toner transfer method of DIY PCB production.
Hmmm. Shame All Electronics doesn't have a UK/Scottish branch...they have board-etchig stuff pretty cheap. And I know the acid they sell is in dry form--I don't know if you have the same hazardous shipping issues with dry rather than liquid acid.
The laminator isn't supposed to help you apply the photoresist -- you're to use it afterwards to fuse the thing onto the PCB. Supposedly, it's simpler than using an iron but I don't have one. The technique that works for me personally is not to peel the protective film all the way, but to remove it gradually as you apply the material onto the board, flattening it with a squeegee or something similar as you go. The wet method is fine too, of course, and I believe this is how they apply coloured film onto cars and other large objects.
Hahaha, "hexaloadawater"! Also, this is correct: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate#Thermal_decomposition - Then again, the washing soda crystals product is perfect already.
Allegedly you can make a homebrew PCB etchant made from white vinegar and table salt. I've made my own using hydrochloric acid (aka muriatic acid, sold as concrete cleaner or a swimming pool chemical) which works a treat, and is a beautiful shade of green! But the vinegar + salt mix seems usable and the materials ought to be readily available.
Hi! If you can't find any sodium carbonate, you can also use sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner. Careful, very caustic!) or buy some sodium bicarbonate (baking powder!) and heat it in a pan for 20 minutes. This turns the bicarb into normal sodium carbonate. As for etching with ferric chloride... try cupric chloride CuCl2 instead. You can make it yourself from copper, muriatic acid (HCl)(sold as concrete cleaner at home depot) and a little time. It can be re-used pretty much indefinitely. If it gets too discolored, add a tiny bit more muriatic acid (HCl) and simply let it stand for some time.
Hey Clive some tips you might find useful: - for drilling holes larger than 0.7mm in pcb I use tungsten spear tip bits because those are much less prone to breaking than the spiral drill bits and self center really nicely. (havent found any smaller than 0.8 though :( -That Nurdrage tip also works for regenerating used ferric cloride if you can get hydrochloric/muriatic acid. If you can't get the acid there is a workaround using "PH Minus" from pool supplies in combination with table salt and some tupperware.
Another easy way to get Sodium Carbonate is to put Bi-Carbonated Soda in the oven at about 200 degrees C for about an hour. It decomposes to Sodium Carbonate.
I use a cheapo laminator after doing the water trick and it works fairly well. The only issue is I cant seem to find a good transparency that works well but doesn't cost $1/sheet and produces dark enough results
That's pretty cool, it's a very similar process to how I develop normal colour negative film. For film we agitate quite strongly, you really can put a lot more force on it if you want a very clean dissolving. Cool video, going to try this myself.
Thanks Clive... The kit of chemicals I bought from some hapless dealer on Ebay sent 3 unmarked packages. I have no idea what two are :-) By process of comparison I have managed to figure out the developer. The tiny packages don't really permit much in the way of experimentation.
I use the glass from an old photocopier as it seems to be quartz glass, the kind that lets UV light pass through, old copiers seem to use UV light more so than modern ones, not sure why. It's also a pretty thick and heavy glass so it really flattens the transfer sheet on.
The wavelength of UV that is used for exposure (UVA) can pass through ordinary glass. It's the shorter wavelength UVC (the dangerous wavelength) that needs quartz glass.
Ah, yes, that's the type of UV I have, I really should go and buy a less dangerous one, but I use it for sterilising things too. That reminds me, want me to see if I can make that regenerating etchent for you? It would be illegal to ship it but I doubt custom woulds check it from Ireland to the Isle of Man, maybe send it as a coke or something.
I would watch Clive solder 128 connections, because he would start telling stories that end with things like "and the transformer explosion lifted the lorrie 3 feet into the air; quite exciting!" and then he would take a sip of ginger beer and rum.
That sounds like Clive :-)
Exactly how I thought as well
The stories that accompany these videos are one of the best parts of the channel. Although I sometimes solder in the region of 128 connections and find it tedious towards the end, it's quite therapeutic watching someone else doing it.
It sometimes reminds me of The Fast Show. "And I was very, very... very drunk."
Fully agree! BG's stories are one of many reasons I love his vids.
6:55 "I certainly don't use it on my clothing."
Words of a genuine bachelor.
Iron, tupperware, rubber gloves and a sponge. This episode had them all.
Funnily enough I have the exact same iron, which has been used for all sorts of stuff, but it's never ever seen an item of clothing other than to iron on transfers. I call mine 'Burny' :)
Took me a moment to identify the device. Might be good for grilled cheese sandwiches.
We own an iron, I think my wife is under the impression it's an ornament though. Occasionally I use it for dealing with transfers etc... Life's too short to iron clothes.
This is what I keep attempting to tell my better half, I think the message is slowly getting home although she does still iron school uniform which is sort of acceptable IMO. Good to know there is a valid and genuine use for the iron though after all...
_To anyone interested in etching their own boards:_
By no means am I the expert here,... but I've experimented a lot over the last year. The biggest thing that helped me with my photoresist setup was someone that recommended I try "Dupont Riston 215" photoresist film. The film itself is nice but not substantially different from the cheap Chinese stuff (as long as it's fresh film). The big difference for me was the datasheet. There is an actual datasheet available online with detailed specs for developing film. Of course these specifications pertain to industrial standard equipment and environments. However they are excellent as a general ballpark guide. The datasheet also mentioned things like the "Stouffer 21 Step Guide." This sent me on a search that resulted in the creation of my own transparency for testing exposure times with fine resolution traces. The trick is to setup a board with the test pattern and cover it with a sheet of light blocking paper or, like I use, cardboard. This cover is removed a little bit at a time periodically. How fast this is done depends on the power of your exposure source. As an example, in the Southern California sun between ~11am to ~3pm my ideal exposure time is just under 3 seconds for photoresist (5 seconds for Dupont Dynamask dry film solder mask). A weaker light source will take longer. When I was establishing how long to expose my photoresist I moved the exposure cover every .5 seconds for 10 steps across the board. I had these steps marked on the transparency too. Once I'm done I recover everything and develop the resist film. If you have a super fine resolution design on your test transparency with difficult to resolve details you'll quickly see exactly how long to expose your film. IIRC Dupont Riston 215 film is specified for a maximum resolution of ~200nm. That's smaller than any hobbyist design will ever be. This requires industrial equipment to achieve anyways. However, during the test I managed to resolve a hair and dust if that gives you an idea of the possibilities. This test revealed I was over exposing my photoresist and also adding too much developer to my solution in order to compensate for the exposure. Using the datasheet I came up with a development solution ratio of 3.9g of sodium carbonate to 1000mL of distilled water. The trick is to get the water up to a temperature that is about as warm as you can comfortably put your hands in. With this combo my film develops in well under 1 minute and inside of the datasheet specification.
The datasheet also has a fairly tight tolerance spec for how hot to heat the film. I found I was overheating my film too. After seeing the temperature spec, I used a thermocouple with my DMM to dial in the temperature of my iron. I used a travel iron (bc no steam holes) before I got an Amazon basics laminator. I marked the temperature on the dial of the iron. This fixed lots of my problems too.
Also, I switched to cleaning with 00 fine steel wool. That helped a bit. However, the big improvement to my prep was someone mentioning white powdered dishwasher detergent. The protective coating chemical used for preventing copper clad's oxidation is hydrophobic (causes water to bead). This must be completely removed. Only when water sheets off completely evenly is the board clean. White powdered dishwasher detergent will achieve this.
Last thing I'll mention, I sprayed water on my boards to apply film and still do for smaller boards. I ruined a bunch of film doing this on my first few projects larger than 10cmX10cm (1st was actually 210mmX180mm). My solution was to submerge the entire board in water and apply the film under water first, placing the film and getting it started while submerged. Then I remove and squeegee the rest of the water. With my larger boards and sprayed water I had all kinds of trouble with alignment and wrinkles ruining film.
GL. I hope this helps someone like my past self :-)
-Jake
My own recent experiments have involved cleaning the PCB with dish soap and a green scouring pad. I then place the PCB under a slow running tap and glide the film under the flow and onto the PCB before squeegeeing out the water. To set it I used water that had just boiled so it was as hot as possible without risking making the trapped humidity steam and cause blisters in the film. I've been using 1g sodium carbonate per 50ml warm water.
@@user-gx6jb6wc5g
Thanks, I came looking for the upload where you talked about the pcb holder you have. I was telling someone else about it and realized I hadn't saved the reference. ...then got sidetracked and watched this one again for the inkjet silkscreen transparency paper.
My laser printer's toner deposition rate with transparencies is my biggest challenge to overcome right now. I have to basically use a marker over everything but the very edge of the toner print to get perfect results. I've tried stuff like doubling up the print Mr Carlson style but I can barely get 1 sheet perfectly butted up to the board. Two is just a terrible idea in my attempts.
I still haven't built a good exposure light box setup I like, but here in SoCal we have about a month of cloudy days between late May and early June. This got me trying a toner transfer and a suggestion someone mentioned to me about a month ago. I tried using inkjet photopaper with my laser printer. I tried some I already had, one glossy HP branded and one old semi-gloss Kodak branded. The HP stuff basically glued itself to my board. It took a stainless steel scrubber to remove, -not so great. The Kodak stuff was a lighter weight paper. It still stuck to the board worse than any other papers I've tried, (except the HP). However, both of these inkjet photopapers picked up more laser toner than anything else I've seen, and by a long shot too. I printed them on my "transparency" print setting as this has the maximum toner on my old Brother printer. Anyways I soaked the kodak paper in water for about an hour just to see if I could get the paper off. It didn't seem to help. I ended up trying a pink block type pencil eraser to remove the last layer of paper, and that actually did the job quite well, no damage either.
I was just making a little LCD breakout board. This toner transfer is the best results I've ever seen from a transfer. I've tried various papers from news print, to glossy mags, to old books, and even Avery label backing sheets, nothing compares to this inkjet photopaper. I went back and thanked the guy that suggested it. He mentioned trying even lighter weight papers if I can find them. He also said to wet the board prior to ironing the transfer.
I was shocked at the quality from this setup. I mean I've done a few dozen transfers so far and this was well beyond my expectations. The LCD flat flex was a 14pin 0.5mm pitch. I thought I was really pushing it to try to add the breakout header pinout between my traces in 4pt/1.5mm positive text. I've done this with photoresist and negative text but not positive and this small. They came out perfect with the transfer. I even manually tinned the whole board without problems lifting the text.
For anything small I'll probably use this technique from now on if I keep getting these results.
I also heated some old ferric chloride for the first etch above room temp with it. I was hoping I could still use it instead of making another batch of hydrochloric acid mix. The last time I used it at room temp the board took 45 minutes to etch and thats with my microwave turntable agitator setup too. With heat the board was done in under 5 minutes. I just used an old 1970's electric casserole warmer thingy I got from the local junk store for $1. It doesn't even have a temperature setting...or switch. Heck it barely gets warm, but it makes a giant difference for the etch time. I was about to retire this mix as it's around 3-4 years old and is well used...or so I thought.
Anyways, if you ever have the inclination to try a toner transfer again, try inkjet photo paper in a laser printer I highly recommend it :-)
Love watching these step-by-step's, Clive. Don't care that you've showed your process before.
I'm always on board for more like this. Please don't stop yourself from doing these project build-a-longs if you start to think they're repetitive. They are a favorite of mine.
Clive, we can watch you solder 1200 connections, as long as you speak while you do it, it'll never get boring!
I can't say it enough I dig these projects.
I have become much more confident in my soldering since I started watching some bearded Scottish git to it so masterfully. Because if you gotta ape someone, ape someone with a bear- er, ape someone who knows what they're doing.
So thank you Clive, without you I wouldn't have a desk fan now.
What a nice, chatty "electronics enthusiast"! I loved how he patiently (and lovingly) rubbed and twiddled the pcb in clearly under-strength developer for around 6 times longer than I would have waited for. I've added this vid to my likes so that I can watch it on my 'off' days and be re-inspired by Clive's patience. Thank you Clive!
I'd rather it developed slower than do the "everything disappears" thing.
After a lot of frustration, what made the difference for me was making the mask really opaque, when you print on a foil and hold it in front of a light, you can see that the black ink or toner is still quite transparent and you'll expose everything a little bit. I printed two layers of toner on the same sheet and that made it black as night. After that I didn't have to rub anything, the unexposed stuff came clean off in less than a minute.
@@Kalumbatsch Excellent observation! What I usually do, is print two adjacent masks on the same trasparency. I then cut one of them out and place it over the other. I am careful to align the tracks so that the two masks exactly coincide. I then sellotape the edges of the top mask to keep it in position. In this way I overcome the problem of see-through solid areas. I find this easier than overprinting on the same transparency. Overprinting often misaligns the first and second prints, at least it does on my Samsung laser printer.
You could just skip ahead but you won't because Clive's rich, calming brogue has lulled your cat to sleep on your lap.
You can bake bicarb in the oven at 100 C for a while to make sodium carbonate. It reverts back after a while as it absorbs water from the air. Also happens to your store bought carbonate, so store it airtight. Good video. I've also used that printing film. VERY expensive stuff, but it works well on a pigment based inkjet - not for dye based inks.
That was excellent. I enjoyed seeing the entire process, start-to-finish. Great job -- thanks!
Indeed! Really excellent! The best I've seen around. One note: drawing by hand is the really time consuming process!
When I was in training for electronics back in the 90's we used PCB that had the photo sensitive coating already on it with a black protective peel away. That stuff was a bluish green but only changed colour very very faintly to a yellowish colour when exposed to the UV unit. It was quite posh I believe they were clinical tubes in a briefcase style housing, looking almost like a flatbed scanner. You locked down the lid, set the timer and waited lol. I have no idea what the developing solution was but the developer, etching and wash chemicals were in a 3 stage bath thing with lidded baskets where you moved your boards from one bath to the next. I remember the etching bath had that same horrid yellow black chemical with a heater and bubble blower built in it. I miss those days, you always remind me of the things I miss in electronics. The experiments, the explosions, the fun times and the headaches when things just wont work lol :D
I drill my holes with a very similar hand tool built from a small DC brushed motor fitted with a pin chuck. It's wired with a foot switch to start and stop the motor. When you let your foot off the switch the motor armature is also shorted, the back emf instantly stops the motor. This allows you to position the drill in the dimple hole of the next pad with the motor stopped reducing the chance of breaking the drill bit.
Just for info, sodium bicarbonate decomposes into sodium carbonate, water and CO2 at 200C. A bit of time in the oven, and your very ordinary baking soda magically becomes your very special developer.
You are too hot it's 200 F (~93.3C)
CMOT Dibbler ok
@@cmotdibbler4454 At 200 F it would take an hour or so from what I'm reading. At 200 C it's 15mins. I don't think our normal food ovens get hot enough to cause a problem for sodium bicarbonate. It melts at 3000 C so prolly keep it less than that I reckon ;)
Leaving voids in the middles of the pads to help center the drill bit is really clever.
??? I've never known one not to even back in the old school days using manually placed tape on clear film. It drills so much easier and faster without the need to worry about breaking drill bits. Drilling through copper just wears out the bits faster for no reason.
Interesting.I don't design circuits. I'm just a fan, so there's a lot I don't know.
There's a lot we all don't know. For example, copper sure doesn't wear out tungsten carbide bits. Fiberglass, otoh, is fairly bit-abrasive.
Copper 3 vs. glass 5.5: geology.com/minerals/mohs-hardness-scale.shtml
As I understand it, those bits he's using are on their second tour of duty anyway.
Didn't volunteer, tho ;-)
Actually sort of want to watch Clive run through 128 solder joints.
In the mechatronics lab we made PCBs using an amped up awards laser engraver that could do two sides, but mainly used for single sides. Applied a varnish over the copper, and the laser burned off everything but the trace. Then flip the board and it could drill the holes and burn in other designs. Those were the days.
Your solution with that special transparent sheet seems better than glueing two sheets together, lol.
Also, when people use laminators they are usually modded for a higher temperature.
Cheers! I can always count on The Big Clive video archive to have what I need. Plus lots of good experience based information that you don't get from the manufacturers!
Seeing this makes me want to see you build a sort of "firecracker string" Out of components like LEDs, capacitors, and the like. Basically, one pops, which causes the next to fail then the next and so on. Dramatically of course!
This looks like the ideal thing for a therapy room in a hospital or whatever, those colour changing LEDs are hypnotic.
You can convert sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate quite easily in the oven. Just heat it to above 70 degrees Celsius for an hour or so and you'll be fine (yes, I do metric (and so should everyone!))
This process will convert the bicarbonate to carbonate, CO2 and water. The time it takes will depend on the volume you make and the thickness of it. I learned this trick from a sausage maker in Norway.
Well explained as usual. There seem to be a lot of videos on RUclips explaining how to etch homemade pcbs but not so many great videos about how to apply a solder mask to homemade pcbs.
This was very interesting. The whole process was cool to watch. Circuits are quite beautiful in their own way.
ASKARIwest You might enjoy scanlime's channel, especially where she assembles Boldport kits. Or assembles BC's LED tree, even :-)
I might very well "borrow" this. Love the slow colour changing LEDs.
Lovely enjoyable video, thank you very much!
I like the board having multiple holes to fit different dropper cap sizes! Simple and clever!
I've been trying to find a reliable detailed way to etch brass plaque and name tags for a solid 2 months now. Cant believe I found all the information I needed from a pcb etching video from a channel I've been subscribed to for over 2 years. Goes to show you'll find it when your not looking.
Also check out electroetching which is well suited to surface etching of plaques.
@@user-gx6jb6wc5g Thanks for the reply and the tip! Love the videos you and AvE are top two.
honestly first time i watched from first second to the last one. Normally i watch 50% and listen 50% while working. Like the way you showed a whole process from etching to soldering to explaining and showing.
good video clive!
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda is Sodium Carbonate. We use it a lot for removing rust via electrolysis in restoration projects.
Would Borax work?
Go on... You know you want to short out half of the panel to bring that current up...
I do. Maybe nudge it down to a 6 by 6 array.
When I did this I printed the layout with a b/w laser on paper and shone the UW through the paper direct to the photoresist. Skipping the transparency. Toner side to the resist made for super sharp contours!
Just a tip, *you can easily turn Sodium Bicarbonate into Sodium Carbonate* by putting it in the oven at a fairly low temperature. Slightly above the boiling point of water works great, so 105°C (220°F) for an hour will do the trick.
Technically the decomposition reaction occurs above 50°C, but it's faster the hotter it is, but you don't want it TOO hot, as there are diminishing returns above about 100°C and you might cause unwanted side reactions.
The high temp causes the NaHCO3 *(Sodium Bicarbonate)* to decompose to produce Na2CO3 *(Sodium Carbonate),* H2O (Water, which evaporates) and CO (Carbon Monoxide, which is a gas.)
The full reaction is:
*_2NaHCO3 > NaCO3 + H2O + CO_*
So if you've only got Sodium Bicarbonate, don't fret!
I used Shipley AZ111liquid pos photresist for years, the developer was the same sodium carbonate but it also contained a surfacant (detergent) to help out the development process. I would experiment adding a little laundry detergent to your sodium carbonate solution and see how that works. I started with the ferric chloride, but switched to ammonium persulfate because it was supplied dry and did not stain like the ferric chloride and was less caustic. The down side is that it needs to be heated to work. Also used the muriatic acid -- hydrogen peroxide etchant which works quite nicely. To strip the resist -- acetone, or strong Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) solution. But now I get the boards built by JLC PCB in China, can't buy the blank boards for the price JLC charges
My sister, who's a dentist, has an x-ray development box - very simple and, I think, not expensive. It's made or a red acrylic and has holes with sleeves for the hands. I think Clive should try before buying the box because after seeing the pimball machine video I noticed the dude is really - I mean really really - big.
For beginners and more experienced users ...
EasyEDA is:
1. multiplatform (Linux, Windoze or MAC)
2. Online OR local
3. Can do schematic to PCB
4. Can do PCB direct
5. Has multiple output options
6. VERY easy to use and learn, especially for anyone with any previous board design experience
7. 100% FREE
8. No time limit on use
9. No restriction on board size (unlike some free offerings)
10. Double OR single sided.
11. Produces separate layers for:
- top & bottom circuit for layout
- top & bottom silk screen layout
12. SMD &/or Through Hole components.
Many other useful features
As someone who (DECADES ago!) used to design boards using ChartPak adhesive tapes, dots, outlines etc on. 4x size sheet (20 cm X 10cm board = 80 cm X 40cm) using EasyEDA instead is an absolute doddle!
Highly recommended. And if you don't like it ... Ditch it ... It costs NOTHING after all!
"Corrosive vapours," and "acceptable," in the same sentence. Classic Clive.
Great video mate, I searched for a video about using dry film photoresist, I knew that when I saw your name the video would provide all the answers I knew I wanted and others that I didn't know I wanted :)
Just wanted to add that incase you don't know, if all you have is sodium bicarbonate but you want sodium carbonate. Preheat your oven to 200C and bake the bicarb for 15 mins. At temperatures above 80C, sodium bicarbonate breaks down to sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2).
Since it's in a hot oven, after 15min all you have left is sodium carbonate. BTW, I'm not a chemist. I heard this ages ago and just googled it, gave you this info from a scientific amercan chemistry project for kids called "Vanishing Baking Soda".
At some point I discovered that sodium carbonate was sold in big packs in the laundry aisle of the local supermarket.
Actually LEDS work more efficiently when switched at a hi frequency than a DC voltage. It is also much brighter, The driving voltage threshold is almost enough to destroy the LED, if it isn't switched off in time.
Humble suggestions: 1) Please go thru the steps of printing the negative transparency, exposing the UV on camera. You seem to spend of lot of time on washing off the resist and etching. Could have spent some of that time on covering all the other steps...thanks for the video. Look forward to more :)
Where "baking soda" is sodium bicarbonate, "washing soda" is sodium carbonate AKA soda ash. cheap easy access from the supermarket, at least in the states. Thanks for all your great videos Clive!
I also like to paint the PCB with some rosin/acetone mixture before soldering. It evaporates quickly, makes soldering really easy and protects copper from oxidizing over time.
i love these long for videos Clive, would love to see more soldering vids too!
I usually put my board so it floats on top of the etchant but I do have a proper water tank thingy that allows you to see how its etching I stand mine above the radiator to warm it up I have also used my iron to apply transfers veneers soften hot melt glued cardboard boxes even cooked some baked beans ! I have yet to iron a shirt with it !
I prefer those more diffuse LEDs honestly, quite a good effect. Nicely done
Speaking of shorting caps, I shorted a 400V DC 1000nF capacitor. MAN was that a fun experience. It was like a flashbang.
1000nF or 1000µF?
If you make a saturated solution of sodium carbonate and pour in spent ferric chloride it reacts to produce sodium chloride (salt) and an insoluble iron carbonate. Over time the precipitate combines with oxygen to form red iron oxide aka rouge or rust.
The clear salty water goes down the sink and the solid stuff is safe to put in the bin, or make thermite with it.
I suppose there's quite a lot of copper, in with the iron (because 2FeCl3 + Cu => 2FeCl2 + CuCl2) , but that might even be an advantage for thermite :-)
Cllive: Look... still has the old tag on, never even drilled it.
Dadygee: [points his finger] You've never drilled...?
Clive: Don't touch it!
Dadygee: We'll I wasn't going to touch it, I was just pointing at it.
Clive: Well... don't point! It can't be drilled.
Dadygee: Don't point, okay. Can I look at it?
Clive: No. no. That's it, you've seen enough of that one.
Did you use glossy magazine pages as it is recommended with the toner transfer method? If I remember correctly the paper is glossy because it has got a layer of ceramic material.
"For decades, glossy paper, the type used in magazines, was made using a white clay called kaolin (named after the Chinese region Kao-Ling where it was mined to produce porcelain). The clay is used to fill the spaces between the fibers in the paper and to coat the paper so that it will have a smooth surface. This makes the paper more suitable for the reproduction of photographs, especially color photos."
I tried glossy photo paper and magazine paper. Both had issues with desired toner coming off when trying to wash away the paper/clay residue in detailed areas.
you can also use hydrogen peroxide, salt, and an acid (vinegar works but a more concentrated acid will work faster), which will form a cupric chloride etch, just add copper
I don't know if it is a big thing, but when I did my last etches years ago, I just put a sticky tape to the back of the PCB, and carefully laid it to the ferrite chloride. It floated on the top of it, and had nice etch, while every possible residue just went down to the bottom of the container, and with the sticky tape I was able to get it out with clear hands. Have to check for bubbles though :)
How about making a series where you explain how to make cool electronic gadgets from scratch in a way that's understandable for people with no formal electronic or electrical education? Such series would also explain where to order components online, what to look for so you won't get screwed over by bad sellers and so on.
I think such thing would rock and you'd be very good at it, this video proves enough that you have a knack for teaching and it would bring many new viewers to tge channel.
9:00 It's pretty easy to make Sodium Carbonate from Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda). Simply heat it on a stove or flame with a suitable pan. It will appear to boil as the extra Carbon Dioxide escapes. Leaving Sodium Carbonate.
Have you tried building one of the 8 by 8 LED cubes yet?
I know they're old hat now, but they are mesmerizing to see them go through their light sequences.
With your advanced knowledge, maybe a 16 by 16 or 32 by 32 is an adventurous possibility.
A 32 by 32 by 32 LED cube would be 32768 LEDs. That's a lot of soldering...
I have one sitting on my desk still in pieces as a kit and haven't got the courage to start it yet.
Mentorcase i would love to get one of those cube kits id add a few features though
Mine has extra features, such as a sd and USB input and a small amp and speaker and a perspex case to cover it.
The cubes are built in layers. The biggest challenge of LED cubes is actually coming up with a way to hold the damn LEDs in place while soldering them into a layer, ie. making your own jig. From there, it becomes trivial to just repeat the process of bending leads, arranging the LEDs, and soldering.
One method that works rather well with 2/3/4 LEDs is an array of breadboards (just the middle pieces without the power rails) where you plug in bits of header pins (as this guy did: emalliab.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/icstation-4x4x4-led-cube-shield-for-arduino-hardware-build/). Others just poke the (round) LEDs through cardboard or drilled plywood, bending the legs a bit differently. It's really no wizardry. Enjoy!
Worse comes to worst, you can always chemically alter sodium bicarbonate by baking it for a couple of hours in a normal kitchen oven, turning it into sodium carbonate.
When cutting LED leads, I cut them wonky so that the positive is still the longer. I can very rarely tell where the flat but is as I find it indistinct.
This came at the right time. I too was getting frustrated at the toner transfer method. Will definitely try this after all.
bloody hell! now i need to buy a clothes iron as well! i have already pinched my mums soda crystals, plastic trays, and washing up gloves, but i think she would miss her Iron.
Thanks for the vid, Clive...and thanks for doing it in real time. The kit I got came with a packet of "Developer" powder and another packet of "Release Agent" powder. Sadly with only Chinese labeling (which I translated) I presume the release agent is to remove the resist after etching.
My intent is to use the UV 3d printer for exposure. Wish me luck...
I understand this is an old video so there's a chance no one will read this but if you don't have access to a laser printer or fancy printing surfaces, you can use normal paper and put cooking oil on it and then lay normal paper on it. This makes the paper translucent enough you can cure the film under it with the uv light.
To make an inkjet print with black inks rather than a mix of colours, "greyscale" printing shoild be enabled in the printer driver options.
I've read that heating sodium bicarbonate will give you sodium carbonate. The byproducts are carbon dioxide and water, so if that's correct, this is safe to do in your home oven.
This is correct. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate#Thermal_decomposition for a description and associated sources.
been doing it for years its safe not even a smell
But provided you can buy washing soda, it's usually much cheaper than bicarb; plus, no-bake :-)
theskett Cheaper than $0.79/£0.58 per box of bicarb?
Depends on the box. Is it a metric box or an imperial one? Troy or Avoirdupois? Long box or short box? Is it biscuit bicarb or cake bicarb? Is it a vegan box? Does it come with batteries? Does it work under water?
I'd never skip a moment Clive. I don't even play faster. :)
And also for etching add citric acid,i bought powder on ebay,this will act as a de-smut and will speed up the etching process ,this concoction is know as "EDINBURGH ETCHANT".
It works well compared to plain ferric chloride.
I was etching brass facia plates for tube amps and the brass was taking ages with the copper-zinc alloy a lot of gunk was on the surface of the metal and constant cleaning with a plastic brush was needed,the citric acid did the job.
Sitting enjoying cold sake while listening to Big Clive in his Bob Ross voice mode. Good times.
May I say you handle that steam iron like a complete ironing pro :D
I'm obviously 4 years late to the party, but ... when exposed properly, the parts of the photosensitive film that are not supposed to receive ANY light (i.e., your inkjet black geometries) will easily wash completely off. No need to endlessly rub with a gloved finger. What your situation shows is that SOME light is getting through the dark areas (no surprise there), causing the photosensitive film to partially gel, needing to be scrubbed a bit to remove the slight residual film. This means that you are exposing your film too long. Back off on your exposure time. In the process, it should also result a crisper image. There is also such a thing as too LITTLE light hitting the board (for instance, 5 seconds of exposure time). The goal is to find the sweet spot between too little and too much exposure time for your given printer and exposure light. I think you are currently running on the "too much exposure time" side of the equation.
I think the resistor in series with the input voltage is needed because at start the capacitor is a short circuit. If you had bad luck and plugs it when the voltage is on it's maximum value, you could blow the LEDs.
You didn't use your bag o etchant system. Did you decide Tupperware is better?
It was just for variety.
marathonning you building pcbs tonight!
I'm suddenly wondering if a laser cutter could do the etching and "drilling" for circuit boards.
Something like the Glowforge can etch materials as well as cut them, so maybe it could be adjusted to vaporize the copper instead of using etch as well as cutting the holes in the fibreglass.
For your problem with direct toner transfer it sounds to me that you used the wrong paper to print on .
Reichelt catalog paper is great for that, because it has a fine closed glossy surface and thin paper (toner sits on top),
but the fibres take on soapwater very nice and loosen.
If you dont get off all paper fibres just throw em into the acid with the rest, doesnt matter 😅
9:17 I wonder what Clive considers a "warm water". Would 10C be warm by Clive's standards :D ?
Somewhere I think I have a minicraft jigsaw, almost identical to that little drill. Same black plastic, same on off switch. Also from RME about 1000 yers ago. I'll need to dig around and see if I can find it.
May I ask why you went with the full name Big Clive Dot Com? it's not something that can be skimmed by robots, so I'm slightly confused why keep the dot.
For future reference, you can do long soldering videos. Please :)
Of course, for best results, one must use a pink scrubber sponge and solder from a pink spool.
For toner to copper clad, I used the laser printer safe overhead transparencies with an iron. It works fine for me since I rarely make boards.
After using the Ferric Chloride, Place a peace of IRON into it. Large Bolt or peace of plate works fine . All the depleted copper will be attracted to the iron and replenish your Ferric Chloride for further uses. You can reuse the same solution many many times doing it that way.
I've not come across that specific technique before. Just complex ones.
Whenever I see one of those square colorful capacitors, I get a mad feeling that I want to eat it.
"Washing soda" isn't hard to get, but in a pinch one can dissolve baking soda in water and heat it to boiling and the sodium bicarbonate will decompose to sodium carbonate, or washing soda. I'll leave it to my fellow Big Clive watchers to work out the stoichiometric yield from a given amount of baking soda.
Thank you Clive! Appreciate the reply!!
Is there a particular brand of resist you use?
I am trying to use the process to etch my knife blades, so obviously I can't use a laminator either!
The stuff I've been using is generic eBay stuff.
Diffused led's look cool, kind of looks like a giant LED matrix chip
Trying to get the hang of this method. I used to use the pre-sensitised boards from Maplin years ago, but this method is much cheaper. For the exposure I have tried a 200W incandescent bulb, with the bulb about 10cm from the board an exposure time of 15 mins seems about right. I also have an eprom eraser I am thinking of trying, but i think the incandescent lamp may be a more 'gentle' way to expose the board and less time critical. I have an 11W UV CFL bulb but this seems inferior.
My laser printer doesn't do too well with transparencies as the toner doesnt stick properly, leaving poor opacity and a smeary 'trail' down the page. Tracing paper seems ok, but one other method worthy of further investigation is to use ordinary paper with a few drops of baby oil soaked in. The oil makes the paper transparent and the oil helps it to stick to the board.
Developing seems the tricky part for me, it all looks well until the last remnants of photo resist remain on the board, then I get tracks peeling off all of a sudden. After 3 days of trying to perfect this method, I have made some progress but am still not quite happy with the results.
Another idea I have is to apply toner reactive film to the transparency/tracing paper, this stuff is supposed to stick only to the toner so should increase the opacity of the artwork, it is available cheaply and is intended for making your own greetings cards, etc. I got the idea watching a video where someone used 'trf' film along with the toner transfer method of DIY PCB production.
Hmmm. Shame All Electronics doesn't have a UK/Scottish branch...they have board-etchig stuff pretty cheap.
And I know the acid they sell is in dry form--I don't know if you have the same hazardous shipping issues with dry rather than liquid acid.
The current sweeps on each diode as its voltage drop changes the color changes.
The laminator isn't supposed to help you apply the photoresist -- you're to use it afterwards to fuse the thing onto the PCB. Supposedly, it's simpler than using an iron but I don't have one. The technique that works for me personally is not to peel the protective film all the way, but to remove it gradually as you apply the material onto the board, flattening it with a squeegee or something similar as you go. The wet method is fine too, of course, and I believe this is how they apply coloured film onto cars and other large objects.
I learned from French Guy cooking that if you need sodium carbonate, you can make it from sodium bicarbonate hexaloadawater by heating it in an oven.
Hahaha, "hexaloadawater"!
Also, this is correct: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate#Thermal_decomposition - Then again, the washing soda crystals product is perfect already.
Allegedly you can make a homebrew PCB etchant made from white vinegar and table salt. I've made my own using hydrochloric acid (aka muriatic acid, sold as concrete cleaner or a swimming pool chemical) which works a treat, and is a beautiful shade of green! But the vinegar + salt mix seems usable and the materials ought to be readily available.
Hi! If you can't find any sodium carbonate, you can also use sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner. Careful, very caustic!) or buy some sodium bicarbonate (baking powder!) and heat it in a pan for 20 minutes. This turns the bicarb into normal sodium carbonate.
As for etching with ferric chloride... try cupric chloride CuCl2 instead. You can make it yourself from copper, muriatic acid (HCl)(sold as concrete cleaner at home depot) and a little time. It can be re-used pretty much indefinitely. If it gets too discolored, add a tiny bit more muriatic acid (HCl) and simply let it stand for some time.
Quite enjoyable video. I really want to build something like this myself now.
Could try putting a diffuser in front of the clear LEDs.
@15 minutes who likes to watch Clive edging?
Ho, ho, ho.
Gummel Both
Lol, for some reason watching Clive gently rub the copper clad with a sponge is disturbingly satisfying
Hey Clive some tips you might find useful:
- for drilling holes larger than 0.7mm in pcb I use tungsten spear tip bits because those are much less prone to breaking than the spiral drill bits and self center really nicely. (havent found any smaller than 0.8 though :(
-That Nurdrage tip also works for regenerating used ferric cloride if you can get hydrochloric/muriatic acid.
If you can't get the acid there is a workaround using "PH Minus" from pool supplies in combination with table salt and some tupperware.
Another easy way to get Sodium Carbonate is to put Bi-Carbonated Soda in the oven at about 200 degrees C for about an hour. It decomposes to Sodium Carbonate.
I use a cheapo laminator after doing the water trick and it works fairly well. The only issue is I cant seem to find a good transparency that works well but doesn't cost $1/sheet and produces dark enough results
That's pretty cool, it's a very similar process to how I develop normal colour negative film. For film we agitate quite strongly, you really can put a lot more force on it if you want a very clean dissolving.
Cool video, going to try this myself.
Also they do make clear cased Color shifting led,s
Thanks Clive... The kit of chemicals I bought from some hapless dealer on Ebay sent 3 unmarked packages. I have no idea what two are :-) By process of comparison I have managed to figure out the developer. The tiny packages don't really permit much in the way of experimentation.
I use the glass from an old photocopier as it seems to be quartz glass, the kind that lets UV light pass through, old copiers seem to use UV light more so than modern ones, not sure why. It's also a pretty thick and heavy glass so it really flattens the transfer sheet on.
The wavelength of UV that is used for exposure (UVA) can pass through ordinary glass. It's the shorter wavelength UVC (the dangerous wavelength) that needs quartz glass.
Ah, yes, that's the type of UV I have, I really should go and buy a less dangerous one, but I use it for sterilising things too. That reminds me, want me to see if I can make that regenerating etchent for you? It would be illegal to ship it but I doubt custom woulds check it from Ireland to the Isle of Man, maybe send it as a coke or something.
I got one of those drills also I’d trim them with my flush cutters after putting them on the board so I don’t forget polarity
Good! 👍 The slow relaxing randomness... 😏