Making your own PCB

Is there equipment up at the maker space for making your own PCB?

And if so, what will I need to provide myself?

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Mill or etch?
You’ll need provide your own boards.
Your own chemicals - and a way to dispose of.
Your own end mills.

On the topic of PCBs, I’ve been playing with EasyEDA:

It’s a circuit and PCB design program that runs in-browser, and links to a company that will make your PCBs on the cheap, and also a dirt cheap supplier for many components. If the equipment at DMS is insufficient, I’d give them a shot.

@suchsojasco I just discovered that site and the prices seem very fair. That’s probably what I will do.

The board I quickly designed was only $2 + $20 shipping.

I appreciate the help though guys.

In terms of etching my own, I was about to buy the supplies to do it at home. But it seems cheaper to order a few boards from easyeda.com, than to buy my own and they will look professional.

Yea, it come from China. Where else would you get a custom PCB, with as many layers as you want and silkscreen and PCB color for that price :slight_smile:

On another note, I want to make one of those LED Cubes you may have seen online. I have some interesting ideas about doing SMD NeoPixel type leds mounted to glass. This is where I will have to etch it myself. Do any of you have experience etching PCB on glass? I know its possible, I saw it on youtube, I could also, 3d print thin columns then etch that. But both would be rather unique.

Would the laser cutter cut thin glass? like 2 or 3 mm thick? Maybe the plasma cutter?

Oh ok. I didnt realize it had to be conductive. I have the training coming up and will learn. Will the laser cut it? How would you cut glass?

I know I can put copper traces on it from youtube anyway.

I want to make this-https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lookingglass/l3d-cube-the-3d-led-cube-from-the-future

But they use thin black PCB, which is better than all the other ways of doing it that I’ve seen. I was thinking I could 3d print those thin black bars then put traces on it, though that will be hard. But then I was thinking a sheet of glass with traces on it might work, as long as the glass was clear enough you couldn’t tell there was glass. And I’d surface mount the LEDs with reflow soldering. Do you think that will work?

I can also get a glass shop to cut me the pieces of glass. Or I could use acrylic, though I worry it would bend too much and not be clear enough to give the 3d appearance. It would be 16 consecutive layers of something, so it has to be clear.

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Hmm. I’ve seen that in like heist movies, but I never realized you could just cut glass by hand.

Thats a great idea. This project is down the road, but that might be the trick.

it’s for real, yo

Just FYI, you cannot cut tempered glass (this continues to be debated, but everything I read with any credibility says it’s true).

EDIT: there are other ways, too:

Yes.

Yes.:blankspace:

To hijack this thread, anybody have any interest in designing an ASIC mining rig for something like dash? I’d be interested.

Someone who has used easyEDA- I am trying to understand the site- do I need to order 5 parts to Have it accepted or am I misreading the site? Is that $2 price misleading. And does it have to be 5 of each type or can out be 5 different things?

And ASIC mining rig for dash? I need explanation for like 50% of those words.

Did you ask for expedited shipping? I made a board with them a few weeks back, and shipping wasn’t near that much.

I haven’t ordered anything yet. But that was the quote. Maybe there regular shipping was less. I can’t remember.