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LAN_403

Dr. H.

Mon Apr 20 2009, 06:57PM

Registered Member #931 Joined: Mon Jul 30 2007, 05:25PM
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 486

Hi guys

after some troubleshooting I've finaly managed to get the drivers going properly. They are driving the steppers in 1/8 of a step and gives me a resolution of about 0.03mm on every step (every pulse).

Tomorrow will put all the electronics into a box, will make the DC power supply, connectors fan etc.

Here a pic of the two drivers

Cheers

Chris Cristini

Mon Apr 20 2009, 07:09PM

Registered Member #1749 Joined: Fri Oct 10 2008, 02:04AM
Location: Claremont New Hampshire
Posts: 497

Verry nice I like it gives me inspiration to build mine but I might just go towards some sort of dremel attachment.

rp181

Mon Apr 20 2009, 07:10PM

Registered Member #1062 Joined: Tue Oct 16 2007, 02:01AM
Location:
Posts: 1529

Very nice. I am looking forward to this project.

To prevent the light from leaving where its supposed to be, why not put on of those black cone like things (like those used at the doctors in your ear) sliding on the PCB?

Dr. H.

Tue Apr 21 2009, 01:21PM

Registered Member #931 Joined: Mon Jul 30 2007, 05:25PM
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 486

Hi guys

last night and today I did some work on the driver. Started puting the electronics into the box. It was a little small (the box) so I had some design changes. Mounted a geatsink on top of the box, and bolted the drivers to it. Also placed the power and logic transformers, rectifyer, DC filter cap, connector fuses ... The last thing left is to make the insulating board (optos for the parallel port), and wire it. Here few pics.

Cheers

Conundrum

Tue Apr 21 2009, 06:46PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

Just a thought, but I did wonder about using the "salt water etch" technique... expose and develop PCB but then etch in a big tank with constant current then rinse and "finish off" in etchant. uses less and means you can reuse the copper :)

also i did look into combining the laser and LED etch techniques, using the LED to get the rough shape and the laser to do the fine detail, in order to cut down on etch time and allow the use of a hd-dvd or bluray diode instead of a burner.

What would be cool is to fit one of these into a 5 1/4" slot loading CDROM drive, load PCB and have it printed then ejected.

also the PS3 Bluray module has a small disk with patterns that "cleans up" the beam...

-A

Dr. H.

Fri May 01 2009, 01:16PM

Registered Member #931 Joined: Mon Jul 30 2007, 05:25PM
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 486

Hi guys

back in town and have some spare time - back on the project. The blu-ray diode has arrived (thanks Dr. Spark

). I've played with it a bit and got back to the CNC. Design the insulation board, and ethced it. Tonight will put it together. Also put the "working table" on the cnc and leveled it. The diode remains to be fixed to the cart. Cheers :)

Killa-X

Fri May 01 2009, 11:35PM

Registered Member #1643 Joined: Mon Aug 18 2008, 06:10PM
Location:
Posts: 1039

That's a very nice and useful CNC PCB etcher you got there! I understand the code isn't my problem, getting the right parts would be mine :) Looks like you get great results out of it too :)

I always wonder, You know how you can buy those X Y printers, where you place a sheet of paper on the board, and it draws with pencil (usually architecture) from a computer? What if you just put a Sharpie in place of the pencil, and printed a PCB design and placed copper plate on the board. I mean, Wouldn't that just draw it on with black sharpie and tadah?

...

Sat May 02 2009, 12:52AM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

I have seen people try it (Matt Bingham aka blackplasma posted about his efforts on old.4hv.org) but you run into problems that you need a decently thick layer of ink to act as a resist and using a plotter doesn't seem to get enough on. It might work to do multiple passes, but you will ultimatley end up with some tradeoff between waiting hours for it to produce a board and getting enough ink on-and you will still be left with low resolution since you can't get sharpies thinner than .050" or so

Dr. H.

Sat May 02 2009, 09:32AM

Registered Member #931 Joined: Mon Jul 30 2007, 05:25PM
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 486

Hi guys

about the X Y plotter - there are pics of such machine somewhere in the project section - but the "pen" is replaced by the UV diode. The guy got some amazing results(from there I get the momentum to start on that project). I've tryed putting a permenent marker on the other cnc - and it worked ... somewhat. The resolution was a problem and also the PCB must be perfectly flat, otherwise it starts getting bad. Soo I abandoned the idea.

I've completed the insulation board - now have to connect everything together and start testing

Cheers

Killa-X

Sat May 02 2009, 02:56PM

Registered Member #1643 Joined: Mon Aug 18 2008, 06:10PM
Location:
Posts: 1039

Looks very nice! I would do my PCBs like this but, Most people say you want to use a laser printer for example, so you can iron it on to the copper by letting the toner come off. I don't own a laser printer.

I use to have paper that allowed you to iron onto a T-Shirt, but I don't think the black ink would react the same. Maybe it would, But I cant say.

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