2D 3D printed circuit board

[Tibuck19]

Hi guys, I wanted to share with you all, what I've been up too as far as my 3D printing addiction goes, I finally got around to designing a Sharpie holder for my printer, so I can use it as a plotter. In Eagle I export the board as a black and white image file, So far that nothing new to anyone right! what cool is I then using a little program that converts that image into a STL file, so I can print it, by adding a few simple gcode's in the start settings, I'm able to draw out a PCB, I know I didn't invent the wheel here, but im rather proud of the results so far. here a few photo's and a link to my thingivers page where my files are found and also a github link to the image to STL converter.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3275336

[waltr]

Nice idea.
The Sharpie ink on the PCB looks ok for simple boards. Should work.

[Tibuck19]

Nice idea.
The Sharpie ink on the PCB looks ok for simple boards. Should work.

By Bumping up the DIP from 300 to 1000 when exporting the image file from eagle, and also bumming up the resolution on that little program down to 0.1 also help improved the traces. Im going to see about finding a even better marker, But nonetheless it will still work, Im going to draw up a little joule thief circuit to test out etching. here is latest test print.

[Tibuck19]

I think my scaling is off a bit, Does anyone know the normal size in mm for the square pads? mine are just around the 1MM. Looks a little small to me.

[dbanner]

I think my scaling is off a bit, Does anyone know the normal size in mm for the square pads? mine are just around the 1MM. Looks a little small to me.

I checked the macro footprint size of standard TH-DIL on Sprint, it says 1.6mm, but I always increase to 1.8mm and I change from square pads to rounded( not circular) as I find it's better for drilling and more surface for soldering.
I saw this nice little pcb plotter, don't know what kind of pen he's using, it doesn't look like a sharpie. It's a very simple design.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oPVc9ixj0iU&t=174s
The resolution of your plotting is somewhat poor, I'm sure you can improve it.
Edited.
You may have to rescale the image to correct size before converting to STL files. Or perhaps it's just size of footprints and not the overall scaling.
With 3D printer, you can make parts for a dedicated PCB ink plotter like in the video. Wish I had these toys to play with.

[waltr]

If you are checking scaling then measure the distance between pins on the 555.
Should be exactly 0.10 inch or 2.54mm each.
Spacing across the DIP rows is 0.30inch or 7.62mm.

Pads need to be 2 to 3 times the hole diameter for easy drilling and soldering.

I do use 0.060 to 0.080 inch pads and 0.020 to 0.030 inch holes for ICs and common leaded components.

[Tibuck19]

I checked the macro footprint size of standard TH-DIL on Sprint, it says 1.6mm, but I always increase to 1.8mm and I change from square pads to rounded( not circular) as I find it's better for drilling and more surface for soldering.
I saw this nice little pcb plotter, don't know what kind of pen he's using, it doesn't look like a sharpie. It's a very simple design.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oPVc9ixj0iU&t=174s
The resolution of your plotting is somewhat poor, I'm sure you can improve it.
Edited.
You may have to rescale the image to correct size before converting to STL files. Or perhaps it's just size of footprints and not the overall scaling.
With 3D printer, you can make parts for a dedicated PCB ink plotter like in the video. Wish I had these toys to play with.

Great thanks my scaling is good its the pads in Eagle that are just to small, I have no clue how to change the size, Would it be in the Sprint ??
There is always room for improvement lol but yes a dedicated plotter and driller has always on my mind, in fact, I have a design that nearly there, I just need to get better little motors and drivers for it, here what I got so far.

[Tibuck19]

If you are checking scaling then measure the distance between pins on the 555.
Should be exactly 0.10 inch or 2.54mm each.
Spacing across the DIP rows is 0.30inch or 7.62mm.

Pads need to be 2 to 3 times the hole diameter for easy drilling and soldering.

I do use 0.060 to 0.080 inch pads and 0.020 to 0.030 inch holes for ICs and common leaded components.

Do you make and drill your own boards ? or have them made?

[dbanner]

Great thanks my scaling is good its the pads in Eagle that are just to small, I have no clue how to change the size, Would it be in the Sprint ??
There is always room for improvement lol but yes a dedicated plotter and driller has always on my mind, in fact, I have a design that nearly there, I just need to get better little motors and drivers for it, here what I got so far. [ATTACH]44727[/ATTACH]

Very cool. I don't think I have patience to build a high quality CNC machine from scratch. It doesn't seem worth it unless you're getting into some serious projects that makes it worth the effort and not to mention the cost involved.
I don't use eagle, so not too familiar with it. I use Sprint to draw up simple layouts quickly and it's easy to change the size of the pads. With eagle I'm sure it's very easy to resize the footprints, but I couldn't tell you offhand.
I have Eagle installed on my Linux OS, but I hardly ever use it.
I've been playing around with Kicad these days, very nice software indeed.

[dbanner]

I thought this was an interesting design, which could be scaled up to bigger size.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WCcC8wMECvQ

[Tibuck19]

Very cool. I don't think I have patience to build a high quality CNC machine from scratch. It doesn't seem worth it unless you're getting into some serious projects that makes it worth the effort and not to mention the cost involved.
I don't use eagle, so not too familiar with it. I use Sprint to draw up simple layouts quickly and it's easy to change the size of the pads. With eagle I'm sure it's very easy to resize the footprints, but I couldn't tell you offhand.
I have Eagle installed on my Linux OS, but I hardly ever use it.
I've been playing around with Kicad these days, very nice software indeed.

Im using the free version of Eagle perhaps that why I can't change it, i'm rather new to those kind of cad software, I for have kicad, only looked at it a few time, Do you know if it can export the board layout in image format ? like .png there are far from height end but to be honest I do enjoy designing, and making them, and figuring out how to get everything running. for me that most of the fun, ill get everything working and then ill move on loll I must love misery lol.

[waltr]

Do you make and drill your own boards ? or have them made?

Yes I have.

I have done a few double sided but these are real hard to ensure top-bottom alignment.
I will do simple single sided boards one off boards.

I use dry transfer patterns for ICs and pads. Large 'ground' areas I paint with enamel model paint as a resist.

Holes are drilled with a Dremel drill press and carbide drills. This is the most tedious part as breaking drills is very easy.

For more complex or if I need multiple boards I have them made. It is much nicer to have plated through holes, solder mask and silk text.

[Tibuck19]

Yes I have.

I have done a few double sided but these are real hard to ensure top-bottom alignment.
I will do simple single sided boards one off boards.

I use dry transfer patterns for ICs and pads. Large 'ground' areas I paint with enamel model paint as a resist.

Holes are drilled with a Dremel drill press and carbide drills. This is the most tedious part as breaking drills is very easy.

For more complex or if I need multiple boards I have them made. It is much nicer to have plated through holes, solder mask and silk text.

That's why I asked lol I can see the problem of braking drill bits, What size do you use> 0.5mm or a 0.3.

[waltr]

That's why I asked lol I can see the problem of braking drill bits, What size do you use> 0.5mm or a 0.3.

Yes.
0.020 inch = 0.5mm is the smallest I have used.

Other is a 0.035inch = 0.9mm drill for header pins (0.024 inch square pins).

[Tibuck19]

Yes.
0.020 inch = 0.5mm is the smallest I have used.

Other is a 0.035inch = 0.9mm drill for header pins (0.024 inch square pins).

0.5mm are the bits I ordered, im pretty sure any smaller then that, ill have a hard time drilling. Here some improvement to the drawing pcb, seems like most of the Cnc software that open .gbr Gerber files do isolation routing rather then masking, Even eagle seems to be big on having use make a board that way. Is there a good reason for this? other then it is probably easier to ink transfer or UV masking lol