PCB Diy

[Goldie]

Ok , anyone made one before. I think dmitri did. What works and what dont. Trace width, hole sizes. Its easy to drill 1mm hole, i've tried, but how about 0,5mm. Lets try to make some standard that works every time. I'd like to try drawing with pen on PCB too, to see how it works. What about conductive pens. Is 600 dpi high enough. Please share your expirience here.

[dmitri]

First of all, if you know a bit about Ohm's laws, can read schematics and you're not afraid of some soldering/cutting, there is really no need to make a proper PCB - you can do it on a stripboard. But if you feel you must do it on a good looking PCB (and we're talking about DIY here) then there are many places on Internet where they explain how to make one using a laser printer, an iron and some etchant: start here and the very first link will be this. In the beginning there certainly will be several failed attempts, at least I had, but in the end you'll get what you want. I can only add that the most difficult part for me was drilling and you will have to use a 0.8mm bit.
Good luck!

[Goldie]

Ok. I've bought some noname transparency (about 0.50 euro each) and tried to print with my lexmark inkjet. Tried all possible settings and none of them work well. Best result i get is glossy photo and transparency at max resolution - none of them saturated enough, so i wont bother trying to use this. Next thing i might try would be pro made transparency, have to check prices.

[dmitri]

I personally had good results with 600dpi laser printer and cheapest glossy paper from Tesco.

[sumpm1]

Here is a video that explains the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urv6jArKp6M
And here is a site: http://www.5bears.com/pcb.htm