Printing the PCB grrrrrrrrr!

[NovaKaine]

I can't seem to get my pcb to print to scale.
What am I doing wrong, thank the lord I tested the parts fit first.
Any ideas any suggestions?
I using a laserjet 720C for a printer, by the way.

[jman 31]

Take a look at this thread. Towards the end there is quite a bit of chatter regarding the same issue. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=198&start=50&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

[NovaKaine]

Thanks bro!

[gastric]

Just wait till you get to DRILLING! Now you're talking F-U-N!!!

One mis-drill and your entire board is trash! MOO-WAHHH-AHHH-AHHH H H H H H H

[NovaKaine]

Don't scare me i'm stressin enuff already lol

[gastric]

During the entire process I thought many times that I wish I had simply bought the V2.7 and been done with it. If for no other reason than the time and overall cost once you factor in buying the blank board, paper to print the images, acid to etch, drill bits to drill with, etc. etc. But then you still have to either build a jacks board or strip an IDE cable and solder all of those wires to the various jacks and figure out how to mount a USB bracket. I preferred the jacks board as it seemed overall less effort than soldering individual wires and constructing some custom bracket to mount my USB connector. And following the logic if I'm going to make a jacks board I might as well make the main board.

It certainly sounds easy enough reading web pages about making a PCB and soldering on the components. But for the total novice it is fairly stressful venturing into the unknown, particularly when the boards and components are so tiny and intricate. You just need to go into the project with the expectation you might be making the board a couple of times and chalk it up to your educational experience. I'm not saying you WILL screw up the board. You probably won't. I'm just saying don't set yourself for failure and disappointment by setting your expectations too high.

As you've already seen with the PRINTING, which you would surely guess should be the simplest part of the entire process, nothing is likely to be perfect on the first shot.

[gastric]

BTW on my Samsung laser printer I bought the reviews specifically noted less than stellar "graphics" printing. Though they noted banding in some graphics images. I saw no mention of printing PCBs, nor would I expect to. Anyway, after making dozens of test prints and comparing I noticed that the images appear to print best in the center of the page VS the top or bottom. I didn't note the exact measurements, but when printing the V2.5 main board with three of the images on the same paper the center image printed perfectly but the top and bottom images were skewed. Same exact image on the same exact piece of paper. Surely it's an issue with the printer hardware/software.

I'm going to contact Samsung and ask them about this general issue. I'm expecting their reply to be something along the lines of "Hey buddy, it's a freaking entry-level monochrome laser printer and not an architectural tool to reproduce schematics and line drawings to NASA-quality scale."

[japi]

You are totally right gastric, assembly is not THAT difficult, but can get tricky sometimes, as when making the dreaded dozens holes. I'd recommend a help of some friend that has experience in electronics or making boards, that will save a lot of hassle and dissappointment if you go too fast and screw something.. just go SLOW.

On the subject.. i don't know, are you using the pdfs ?
When we printed from pdfs everything was fine at first shot with a hp laserjet 1020

[gastric]

I just got done soldering nearly all of my components on the V2.5 main board. The printing was frustrating, the drilling was a bit tense as you really could bungle the board by mis-drilling but I did all the drilling by hand with a Dremel and a #60 bit and it was error free, and the actual assembly was simply tiring as it took a long time. I'm missing a few components so I'm stuck for a bit until I make another small order.