kroag (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Thank you very much for this great tut. Filled me with confidence to try it myself.

ZeroFossilFuel (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

No doubt that the results are much more precise using the photo method. Using photo paper can be tricky. As you heat the paper and board both expand unevenly. That's what causes the blurring. The key is developing the proper technique with the iron when transferring to the copper. You have to start at one end with the wide side of the iron and work slowly to the other side. There is a special paper made called Toner Transfer Paper designed especially for this use that I also plan to try.

jollino (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

That's right, photo-etching can be fairly expensive and you definitely have to invest time and money into mistakes at first. The good thing is that once you have every parameter defined, the results are consistent and easily reproducible. (Provided you do it often enough, because otherwise you end up forgetting something... as it happens to me! :) I have tried toner transfer but I never got it to work. Maybe it was the wrong kind of paper, but it just never came out precise enough.

ZeroFossilFuel (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Very good tutorial. However, photo sensitive boards are quite expensive and you get only one shot to get it right else the board is wasted, and you need a UV bed. I've been using the toner transfer method from glossy photo paper with very good results. If it doesn't look good the first time I can just wipe it off with acetone and try again. The only disadvantage is I can't use HCl/H2O2 solution to etch. It lifts the toner negative from the copper prematurely. FeCl does not.

dubzga (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

this is an excellent very informative video, but i started cracking up @ 20:35 when you said...i take no responsibilty if you kill yourself...

jollino (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

The program is called EAGLE and you can find it by googling up "EAGLE cad". I tried to post the link in a reply to your comment, but the comment was not posted!

jollino (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Thank you for your clarification!

jeffnicq (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

very good job. can plz you write down the program names you used in this process. thanks

ohmannhey (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Copper oxide is either black (CuO) or red (Cu2O). The green stuff is copper cloride which results from a reaction between copper and the hydrochloric acid. CuO(s) + 2 HCl(aq) → CuCl2(aq) + H2O(l) Thank you for the video .. very good.

jollino (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

It is an RS232 transceiver based on the Maxim MAX232 integrated circuit. I made a dedicated one so I could re-use it on different projects without having to prepare a different one every time: I simply connect Tx and Rx as they come out from my AVR (ie. at TTL voltages) and power it. It just works. :)