Circuit Board Lab POV Business Card

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Circuit Board Lab & POV Business Card

by sponges on March 14, 2011 Table of Contents Circuit Board Lab & POV Business Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Circuit Board Lab & POV Business Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: Design an Etch Tank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: Build the Etch Tank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 4 4
Step 3: Modify a Laminator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Step 4: Build a Reflow Oven Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Step 5: Build an SMD Vacuum Pick and Place Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Step 6: Design the Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Step 7: The Toner Transfer Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Step 8: Etch your PCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Step 9: Screen the Solder and Populate the PCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Step 10: Bake your PCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Step 11: Program the PIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
http://www.instructables.com/id/Circuit-Board-Lab-POV-Business-Card/
Intro: Circuit Board Lab & POV Business Card

Though there are many Instructables on some aspect of how to make circuit boards, this one is different. This is also an instructable on how to make the things you need to make circuit boards, specifically, a flamboyant business card toy. Over the past six months I have set up fairly complete printed circuit board fabrication lab in my apartment, cheaply and safely, and I intend to cover all aspects of the process, from start to finish, in as wide a scope as I can. Some of it you may have seen before, but here it is all in one place, in detail, with references. All in all, I had to design and build an airtight etch tank out of laser cut acrylic, an SMD vacuum pickup tool, a reflow oven and temperature controller, refine the toner transfer process with a modified laminator, build a custom programming jig, and of course design, program and build from scratch every aspect of the thing I did all this for in the first place: my business card. In the end, it was well worth the time to have the ability to make circuit boards appear in my hands in an evening. The POV Business Card uses the classic persistence of vision optical illusion to flash your name and number in midair as you wave the card. Based on the PIC12F508, an 8-pin 6 I/O ultra-low cost microcontroller, it is entirely surface mount and extremely thin- it uses PCB laminate that is as thin as a standard business card. And at roughly $2 apiece in parts, depending on how good you are at sourcing components, they are cheap enough to hand out (to the right people). But why go to all this trouble simply to make something to give away to someone I just met? Why not just have them printed up in an afternoon for less than 10 bucks at Kinko's? Why, because I want a card that would not get thrown out. A card that would embody exactly what I do, instead of clumsily trying to sum it up in an clever job title. A card that would get me places. Picture the following scenario, if you will: you have just met someone who you need to know. In actual fact, they need to know you. Having exchanged introductions, "The Man," complete with dark suit and power tie, casually hands you his cloned, company-issue business card. "Here's my card," he grins, knowing that you will impressed by his Ownership Of Card, or at least his Power Over Someone Who Owns An Embossing Machine . Probably he expects to see you to scribble your number on a torn scrap of paper. But when you reach into your pocket and pull out your card, certainly he doesn't expect to see... your name glowing in midair, floating before his very eyes! "It's called persistence of vision," you say, as you hand him your card. "I make these in my basement. From scratch." You didn't even need to say another word; anything more would just be gloating. You can see the look in his eyes; he's already sold. "Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark." - Patrick Bateman, American Psycho
Disclaimer: I should note here that this Instructable involves a lot of things that could be dangerous if done without caution and informed planning, including fire hazards, risk of electrocution in various horrible ways, handling of nasty chemicals, and very toxic fumes. This one really has it all, folks. So be safe!
Step 1: Design an Etch Tank

We'll start with the hard one: Build a leakproof, acid proof, and airtight etch tank, using no metal parts. Others have done this before, but I had to make it difficult for myself. I had built one before out of a plastic ammo can, but it was much too large. This time, I wanted to do it right. I designed it from scratch in illustrator and then had the parts laser cut out of acrylic to my specifications by a friend (laser cutter use number one!). For those new to this, you need an etch tank to hold the acid you use to eat away the copper on your circuit board that is not covered in some kind of etch resist. It can be pretty nasty stuff, depending on the kind of acid you use, and you need to safely contain it if you plan on doing this both regularly and in the house that you live and breathe in. Or anywhere near your kitchen sink. The tank should be airtight, with a secure lid, have an air inlet for a bubbler, to agitate and oxygenate the solution, and an air outlet to a house that will vent out the window. It should hold the board upright for the minimum amount of acid, and it should be opaque to light so that the solution does not degrade from exposure to the sun. However, I left one side clear so I can look at the board to see if it is done etching, and also because it looks cooler that way. I designed my tank for a total volume of roughly 2 Liters , planning on filling it to only 1.6L to leave room for the air bubbler and hose, the board itself,and a little extra for a safe lip on the top. For reasons I'll elaborate on later, I chose to use Cupric Chloride (CuCl2) as my circuit board etchant. CuC2 is corrosive to most metals, and a few plastics. When researching the materials you plan on using, datasheets abound under the search terms "xyz chemical resistance." Understanding the properties of materials is critical in engineering something like this, so plan ahead. Finding out that a hose melted in your acid bath and contaminated the solution, and then having to fish out each and every little tiny chunk is no fun.
Very few things will survive highly concentrated acids forever. We aren't using anything highly concentrated,as far as these things go, but the effect is the same; it's acidresistant, not acid proof. In my experience, the following materials are generally safe to use (but don't take my word for it!): * Polyethylene (PE) and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) * Polypropylene (PP) * Viton * EPDM * Teflon * Glass * Acrylic * Polycarbonate (especially mar-resistant polycarbonate) The following are definitely NOT safe, and should be avoided: * Any metal (except titanium!) * Nylon * Silicone
File Downloads
etch tank - laser cut pattern - sheet 1.svg (7 KB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'etch tank - laser cut pattern - sheet 1.svg']
Etch tank design.svg (15 KB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'Etch tank design.svg']
etch tank -laser cut pattern - sheet 2.svg (1 KB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'etch tank -laser cut pattern - sheet 2.svg']
Step 2: Build the Etch Tank

To be totally honest, the hardest part of building this thing is just finding the finding the freaking parts. It seems like my entire life is just an endless quest for the parts I need. The most difficult part to find was a pair of bulkhead fittings that were small enough for the tank; small fittings are not common locally, as everything is plumbing sized, and online, the lab grade small fittings are only orderable in bulk. Some of these parts are scrounged, most of them I had to order special, and most of them took several rounds of searching and receiving of parts that didn't fit together. US Plastics Corporation is the source of pretty much all of it; they are like the Digi Key of tubes and lab fittings, as far as I'm concerned. Sources listed where available. As far as the tank is concerned, the first step is getting it together. The standard for watertight acrylic bonding is Methylene Chloride, which is very nasty stuff, and cancerous, so do it outside. Just leaving a window open is definitely not sufficient. Accordingly, it is pretty hard to find given the recent regulation, so you may have to order a methylene chloride based glue online, such as IPS Weld-On. I got a tiny little bottle from a friend who does acrylic fabrication professionally. To be sure, you could probably get by with just the right kind of epoxy, but ideally the parts should be chemically bonded to each other, instead of a mysterious foreign agent. When bonding parts with Methylene Chloride, you are after as tight a fit as possible. Laser cut edges need special attention, as they are melted and rounded off. I spent about an hour with a file and sandpaper cleaning up the parts for a good fit.. Even for parts that fit together perfectly from the start, especially the uncut face of the acrylic, it is important to roughen the abutting faces with sandpaper or there is no grab. Once the parts fit together well, clamp or hold the parts tightly together and run the needle of a syringe or modified squeeze bottle full of the solvent along the crack; capillary action will draw it in. Within about 60 seconds the part will be secure enough to leave alone. It only takes about 30 minutes, for it to set up, sometimes a lot less. I left it overnight just to be sure, but it's actually waterproof after about an hour. After that, you need to make a lid. I cut a self adhesive gasket for both the lid and the lip of the tank to fill the gap, and to seal it up I mounted a pair of wings to either side of the tank with magnets to pull it down and hold it in place. It ends up working so that the lid tends to line itself up, and because the two sides are reversed in polarity, it is impossible to put the lid on backwards. I still feel clever about that one. The only caveat is that the magnets need to be sealed in heatshrink tubing to resist corrosion. The bulkhead fittings I wanted only came in straight, not 90 degree, so I needed to cut down the one side and weld on an angled fitting. It works surprisingly well with polypropylene. Its melting point is low enough that a hot air gun does the trick nicely. Parts * 1/4 inch acrylic or polycarbonate sheet * EPDM or Viton self adhesive gasket * 1/4" ID Tygon tubing, or high purity PVC * 1 air pump * 1/4" hose barb Polypropylene wye fitting * 1/4" hose barb Polypropylene barbed bulkhead fitting x 2 * 1/4" NPT nut (I cut down a steel hex bushing) * 1/4" hose barb Polypropylene check valve * 1/4" hose barb 3/8" NPT HDPE (3/8" fits the bubble wand perfectly) * 1/4" to 1/8" hose bard adapter
* Rubber end plugs for bubble wand * bubble wand * 4 x neodymium bar magnets * heatshrink tubing * plastic handle, with screws * Plastic epoxy, to fill any gaps
Step 3: Modify a Laminator

To create positive etch resist mask, the most straight-forward approach , with components readily and cheaply available, is what is known as the Toner Transfer method. The basic idea is that you print out your design onto a glossy paper and apply the printout to your board with heat and pressure, as evenly as possible. The paper is removed, leaving only the toner as an etch resist, thereby protecting the copper below from the acid bath. There are a lot of variables involved, so it is easy to see why a lot of people give up on it. Given enough time, though, it is very possible to get the process dead on. If you have tried and given up on this method before, I'd recommend that you keep trying, because the payoff in time and money saved is well worth it. The most important part of the process is the perfect balance between heat and pressure, consistent over the entire board. Proper pressure is easily achieved with a standard bag laminator. You just need to be sure to find one with heated rollers or you won't get the same results. GBC makes two commonly available models, the GBC Creative and the GBC Personal; they are functionally identical, except that the Personal has an extra switch. Now all we need is to get the temperature right. Since both of the GBC laminators I mentioned are controlled by a simple thermal switch, all we have to do is swap it out with a switch one with a higher temperature rating. It's pretty simple; the switch closes when the rollers are too hot and opens when it's too cold. In my case, though, I was able to find a variable thermal switch. Just like a fixed value thermal switch, it uses a bimetallic strip that warps with the changes in temperature. The two metals have two different coefficients of thermal expansion, and the whole piece bends forward at the proper temperature to close the contact. Unlike a fixed value switch, however, it has a screw that can be adjusted, changing the tension on the bimetallic strip, and thus changing the distance it has to travel to close the contact, and turn on the heater. It's all very clever and simple and perfect for our laminator; we can calibrate it to our hearts desire, even to the point of matching it to the melting point of the toner from the specific model of printer we use. Huzzah! For safety's sake, we will have to swap out the low temperature thermal fuse (as opposed to bypassing it entirely. Definitely not recommended!) with one of a higher rating, so the whole unit will lose power if it overheats and hopefully doesn't catch fire. BTW, you do this mod at your own risk, so don't leave it on unsupervised! It's kinda dangerous. My laminator is set to around 180 degrees C (356 F). It varies +/- about 10 degrees, tested with a handy thermocouple directly on the rollers, taking care, of course, not to let the probe get pulled into the laminator. The fuse is for 240 C, for a good safe margin. Parts * GBC Creative/Personal Laminator * Variable temperature thermal switch, roughly 100-200 degree C * Crimp-on butt connectors * Crimp-on screw terminal connectors, with appropriate sized miniature screw/nut * 240 C thermal fuse
Step 4: Build a Reflow Oven Controller

You may have noticed a trend here toward automation, and I don't deny it. This whole project was an attempt at small scale mass production, if you'll pardon the oxymoron. So here we go: instead of hand soldering every board, hey, guess what- I can just stencil on solder paste, glob it on real good sorta, and stuff the whole thing in a toaster for a minute or two? Yup, that's the general idea. The part that makes this possible is choosing Surface Mount (SMD) components over conventional (though now antiquated) through-hole components. They are significantly smaller and less expensive that thier larger counterparts. There are no holes to drill, and board size is reduced. In any case, I'll spare you the hard sell, as you probably are already aware of their advantages. Any disadvantages they have are just side effects of their advantages simply being too advantageous: some components can be too small for the home hobbyist to manipulate without the proper tools. Regardless, the higher entry cost is outweighed by the longterm advantages, so it's time to build a reflow oven so I don't need to get carpal tunnel soldering hundred of little grains of sand. Typical SMT fabrication works like this: solder paste is spread through a stencil unto the solder pads of the board. Then the components are stuck into the paste, and the entire thing is ramped at a set rate to several set temperature points, depending on the solder and heat resistance of the components. In our case, every component except two can be baked; the battery and the switch need to be hand soldered later.
The cheapest commercially available reflow oven is certainly several thousand dollars. On the other end of the spectrum, the cheapest stand alone controllers are in the $100 range. Since the expensive ones are too expensive, and the cheap ones are too crippled, I had to build my own. All the controller has to do is monitor the temperature of the oven and change it when it need to be changed. The ideal way to do this is with a Ramp/Soak temperature controller, used in factory automation for just such a purpose. I was lucky enough to get a Watlow SD6R-LCJE-AARG ramp./soak controller for less than 50 dollars, and I just built the whole thing around it. YOu should be able to find something similar in the same price range without too much troule.Just make sure it can ramp the temperature to multiple setpoints, as opposed to simply maintaining one stable temperature. The Walow is pretty forgiving; it will take 24 AC/DC as power input it can display temperature in Fahrenheit of Celsius, and it accepts almost any type of thermocouple. More importantly, It has low voltage DC as a control output that we will use to drive a solid state relay, which will in turn switch on and off the heaters of a standard toaster oven. Any toaster oven will work, though the smaller the better, as the smaller volume of air will mean it can heat up much faster. Try and look for a newer oven with quartz heaters, but ceramic heaters would also be suitable. If your oven has a setting for always on, such as bake, all you need to do is drill a hole in the back for the thermocouple and the oven itself is done. Otherwise, you will need to open it up and wire the heaters to always be on - a dangerous affair that I would not recommend. You'll also need a thermocouple with a heat-resistant insulation, as our oven will reach temperatures of 260 degrees Celsius. This presents yet another fire hazard, so don't leave it unattended, keep it away from the walls, and don't set anything on it. Parts * Old toaster oven, preferably small, with four quartz heating elements * Metal project enclosure * Ramp/Soak Temperature Controller * 10A or greater Solid State Relay, Crydom d2410f * High temp thermocouple
Step 5: Build an SMD Vacuum Pick and Place Tool

Now we need some way of getting the parts onto our PCB quickly an efficiently, and when a tweezers won't cut it, it just has to be a vacuum pen. Not happy the spring-ina-syringe trick, a modified aquarium pump will do the job nicely. I found that the best aquarium pump for our purposes is a Tetra Whisper. From what I have found, only pumps from five or ten years ago are easily reversible, and they all require some kind of permanent modification of the valve system. Most modern pumps are single-piece designs that have been refined to the point where they can't be modified in the same way. Except for the Whisper series. The way it is designed, it can be reversed simply by pulling out the one-way valve assembly, turning it around, and putting it back in. It is a tool-free modification that can be returned to normal operation by doing the mod in reverse. We also need to make a vacuum pen. Any cheap pen with a plastic tube body will do just fine. I used Luer lock connectors, the standard for syringe needles, to make swapping tips easy. Those might be hard to find; my local surplus store had them in quantity and they turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. I even found a Luer lock valve for adjusting the airflow, though it turned out to be totally unnecessary, since we want as much vacuum as we can get. I also managed to piece together a miniature lazy susan with some odd parts. I found this to be an indispensible tool, given the ability to turn the circuit board to the orientation of the part you picked up. There is no comparison to even the nicest PCB clamp holder. Parts Vacuum Pump: * Tetra Whisper air pump (single output) * BIC pen * 1/8" flexible hose * assorted luer syringe needles (try your local needle exchange :) * various sizes of heatshrink Turntable * bearing assembly * flat board or piece of plastic * self-adhesive rubber sheet * self-adhesive rubber feet * 4 short sheet metal screws
Step 6: Design the Board

This really was the most time consuming step; that is, designing and planning the entire device. First things first: Design requirements: The goal is to make a 5 LED microcontroller-based circuit with a small enough part count to fit on a 2" by 3.5" standard business card. It has to be a single sided board to reduce complexity, and it has to be entirely surface mount components to save on time drilling holes, keep the profile as thin as possible, and keep the end user from getting poked by leads sticking out of the bottom. Most importantly, it needs to be cheap and quick to make. Again, that means a reduced parts count and surface mount components. I ended up designing the whole thing around the Microchip PIC12F508 , the smallest, cheapest microcontroller I could find with the right number of pinouts. At the time of writing, they run around 46 cents apiece. Similar chips are available from ATMEL, under the AVR banner, and are more full featured, but cost about twice as much. And in the quantities I want, that matters. The PICF508 is no supercomputer. An ironic statement, and given the expectations what most people have of a device this size, it is a supercomputer. But relatively speaking, it is very, very simple. It runs nominally at 4MHz on its internal oscillator. It has only 750 bytes of program memory, and 25 bytes of RAM, but we don't need that much, anyway. It also does not have interrupts or PWM, but, again, we can get by without those. As far as I/O goes, it has exactly enough. There are 8 pins, two for power, and 6 I/O pins, one of which is input only. We already know what that means: It will have five LEDs and one sensor, and that's it. The most important feature is that it is programmable in-circuit (ICSP), meaning you don't have to take it off the board to reprogram it; an important point when you are dealing with a soldered on SMD part. That decision made, the rest comes easy, up to a point. Aside from the five LEDs and their current limiting resistors, a ball-switch that pulls Pin 4 (GP3) low when the the board is tilted, a bypass capacitor across pin 1 and 8 (.1 uF C1) to prevent erratic CPU behavior, and a momentary power switch to prevent battery drain, there isn't much to it. It's simple, as promised. And with the right program, it can do anything! Anything at all. The only limit is yourself! I spent a bit of time obsessing about the other components; I ordered about 20 different tactile switches from DigiKey to find the thinnest, nicest looking, softest feeling tactile switch possible. SInce the battery will overheat (and potentiall explode) if soldered to, I played around with conductive epoxy and conductive tape, with no luck. In the end I bit the bullet and paid the 26 cents apiece of nice, solid, SMD battery retaining clips. They ended up fitting into the design fairly well, too. Now all there is to do is obsess about the artistry of the PCB layout, and we're done. Ironically, I put more time into proportion and layout than anything else on this project, and it gets three sentences of description. Well, the thing does have be pretty, after all.
File Downloads
POV card schematic 1.1.ai (83 KB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'POV card schematic 1.1.ai']
POV Card - PCB 7.ai (1 MB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'POV Card - PCB 7.ai']
POV Card - PCB 7 - layers.ai (1 MB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'POV Card - PCB 7 - layers.ai']
Step 7: The Toner Transfer Process

Laminator in hand, now we need to use it. This is the first step of actual PCB fabrication; everything else was just foreplay. The first step is to print a transfer onto suitable paper. If you are sufficiently bankrolled, you could use the commercial product made by Pulsar Pro , at about 10 cents a sheet, or if you're feeling thrifty you can go the DIY Route, which is free. I don't know why I would even question that, though. Sorry. Finding the right free (or cheaper) paper can be tricky. The two key characteristics are its ability to hold on to the toner when printed on and its ability to release it when heated. One predictor of this is how glossy the paper is; more glossy, better release, less glossy, means better hold. We need a happy medium. People on the internet will recommend all kinds of weird store brand glossy photo papers that are long discontinued, or have to be imported from overseas. Some people have had success using the waxy backing on shipping labels, suggesting you buy them, and then peel off all the labels, or use them and then save them. Most free papers are associated with the need to rub and peel and soak the boards just to get the paper off. Forget that, if I am going to compromise it has to be actually free, not just less expensive than the real thing. I have tried many, many things. As it turns out, a Menard's coupon mailer turned out to give me the best results out of everything. I stopped getting the junk mailings, and they only had a few strangely sized pages eash, so I had to find a more consistently available but similar paper. The best analogue so far is the glossy Apartments For Rent listings they have at the grocery store in the free literature rack. It works remarkably well; It prints without toner loss, and when you run it under hot water, it releases instantly. Presto! The paper is too thin to run through the Laser printer by itself, so you need to make a carrier out of regular white paper by folding over and creasing other top of one side. At this point I should mention the printer itself. For the most part, your final resolution, board quality, and minimum feature size is limited by the resolution of your printer; otherwise, any black and white laser printer will work as well as any other. Toner density should be set to the maximum level, and hopefully you have a printer that has a single-page slot in it so you can just feed the page in by hand. One caveat, that I discovered too late: the standard Brother brand toner reputedly melts at a higher temperature than other kinds of printers, so I had to get an off brand refilled cartridge that uses standard temperature toner to get consistent results. So far so good, though. It was a cheap fix, given that I specifically had to buy the off brand stuff. Once the transfer is printed, you need to line up your PCB, precut to size, to your alignment marks, and here it really helps to have a light table so you can see though the transfer paper. Fold over one edge of the transfer, crease it, making sure that it doesn't move, and feed it creased end into the preheated laminator.I have not noticed any differences in adhesion based on transfer paper side-down or side-up, though I use very thin PCB. You may notice a difference for thicker PCBs. The board is pulled through about 1/4 " per second. I usually run it though about three times, with no time for the board to cool between passes. Of course, the number of passes will vary quite a bit depending on board thickness, the kind of toner, type of paper, and laminator settings. Now to the sink where a stream of hot water is ready and waiting. The paper should peel right off after about 10 seconds, though the finer details will need a quick rubdown to clean off the remaining pulp. And it's ready to etch!
Step 8: Etch your PCB

Ah, the most immediately hazardous step. This one involves a bit of chemistry, and if done without the proper precautions could be very dangerous. Be careful! You do this one at your own risk, so wear proper protective equipment (goggles, face shield, rubber gloves) and dfinitely don't do this anywhere near your kitchen. It's time to make the magic happen! This is the part where we get to break out that badass etch tank we made earlier and pump out hundreds of circuit boards. The key ingredient for this to work is some kind of etchant. As i mentioned before, I decided on CuCl2 (Cupric Chloride). It is reusable, very cheap, and can be made from readily available chemicals. It is a very good alternative to Ferric Chloride, a common hobby etchant that is not easily regenerated and is quite expensive for a one time use product. Surprisingly, it is fairly commonly used in the PCB industry, as much or possibly even more so than Ferric Chloride. The best hobbyist paper on the etchant is Etching with Air Regenerated Acid Cupric Chloride, and there are other Instructables that go into detail on it as well. The first paper is a must-read. There is just not enough space here to go into any major detail on the chemistry, and this is covered in far greater detail in the those two links so I will breeze over most of it. Suffice it to say that those should be you major references. Simply put, given the right amounts of oxygen, HCl (Hydrochloric acid, or Muriatic Acid), copper, and water, we will have a perfect amount of etchant.
The reaction we want to happen is: Cu + 2 HCl + H2O2 --> CuCl2 + 2H2O The copper comes, initially, from the circuit board itself. Hydrochloric acid is commonly available as a pool cleaner, sold as Muriatic Acid. Mine can as 31.45% (20 degree Baume, or 10.01 Molar). Hydrogen Peroxide can be found in higher concentrations at health food stores. You want 35% Food grade (11.6 Molar); the 3% kind you get in the first aid section just won't cut it. You also need a jug of distilled water, as tap water is just too impure. For my 2 L tank, I only need 1.6 Liters of etchant. The ratios in the above formula, and assuming my etchant should be 3 Molar HCl at its final volume, I came up with .48L HCl, .92L H2O, and .20L H2O2 as my reagents. Add the water, then the Peroxide, then the HCl, And do it outside, in a pyrex dish. It will produce heat and fume fairly violently at first, but as you begin to use the solution to etch boards, the fuming will decrease as it turns to Cupric Chloride. Note: Do not make the mistake of mixing your etchant in your homemade etch tank. Absolutely do not etch too many boards (side by side) or mix raw copper into your etchant, as i did, especially in an enclosed sealed tank. The reaction will be violently exothermic and fume viscously. It will melt, crack, or break open your etch tank from pressure and heat that is far beyond what is normally produced with a controlled stable etchant. With a sufficient air bubbler, you won't need to mix in the copper initially, anyway. The solution will effectively make itself. The boards will etch rapidly at first, in under a minute, and as the solution begins to become saturated, the etch times will increase to five minutes or more. Once it becomes unreasonably long, you simply need to add the right amount of acid and/ or run the bubbler for a period to regenerate the solution and decrease etch times. Again, consult the above paper for how to do this properly; it is a very good reference. When you can see the board is fully etched, pull it out with plastic tongs, let the excess etchant drip into the tank, and place the board in a plastic dish to rinse it off. Then its on to the Scotch Brite pad and some acetone to take off the layer of toner, and the copper traces should polish up to a bright shine. When the tank is not in use, the etchant should be stored in an airtight glass vessel that will not be used for food, out of the light, and properly labeled. Under no circumstances should the etchant be poured down the drain, as it is both toxic and corrosive to metals. If you do happen to spill any, or need to dispose of it, the solution can be neutralized with lime, and mixed with concrete for disposal. Be sure to dispose of it properly, according to your local hazardous waste policy! Where I live they have a facility will take in waste like this for free.
Step 9: Screen the Solder and Populate the PCB

At this point we have the hard part done; we have a circuit board. We just need to solder on the parts. With a properly made stencil, it is a simple matter of wiping a thin layer of solder paste over board over the stencil and placing the components. Commercial PCB manufacturers use a metal solder stencil, etched out of stainless steel or aluminum for large runs of boards, but you can order them custom cut online out of thick mylar. If you have access to a laser cutter (use number two) or vinyl cutter, you can cut your own out of acetate or transparency film. In a pinch, you can even print out your pattern onto a sheet of transparency film and use an X-Acto knife to cut out the solder pads. Whatever works. In my case, I had a friend cut me a stencil out of thick acetate with his vinyl cutter. It took a bit of tweaking to get the settings right, as it is an unusually thick and brittle material to cut, thicker than most vinyls. Eventually we determined that the cutter needed to make at least four passes to cut all the way though. Cheap decent-quality solderpaste and flux can be had from DealExtreme , though you should be prepared for slow (free) shipping. For the actual screening, I made a jig out of a piece of thick silicone rubber. I cut out a piece the exact size of the PCB, then I stacked extra PCBs underneath the frame, thereby creating a cutout sunk exactly to the depth of the board. This gives a surface for the stencil to lay flay all the way across and also holds the board in place while the squeegee is dragged across. Line up your stencil, then tape it down at the top with packing tape. scoop out a blob of solder paste and put it either on the squeegee, or at the top of the stencil, above
the cutouts. The Solder paste should be viscous, but not so viscous that it can't be spread. It's a non-newtonian material, meaning that it holds it flows more easily under pressure, and solidifies somewhat when the pressure is released. Hold the stencil tight at the bottom and run the squeegee across the stencil, taking care not to lift it off the surface. Repeat until all areas are filled and then carefully peel up the stencil.This part definitely takes practice and you will probably have to make several attempts before you get it right. Now just place the board on a lazy susan and pick and place the appropriate parts with a tweezers or a vacuum pen. Then it's off to the reflow oven, where you hopefully don't bump the board and spill the parts you just meticulously placed all over the floor and have to pick hairs and dirt off the parts because it stuck into the paste still on them. Parts * Solder paste stencil * solder paste * SIlicone rubber sheet * packing tape * metal or rubber squeegee * X-Acto Knife
Step 10: Bake your PCB

Now it is time to bake the PCB! I promise it will be fun. First things first: it is important that the reflow oven is properly configured, or this won't go well. It's all about the set point parameters here. The maximum temperature and time maintained should not be any longer than the most sensitive component can handle, and it is recommended that it actually be 5 degrees lower than that value. In this case, the most sensitive component is, surprisingly the LEDs. The microcontroller can take, based on it's volume, up to 260 C, and the resistors and capacitors have tolerances above that. The LEDs have a recommended max temperature of no more than 225. The manufacturers were kind enough to provide a reflow slope, so I just used that one. If your oven is slow to heat up, you may encounter problems near the peak of your reflow ramp. The idea is to bring the temperature up slowly, spike to "re-flow" the solder, and then drop off rapidly, but not instantly, to room temperature. So if that peak is a problem, you may have to step in and open the door of your oven to increase the cool down immediately at peak temperature. Once programmed, place the board in the oven, making sure the thermocouple is near the surface of the PCB so it can get an accurate reading, close to the actual conditions of the solder joints, close the door, and start the program. Fire extinguisher nearby, of course. Wait until the temperature drops to room temp. to take the board out , as it will embrittle the solder joints if they are denied their cooling cycle.
Step 11: Program the PIC

The board now complete, we have only to give it a program to run, and it will be ready to set our creation free into the wild! The PIC can be programmed either in C++ or assembly language. I chose C++, to save time, and because I didn't necessarily want to commit to this architecture. And, admittedly, because assembly is no fun! With no interrupts or PWM, the PIC12F508 is nothing fancy, but it definitely gets the job done. Here's how it works: The card is off until the momentary on switch is held down. On power up, the program simulates a little rolling ball with a binary counter that rolls in and out with the tilt of the card. After roughly four tilts back and forth, it then switches to Persistence Of Vision mode and cycles through a series of programmed patterns. Currently, it says my name, followed by a neat square wave pattern that acts as a separator, and then my phone number. When the tilt switch closes, the program recognizes that as the start of a wave, and plays the current pattern one time through, then waits until another wave starts. As long as the wave does not double back too soon, and the pattern is not too long, there will be no overlap as the pattern will be blank until it resets. Each pattern is an array of bytes, each byte a column in the sequence. The time that each column (frame) in the pattern is left on and the time between frames determines the speed of the display, and how close the frames are spaced when the card is waved. Basically, it changes the width of the characters and the pattern as a whole. Furthermore, the speed at which you wave the card also plays a part in the spacing, but not enough to make it illegible; since it changes frames at a constant rate, the variation is not enough to matter, but is enough to make it look dynamic. Neat, huh? Before you start writing a program, it helps to have a programmer to debug the code with. I have had good luck with the iCP01 USB programmer. Just don't hook up the programmer to the board with an external battery attached, or you will fry it. It is capable of ICSP (In Circuit Serial Programming), which puts the chip in a high voltage programming mode and allows it to be programmed in the circuit, assuming the rest of the circuit is relatively isolated. Using that, I make several little jigs. The one for programming surface mount ships simply used a scrap prototype board with SMD pads for the IC and wires to the traces coming out of pins. Then I just position the chip and hold it down with my finger while it is being programmed, taking care not to short out the leads. Alternately it has a magnet underneath the board that holds the ship in place. Because the PIC is entirely flash based, a non magnetic memory, it has no effect on the chip. For when the board is assembled, I also have a programmer that the card slides into, with a swing down lid, and pogo pins that touch down and make contact with special ICSP pads on the board.
File Downloads
POV Card 1.0.c (5 KB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'POV Card 1.0.c']
POV Card 1.0.hex (2 KB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'POV Card 1.0.hex']
Related Instructables
The magic wand clock: a Persistence of Vision toy ! by 5Volt
Minty JDM PIC Programmer by dirkandterra
Extreme Business Cards by tomward
Ultra low cost solarrechargeable persistence of vision display by pyromaniac303
Magic POV Wand (yet another POV toy) by rleddington
Dance Messenger by dan
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jman 31 says:
Mar 21, 2011. 7:01 AM REPLY Wow! Very nicely done my friend! Really like the business card. I think I will try it out. Gotta make a parts order very soon anyways so a few more components will be added to the list. I will hand solder them, but I really like your reflow oven, etch tank and smd vacuum (will probably make one of these soon). Thanks for the very detailed and informative write up.

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Circuit Board Lab & POV Business Card

Intro: Circuit Board Lab & POV Business Card

Step 1: Design an Etch Tank

Step 2: Build the Etch Tank

Step 3: Modify a Laminator

Step 4: Build a Reflow Oven Controller

Step 5: Build an SMD Vacuum Pick and Place Tool

Step 6: Design the Board

Step 7: The Toner Transfer Process

Step 8: Etch your PCB

Step 9: Screen the Solder and Populate the PCB

Step 10: Bake your PCB

Step 11: Program the PIC

The magic wand clock: a Persistence of Vision toy ! by 5Volt

Minty JDM PIC Programmer by dirkandterra

Extreme Business Cards by tomward

Ultra low cost solarrechargeable persistence of vision display by pyromaniac303

Magic POV Wand (yet another POV toy) by rleddington

Dance Messenger by dan

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