13 Apr
2010
13 Apr
'10
10:16 a.m.
On 4/13/10, Ben <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
Alexandre Souza - Listas wrote:
Hmm... that would have killed my last project - a PLCC-44 89C52 (that
we later swapped out for an ATmega8515 with no board changes required)
and 5 ICs total ('541, 2x ULN2003, '14, MCU).
Went fine with Eagle except for the holes for the power jack and my
goof on the Port D bus. Autorouting worked for 75% of the project,
and manual routing is not tricky.
The first test program ever loaded into the board ran the first time
(blink LEDs on two port bits). I'd call that a success.
-ethan
I do believe in Diptrace....
I have the older version of diptrace. I am not so happy with it.
No PLCC sockets of any kind. No support for TUBES of any kind.
All the new libraries have more surface mount junk. Manual routing
is a pain. Auto routing does work no more than 3 chips for a two
layer board. 
13 Apr
13 Apr
10:28 a.m.
New subject: Board prototyping at home
Hi
Regardless of tool to create the gerber, one thing bothers
me a little.
I am happy making 2 sided boards but I'd really like to
make plated through holes at home.
Plating is a little bit science and a lot of knowledge. Most of
us have bench supplies that could be used for plating. What
we need is some of the know-how to get something working.
What materials would I need? What current rate for specific
area is practical? What do I paint in the holes to get the plating
started?
Dwight
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11:33 a.m.
New subject: Board prototyping at home
On 13 Apr 2010 at 10:28, dwight elvey wrote:
Plating is a little bit science and a lot of
knowledge. Most of
us have bench supplies that could be used for plating. What
we need is some of the know-how to get something working.
What materials would I need? What current rate for specific
area is practical? What do I paint in the holes to get the plating
started? Dwight
Commercial houses use a witches' brew of stannous chloride, followed
by palladium, followed by electroless copper to get plated vias.
Probably more than you'd want for casual use.
Multicore used to offer a "Copperset" system; basically fine solder
that's been copper-plated. Stick in into a via, flare the ends and
heat to firmly solder. I've been toying with plating some solder and
trying this. I think the Copperset system went defunct because of
RoHS issues (Multicore is a UK company).
Pulsar still offers copper rivets and there's discussion in their
tech support forum about using winshield defogger repair ink to make
"plated through, sort of" vias.
--Chuck
1:03 p.m.
New subject: Board prototyping at home
From: cclist at sydex.com
On 13 Apr 2010 at 10:28, dwight elvey wrote:
Hi
Rivets are usually to wide to use on IC pins with traces between.
I wonder if a little of that window stuff would be a good substrait
for plating. Another though would be to use an electroless silver
plate first and the copper.
One doesn't have to do exactly what the shops do.
Dwight
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Plating is a little bit science and a lot of
knowledge. Most of
us have bench supplies that could be used for plating. What
we need is some of the know-how to get something working.
What materials would I need? What current rate for specific
area is practical? What do I paint in the holes to get the plating
started? Dwight
Commercial houses use a witches' brew of stannous chloride, followed
by palladium, followed by electroless copper to get plated vias.
Probably more than you'd want for casual use.
Multicore used to offer a "Copperset" system; basically fine solder
that's been copper-plated. Stick in into a via, flare the ends and
heat to firmly solder. I've been toying with plating some solder and
trying this. I think the Copperset system went defunct because of
RoHS issues (Multicore is a UK company).
Pulsar still offers copper rivets and there's discussion in their
tech support forum about using winshield defogger repair ink to make
"plated through, sort of" vias.
--Chuck
2:02 p.m.
New subject: Board prototyping at home
On 13 Apr 2010 at 13:03, dwight elvey wrote:
Rivets are usually to wide to use on IC pins with
traces between. I
wonder if a little of that window stuff would be a good substrait for
plating. Another though would be to use an electroless silver plate
first and the copper.
One doesn't have to do exactly what the shops do.
The shops generally follow up the electroless copper (which really
doesn't lay down much metal) with a full copper electroplate and a
mask that's removed after plating. If you're doing a thousand
boards, this is practical, but onesy-twosy would be a major pain.
Some light on this subject is shed by the LPFK literature. You
recall that these are the folks who make the rapid-prototyping
desktop PCB milling machines. Clearly, they have an interest in
making good vias on their boards.
They offer a low-cost solution that essentially squeegees a
conductive polymer into the vias. The downside is that you can't
solder to it, nor use it as a component hole.
The other two are the real deal--a 4 step process, with the final
being electroplating.
They also make a rivet system with some very tiny rivets indeed
(EasyContac). But the cost will cause you to shudder--$475 for the
basic kit and $0.10 per rivet. A few DIPs or PLCCs and commercial
PCB house prices start to look pretty good.
Best regards,
Chuck
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4 comments
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cclist＠sydex.com -
dkelvey＠hotmail.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com