Re: Homemade PCBs!

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: Jan Wagner <jwagner-at-cc.hut.fi> 

Hi,

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004, Tesla list wrote:
 > Original poster: "Hydrogen18" <hydrogen18-at-hydrogen18-dot-com>
 > I'm looking to make some homemade PCB's for a voltage multiplier, whats the
 > best way to do this? I've seen those kits where you draw everything, but
 > that seems pretty tedious. Is their a better way to do it at home? Also,
 > what kind of circuit board do I want to buy? Thanks.

Approach 0:
  - get some stiff cardboard, punch
    through holes for HV component legs
  - coat cardboard with plastics spray, if required

Very fast :) Especially as you're building "only" a HV multiplier this
would be the fastes and easiest way to make the mechanical support for the
HV components.

Approach 1:
  - use pre-made fast prototyping boards
(those with lots of holes and copper dots or tracks, like
http://www.bebek.fi/kauppa/tuotekuvat/a15961cd9f7294328d47a03341e5af92%2C3.jpg
  - for required HV clearance, remove a few copper tracks
    from between the components, for example with a carpet knife
    or a >40W soldering iron with a sharp tip

Approach 2:
   - bare copper circuit board
   - xacto (not so good) or larger carpet/tapestry knife (better)
   - cut off the copper in thin slices
Quite fast for low-voltage circuits (small track clearances)

Approach 3:
   - two bare copper ciruit boards, flip the other
     one so the copper side is down, this will be
     your main board
   - use a metal cutter "scissor" to cut off appropriate
     pieces from the other board
   - glue pieces (with copper side up, of course) onto
     the main board
   - solder components accross glued-on PCB parts

Very fast, nice for low-frequency HV.

Then of course remain those approaches where you etch the board.
A hand-drawn board would be simplest for HV side work. You could of course
use some PC prog to draw the board, print out on a transparency sheet, buy
some photoresist coated PCB board, use an UV-A light to expose, NaOH to
develop, FeCl3 to etch. Anything but fast and simple (for the purpose of a
HV multiplier)

cheers,
  - Jan

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  Dept. of Electrical and Communications Engineering
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