#diypcb — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #diypcb, aggregated by home.social.
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Using 3D Printers To Make Circuit Boards
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/05/19/using-3d-printers-to-make-circuit-boards/
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Using 3D Printers To Make Circuit Boards
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/05/19/using-3d-printers-to-make-circuit-boards/
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I love all the hacking taking place for e-ink readers https://github.com/iandchasse/de-link/tree/main
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I love all the hacking taking place for e-ink readers https://github.com/iandchasse/de-link/tree/main
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I love all the hacking taking place for e-ink readers https://github.com/iandchasse/de-link/tree/main
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I love all the hacking taking place for e-ink readers https://github.com/iandchasse/de-link/tree/main
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Using a Fiber Laser to Etch 0.1 mm PCB Traces
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/03/24/using-a-fiber-laser-to-etch-0-1-mm-pcb-traces/
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Using a Fiber Laser to Etch 0.1 mm PCB Traces
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/03/24/using-a-fiber-laser-to-etch-0-1-mm-pcb-traces/
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wheeeee!
just needed one little bodge because I forgot a pull down resistor on the switch input and a little piece of wire to bridge over where the button will go once I have it.
turns out, the button might not actually be needed though. I put it in so I could inject bits into the shift register, but one of the registers seems to reliably start up with all ones anyways. ahh well, I still need it to bridge to 5V over to the other part of the circuit.
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wheeeee!
just needed one little bodge because I forgot a pull down resistor on the switch input and a little piece of wire to bridge over where the button will go once I have it.
turns out, the button might not actually be needed though. I put it in so I could inject bits into the shift register, but one of the registers seems to reliably start up with all ones anyways. ahh well, I still need it to bridge to 5V over to the other part of the circuit.
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wheeeee!
just needed one little bodge because I forgot a pull down resistor on the switch input and a little piece of wire to bridge over where the button will go once I have it.
turns out, the button might not actually be needed though. I put it in so I could inject bits into the shift register, but one of the registers seems to reliably start up with all ones anyways. ahh well, I still need it to bridge to 5V over to the other part of the circuit.
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wheeeee!
just needed one little bodge because I forgot a pull down resistor on the switch input and a little piece of wire to bridge over where the button will go once I have it.
turns out, the button might not actually be needed though. I put it in so I could inject bits into the shift register, but one of the registers seems to reliably start up with all ones anyways. ahh well, I still need it to bridge to 5V over to the other part of the circuit.
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wheeeee!
just needed one little bodge because I forgot a pull down resistor on the switch input and a little piece of wire to bridge over where the button will go once I have it.
turns out, the button might not actually be needed though. I put it in so I could inject bits into the shift register, but one of the registers seems to reliably start up with all ones anyways. ahh well, I still need it to bridge to 5V over to the other part of the circuit.
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reflow time!
(yes, I completely forgot to buy 5mm tact switches. I was sure I had some…)
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reflow time!
(yes, I completely forgot to buy 5mm tact switches. I was sure I had some…)
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reflow time!
(yes, I completely forgot to buy 5mm tact switches. I was sure I had some…)
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reflow time!
(yes, I completely forgot to buy 5mm tact switches. I was sure I had some…)
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reflow time!
(yes, I completely forgot to buy 5mm tact switches. I was sure I had some…)
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last but not least, a test fit with one of the chips. it fits! Wheeeeee!
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last but not least, a test fit with one of the chips. it fits! Wheeeeee!
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last but not least, a test fit with one of the chips. it fits! Wheeeeee!
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last but not least, a test fit with one of the chips. it fits! Wheeeeee!
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last but not least, a test fit with one of the chips. it fits! Wheeeeee!
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there are also a bunch of other small defects, probably caused by small bubbles or other defects in the photoresist. luckily only one of them seems to have led to a broken trace which I'll have to fix later.
oh yeah, also, all the brown stains all over the PCB? don't just dump dry NaOH into the resist stripper bath when it's starting to run out. getting it onto the PCB will fuck up the copper surface…
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there are also a bunch of other small defects, probably caused by small bubbles or other defects in the photoresist. luckily only one of them seems to have led to a broken trace which I'll have to fix later.
oh yeah, also, all the brown stains all over the PCB? don't just dump dry NaOH into the resist stripper bath when it's starting to run out. getting it onto the PCB will fuck up the copper surface…
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there are also a bunch of other small defects, probably caused by small bubbles or other defects in the photoresist. luckily only one of them seems to have led to a broken trace which I'll have to fix later.
oh yeah, also, all the brown stains all over the PCB? don't just dump dry NaOH into the resist stripper bath when it's starting to run out. getting it onto the PCB will fuck up the copper surface…
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there are also a bunch of other small defects, probably caused by small bubbles or other defects in the photoresist. luckily only one of them seems to have led to a broken trace which I'll have to fix later.
oh yeah, also, all the brown stains all over the PCB? don't just dump dry NaOH into the resist stripper bath when it's starting to run out. getting it onto the PCB will fuck up the copper surface…
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there are also a bunch of other small defects, probably caused by small bubbles or other defects in the photoresist. luckily only one of them seems to have led to a broken trace which I'll have to fix later.
oh yeah, also, all the brown stains all over the PCB? don't just dump dry NaOH into the resist stripper bath when it's starting to run out. getting it onto the PCB will fuck up the copper surface…
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here's some closeups of the small bridges. the very thin ones tend to be easier to see from the back. good thing glass is see through!
I'm still struggling to completely avoid these, but I think my track spacing might still be a little on the low side for this thick copper layer. maybe I also just need to etch for longer, but I'm worried about excessive under-etch…
luckily the small bridges are very easy to clean up with a scalpel. -
here's some closeups of the small bridges. the very thin ones tend to be easier to see from the back. good thing glass is see through!
I'm still struggling to completely avoid these, but I think my track spacing might still be a little on the low side for this thick copper layer. maybe I also just need to etch for longer, but I'm worried about excessive under-etch…
luckily the small bridges are very easy to clean up with a scalpel. -
here's some closeups of the small bridges. the very thin ones tend to be easier to see from the back. good thing glass is see through!
I'm still struggling to completely avoid these, but I think my track spacing might still be a little on the low side for this thick copper layer. maybe I also just need to etch for longer, but I'm worried about excessive under-etch…
luckily the small bridges are very easy to clean up with a scalpel. -
here's some closeups of the small bridges. the very thin ones tend to be easier to see from the back. good thing glass is see through!
I'm still struggling to completely avoid these, but I think my track spacing might still be a little on the low side for this thick copper layer. maybe I also just need to etch for longer, but I'm worried about excessive under-etch…
luckily the small bridges are very easy to clean up with a scalpel. -
here's some closeups of the small bridges. the very thin ones tend to be easier to see from the back. good thing glass is see through!
I'm still struggling to completely avoid these, but I think my track spacing might still be a little on the low side for this thick copper layer. maybe I also just need to etch for longer, but I'm worried about excessive under-etch…
luckily the small bridges are very easy to clean up with a scalpel. -
put today's tiny glass PCB and put it under the microscope to get some close up shots! it's really cool to see just how thick that 0.1mm copper is! there are still tons of flaws that become very apparently once you zoom in, some small bridges and some thin spots and breaks in in some traces. once you get up close it all looks very… organic.
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put today's tiny glass PCB and put it under the microscope to get some close up shots! it's really cool to see just how thick that 0.1mm copper is! there are still tons of flaws that become very apparently once you zoom in, some small bridges and some thin spots and breaks in in some traces. once you get up close it all looks very… organic.
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put today's tiny glass PCB and put it under the microscope to get some close up shots! it's really cool to see just how thick that 0.1mm copper is! there are still tons of flaws that become very apparently once you zoom in, some small bridges and some thin spots and breaks in in some traces. once you get up close it all looks very… organic.
-
put today's tiny glass PCB and put it under the microscope to get some close up shots! it's really cool to see just how thick that 0.1mm copper is! there are still tons of flaws that become very apparently once you zoom in, some small bridges and some thin spots and breaks in in some traces. once you get up close it all looks very… organic.
-
put today's tiny glass PCB and put it under the microscope to get some close up shots! it's really cool to see just how thick that 0.1mm copper is! there are still tons of flaws that become very apparently once you zoom in, some small bridges and some thin spots and breaks in in some traces. once you get up close it all looks very… organic.
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wheeee! I've successfully made a glass PCB! 0.1mm copper foil laminated onto a microscope slide using two component epoxy and a hot roller laminator, coated with cheap aliexpress dry film photo resist and etched in copper chloride.
turns out that most of my struggles during etching came from my bad exposure setup. The light source was way too diffuse and I way over exposed the photo resist. Going from 7.5 minute exposures down to 20 seconds really helped and switching from a very diffuse UV exposure box to a UV spot light mounted around 50cm away finally got me to an acceptable result.
Of course the one that ended up working was on my ugliest piece of copper on glass laminate but whatever. It finally works!
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wheeee! I've successfully made a glass PCB! 0.1mm copper foil laminated onto a microscope slide using two component epoxy and a hot roller laminator, coated with cheap aliexpress dry film photo resist and etched in copper chloride.
turns out that most of my struggles during etching came from my bad exposure setup. The light source was way too diffuse and I way over exposed the photo resist. Going from 7.5 minute exposures down to 20 seconds really helped and switching from a very diffuse UV exposure box to a UV spot light mounted around 50cm away finally got me to an acceptable result.
Of course the one that ended up working was on my ugliest piece of copper on glass laminate but whatever. It finally works!
-
wheeee! I've successfully made a glass PCB! 0.1mm copper foil laminated onto a microscope slide using two component epoxy and a hot roller laminator, coated with cheap aliexpress dry film photo resist and etched in copper chloride.
turns out that most of my struggles during etching came from my bad exposure setup. The light source was way too diffuse and I way over exposed the photo resist. Going from 7.5 minute exposures down to 20 seconds really helped and switching from a very diffuse UV exposure box to a UV spot light mounted around 50cm away finally got me to an acceptable result.
Of course the one that ended up working was on my ugliest piece of copper on glass laminate but whatever. It finally works!
-
wheeee! I've successfully made a glass PCB! 0.1mm copper foil laminated onto a microscope slide using two component epoxy and a hot roller laminator, coated with cheap aliexpress dry film photo resist and etched in copper chloride.
turns out that most of my struggles during etching came from my bad exposure setup. The light source was way too diffuse and I way over exposed the photo resist. Going from 7.5 minute exposures down to 20 seconds really helped and switching from a very diffuse UV exposure box to a UV spot light mounted around 50cm away finally got me to an acceptable result.
Of course the one that ended up working was on my ugliest piece of copper on glass laminate but whatever. It finally works!
-
wheeee! I've successfully made a glass PCB! 0.1mm copper foil laminated onto a microscope slide using two component epoxy and a hot roller laminator, coated with cheap aliexpress dry film photo resist and etched in copper chloride.
turns out that most of my struggles during etching came from my bad exposure setup. The light source was way too diffuse and I way over exposed the photo resist. Going from 7.5 minute exposures down to 20 seconds really helped and switching from a very diffuse UV exposure box to a UV spot light mounted around 50cm away finally got me to an acceptable result.
Of course the one that ended up working was on my ugliest piece of copper on glass laminate but whatever. It finally works!
-
guess who stayed up way too long last night experimenting with PCB photo resist?! it's me! I finally did what I should have done in the first place and did an exposure test and ohhh boy was I wrong with my exposure times! 7.5 minutes? more like 7.5 seconds! This test was done in 5 second increments, the 0 and 5 second bar etched away cleanly, the 10 second bar had some porosity but the 15 second one is fully cured and insoluble in 1% sodium carbonate solution. damn…
with these results I went ahead and exposed another PCB for… 20 seconds? Yeah, not sure why I did that… I was tired. The result was quite a bit better though, but I think I'm running up against a limitation of my light source here. I think it's simply too diffuse to correctly expose traces that thin through the protective foil and the double stack of transparencies. Checking under a microscope the resist just doesn't fully clear from the narrow spaces
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guess who stayed up way too long last night experimenting with PCB photo resist?! it's me! I finally did what I should have done in the first place and did an exposure test and ohhh boy was I wrong with my exposure times! 7.5 minutes? more like 7.5 seconds! This test was done in 5 second increments, the 0 and 5 second bar etched away cleanly, the 10 second bar had some porosity but the 15 second one is fully cured and insoluble in 1% sodium carbonate solution. damn…
with these results I went ahead and exposed another PCB for… 20 seconds? Yeah, not sure why I did that… I was tired. The result was quite a bit better though, but I think I'm running up against a limitation of my light source here. I think it's simply too diffuse to correctly expose traces that thin through the protective foil and the double stack of transparencies. Checking under a microscope the resist just doesn't fully clear from the narrow spaces
-
guess who stayed up way too long last night experimenting with PCB photo resist?! it's me! I finally did what I should have done in the first place and did an exposure test and ohhh boy was I wrong with my exposure times! 7.5 minutes? more like 7.5 seconds! This test was done in 5 second increments, the 0 and 5 second bar etched away cleanly, the 10 second bar had some porosity but the 15 second one is fully cured and insoluble in 1% sodium carbonate solution. damn…
with these results I went ahead and exposed another PCB for… 20 seconds? Yeah, not sure why I did that… I was tired. The result was quite a bit better though, but I think I'm running up against a limitation of my light source here. I think it's simply too diffuse to correctly expose traces that thin through the protective foil and the double stack of transparencies. Checking under a microscope the resist just doesn't fully clear from the narrow spaces
-
guess who stayed up way too long last night experimenting with PCB photo resist?! it's me! I finally did what I should have done in the first place and did an exposure test and ohhh boy was I wrong with my exposure times! 7.5 minutes? more like 7.5 seconds! This test was done in 5 second increments, the 0 and 5 second bar etched away cleanly, the 10 second bar had some porosity but the 15 second one is fully cured and insoluble in 1% sodium carbonate solution. damn…
with these results I went ahead and exposed another PCB for… 20 seconds? Yeah, not sure why I did that… I was tired. The result was quite a bit better though, but I think I'm running up against a limitation of my light source here. I think it's simply too diffuse to correctly expose traces that thin through the protective foil and the double stack of transparencies. Checking under a microscope the resist just doesn't fully clear from the narrow spaces
-
guess who stayed up way too long last night experimenting with PCB photo resist?! it's me! I finally did what I should have done in the first place and did an exposure test and ohhh boy was I wrong with my exposure times! 7.5 minutes? more like 7.5 seconds! This test was done in 5 second increments, the 0 and 5 second bar etched away cleanly, the 10 second bar had some porosity but the 15 second one is fully cured and insoluble in 1% sodium carbonate solution. damn…
with these results I went ahead and exposed another PCB for… 20 seconds? Yeah, not sure why I did that… I was tired. The result was quite a bit better though, but I think I'm running up against a limitation of my light source here. I think it's simply too diffuse to correctly expose traces that thin through the protective foil and the double stack of transparencies. Checking under a microscope the resist just doesn't fully clear from the narrow spaces
-
ok, here's today's results of "sticking copper to glass". One crappy and two somewhat decent bare glass PCBs. First one did not have enough epoxy and pulled away at the edges, the other two still show a tiny bit of that in the corners but look OK otherwise. I also re-used the piece of copper on the first one so the surface looks kinda uneven. These are also made with 100mil copper instead of 35mil copper cause I didn't have any bare 35mil copper foil. Hope I can still etch it OK…
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ok, here's today's results of "sticking copper to glass". One crappy and two somewhat decent bare glass PCBs. First one did not have enough epoxy and pulled away at the edges, the other two still show a tiny bit of that in the corners but look OK otherwise. I also re-used the piece of copper on the first one so the surface looks kinda uneven. These are also made with 100mil copper instead of 35mil copper cause I didn't have any bare 35mil copper foil. Hope I can still etch it OK…
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ok, here's today's results of "sticking copper to glass". One crappy and two somewhat decent bare glass PCBs. First one did not have enough epoxy and pulled away at the edges, the other two still show a tiny bit of that in the corners but look OK otherwise. I also re-used the piece of copper on the first one so the surface looks kinda uneven. These are also made with 100mil copper instead of 35mil copper cause I didn't have any bare 35mil copper foil. Hope I can still etch it OK…
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ok, here's today's results of "sticking copper to glass". One crappy and two somewhat decent bare glass PCBs. First one did not have enough epoxy and pulled away at the edges, the other two still show a tiny bit of that in the corners but look OK otherwise. I also re-used the piece of copper on the first one so the surface looks kinda uneven. These are also made with 100mil copper instead of 35mil copper cause I didn't have any bare 35mil copper foil. Hope I can still etch it OK…
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ok, here's today's results of "sticking copper to glass". One crappy and two somewhat decent bare glass PCBs. First one did not have enough epoxy and pulled away at the edges, the other two still show a tiny bit of that in the corners but look OK otherwise. I also re-used the piece of copper on the first one so the surface looks kinda uneven. These are also made with 100mil copper instead of 35mil copper cause I didn't have any bare 35mil copper foil. Hope I can still etch it OK…
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ok, copper tape glass PCB test results are in. just did a small test layout with some traces and test footprints. exposure and development of the etch resist went well. 7.5 minutes under my UV box and development in water with a random amount of sodium carbonate in it.
etching went… less than well. The glue on the tape does not seem to stand up to the copper chloride etchant very well and there was severe under etch all around the edges and a whole bunch of delamination. might have to try a different way of attaching copper foil. one option might be to just use the same material as the etch resist as glue…
oh yeah, and even though the glue was kinda destroyed by the etchant there is still a layer of glue on all the bare glass spots :I
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ok, copper tape glass PCB test results are in. just did a small test layout with some traces and test footprints. exposure and development of the etch resist went well. 7.5 minutes under my UV box and development in water with a random amount of sodium carbonate in it.
etching went… less than well. The glue on the tape does not seem to stand up to the copper chloride etchant very well and there was severe under etch all around the edges and a whole bunch of delamination. might have to try a different way of attaching copper foil. one option might be to just use the same material as the etch resist as glue…
oh yeah, and even though the glue was kinda destroyed by the etchant there is still a layer of glue on all the bare glass spots :I