HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN PCB ?
 

   I spent a lot of time to find an easy to use PCB drawing program and failed. (Believe there should be lots of but it's just me can't find it!) All of them I came across were either so professional or hard to handle. So, in admiration of the AMIGA's Deluxe Paint, I decided to use Windows's Paint program to create my own PCBs. All I needed was it's copy and paste functionality. Thus any other drawing editor on any Operating System may be utilized for the following work style that I currently (and will continue to) use.

   Before starting the actual computer work, you should determine the physical layout of the components. This is the hardest part of the PCB design and requires a bit puzzle knowledge. The easiest way to fit components on a PCB is to create a layout somehow in parallel with the circuit diagram. Once you decide how to place components on the board and draw a template on paper, you can start your work with computer. Below, I've used PCB work of Simple FM Transmitter to visualize the creation steps. The images are standing here only as examples.

   Download this ZIP file: (pcbtools.zip) which contains all of the simple drawings you should have. I will keep updating it as new components are added on.

   I prepared a dotted background to fit components on. Open the "300dpidt.bmp" and preferably save it under a new name describing your work. Marked big blue spots repeats every 2.5mm thus corresponds standard stepping of most IC's and other single components. When printed at 300 DPI (you can get information on the DPI concept on your printer's manual, graphic utility or elsewhere) every 300 dots on the screen will be 1 inch on paper so everything will be OK. Since the graphic adapters' screen resolution is usually 72 DPI, when drawing, PCB will look larger and easy to deal with.

   File "parts.bmp" contains solder hole and copper line drawings at different thickness. Simply select and copy a desired hole and paste it on your PCB worksheet to set component connection points.

   Then copy and paste lines at proper thickness. Whole artwork is up to you. You may label important points of the circuit by a small font (preferably  FIXEDSYS, 8 points on WINDOWS).

   When you are satisfied with the design and want to be able to print it, just open your drawing with a graphic utility which have palette editing feature (such as Adobe Photoshop) and change the color blue used in dots (0,0,255) to color white (255,255,255). This way your drawing will be pure black-white and ready to print. Just set the image DPI to 300 and print it...

   It is not really necessary but preparing a component side layout of the PCB will help anyone to build it, even to you. Just flip the circuit horizontal (or vertical) then change the color black (0,0,0) to preferably light gray (222,222,222). Copy components from the "parts.bmp" and place on the PCB. When completed, you may label it to be more informative. Set DPI to 300 and print, that's all.

   Rest of the work is much like the classical "very amateur" processing of a PCB, I received lots of e-mails requesting details of the work so here it is:

   You may found it very hard to cut the copper plated board since it is intended to be very strong. Cut the PCB drawing from the printed paper and place on the copper plated board then fix with adhesive tape. Mark the points to be drilled on the PCB with a thick needle or any other sharp object.

   Remove the paper and draw the lines with a permanent waterproof marker. Please note that the final quality of etching depends on the ink used. You should try different brands or types of markers on a small piece before to find the best one. It does not matter if it is black or blue etc. but if you leave the painted plate for over a few minutes the ink becomes too dry and it flakes in the FeCl3. So freshly paint and etch your PCBs :)

   The easy to find chemical which eats away the copper is FeCl3. Here in Turkey it is sold both in solid and dissolved states but I recommend the solid one. Prepare a solution which looks very dark. Also hot solution works faster but it is not necessary if you have enough time. Attach a thread to the plate by a piece of adhesive tape then immerse it in the FeCl3.

   After a few minutes (it may took more if your plate's copper layer is thick) the copper part of the plate which is not painted will be dissolved. When it is visible through the edges of the painted regions pay attention to the rest of the process. Move the plate in the solution to help it dissolve easier. When all unwanted copper parts are dissolved quickly take it out the solution and rinse with plenty of tap water. This is really important that FeCl3 residue left on the PCB will make it rusty by the time. Be careful: do not split FeCl3 on any part of your home. It eats much of the metals and leaves ugly stains on surfaces.

   After drying the rinsed PCB, remove painting with a solvent (such as aceton or thinner). Now it is ready to drill. Use proper hole diameters for your components to be soldered on. The one on the picture is a 1mm drill. You will also find the help of initial marking here as a guidance to the drill tip.

   After drilling the proper sized holes (or sometimes slots as needed) start soldering the components on. For convenience first solder the small parts close to the board surface then the others last especially the fragile ones. I do not include soldering techniques here since there are many pages on web about it.

   You may send your suggestions, comments or questions to me. I will be happy to see your PCB's on the web, created through my amateur work style.

   E-mail me at:  incepinar@yahoo.com

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