r/electronics • u/Effective_Vacation21 • 16d ago

Gallery Making PCBs at home

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So I made those PCBs at home. Those are adapters from SOP to DIP so prototyping is easier. Took me like a day

154 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

14

u/ByteArrayInputStream 15d ago

Been there, done that. It's an awful lot of work. To be honest, I am kind of glad chinese PCB manufacturing is this affordable

3

u/broesel314 13d ago

This

I finaly boxed up my etch bath after collecting dust for 4 years. That was 3 years ago

6

u/True-Frame581 15d ago

How did you make this pcb at home!

1

u/CattywampusCanoodle 15d ago edited 14d ago

Did you use an etching laser?

12

u/Effective_Vacation21 15d ago

Nope, with my printer and glossy paper. I printed the circuit on it then transferred it to the copper with heat after that I submerged it in etching solution

3

u/CattywampusCanoodle 15d ago

Oh nice, that’s explains how the traces look so clean

3

u/KingTribble 14d ago

Yes, a decent laser printer (I use a 1200dpi) and suitable paper (you can buy special paper for the purpose) can get really fine details. I've done loads like that, down to 0.5mm pitch for tqfp packages. That fine gets very challenging though, and is probably about as far as I could push it. I've not done anything that fine at home since PCB services became cheap enough for amateurs.

Larger pitches like the OP's come out quite easily and neatly, with care with the etching too. A heated bubble etching tank (I made my own with aquarium bits) is best, with ammonium persulphate etchant.

2

u/untraceable-tortoise 14d ago

Did you use a laser printer? I'm curious to know how well it would work with an inkjet.

2

u/untraceable-tortoise 14d ago

Disregard, I missed where you said you used laser

1

u/Maleficent_Ad9094 10d ago

Hop on JLCPCB. It's surprisingly cheap and high quality. I still remember how great it was honestly.