Homebrew PCBs

DJ Delorie <dj@...> writes:
> Anyway, I'm investigating gutenprint and the printer's language to see
> if I can write my own driver that does what *I* want it to do.  Yay
> open source :-)

I've got some preliminary (i.e. unetched) results.

See: http://www.delorie.com/pcb/inkjet/

What I did was modify the print driver to think it needs to print
every single pixel (which would normally be too much ink).  Then I
wrote a program to remove half the pixels from the "field" away from
the edges.  That way, I don't get dithering near the edges (clean
edges) but I do away from them (not too much ink).

I was able to write my own software to send data to the printer, and
indeed I can control every single drop of ink, but unfortunately the
inkjet is itself incapable of better precision (mechanically) than
what you see in the photographs.  Unfortunately, my micro-weave
algorithm is much worse than gutenprint's one, so until I can copy
that to my software, I'm still printing with the gimp.

I might try letting it print every dot anyway, just to see how bad it
gets.  I worry about ink bleeding causing breaks in the copper traces.

I think this is as good as it mechanically gets.