Homebrew PCBs

Hi, I have excellent results with a HP DJ960C printing in black
directly from the Boardmaker PCB design program.
The printhead MUST be in excellent condition as stripes are a hell of
a problem.
ELSO


--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Dirk F Ganzinga" <dfg1955@y...>
wrote:
> 
> Quite true!! I could not get the transparants well: grey-ish, 
> striping, etc. I found and read this post and it's now ok. Simply
set 
> my Epson Stylus 740 to "Glossy Photopaper" and "Color", printed on
a 
> deskjet transparant. It takes a while but it's perfect, much more 
> black than a laserprinter. Great advise, thanks!
> Regards,
> Dirk
> 
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, mpdickens <md30022@y...>
wrote:
> > A member of another mailing list I am a member of
> > found the following in a archive. Further, he tested
> > and it worked as advertised:
> > 
> > I have been dealing with a development effort for a
> > circuit that my company is developing. In order to get
> > fast turnaround of boards for testing, I needed a way
> > to make high quality circuit boards (multilayer) in
> > under 8 hours. Cost from commercial board houses for
> > 24 hour turnaround was in the range of $2000-$3000 per
> > design.  In my case, I had to also develope plating
> > systems and through-hole activation, fast etching, and
> > a hot 20 ton press which I built by converting a shop
> > press from harbor freight and adding a temperature
> > controller and heating elements.  etc.
> > 
> > For ATM purposes, 2 sided boards can be made for a
> > minimal expense.
> > 
> > Because many on this list make their own circuit
> > boards on occassion (for stepper circuits and camera
> > circuits), I thought I would share my experience
> > with the group.
> > 
> > I am currently producing 4, 6 and 8 layer circuit
> > boards using equipment now in my basement. Granted my
> > basement looks like a chamber of horrors, but I
> > suspect this is true for many on this list. Eight mil
> > traces and lands are now easily doable and I am
> > holding +/- 2 mil registration.
> > 
> > The greatest roadblock to producing good circuit
> > boards was getting good artwork on a transparency.  In
> > that regard, I have made several discoveries which are
> > not immediately intuitive.
> > 
> > First, getting really good artwork for the spec above
> > is not possible with a laser printer. Phase error
> > creeps in and even for printers claiming 1200
> > DPI the accuracy just isn't there.  I tested this with
> > several models of HP printers including the 2000
> > series and the 4000 series.
> > 
> > In addition, the toner is just not dark enough.  You
> > end up having to underexpose the photoresist in order
> > to get good removal and then you have a problem with
> > undercured photoresist that will not tent over holes
> > and whose sides are weak. Further the developing
> > process just trashes the underexposed resist.
> > 
> > I finally decided to try an inkjet printer.  After
> > some research looking for a printer that supported
> > high resolution in black, I purchased a Canon.
> > Initially, I purchased the S300 but it turned out that
> > clever marketing made is sound like it supported high
> > res black.  In reality, the black was only 600 DPI
> > like every other printer...  Not enough resolution.  I
> > then tried the S800, which did support 2400 x 1200 DPI
> > in color and in Black - the only printer that
> > supported high resolution black printing. Experiments
> > with
> > this printer unfortunately revealed the problem that
> > most people have with bubble jets.  The black is
> > simply not dark enough in UV.  This despite the fact
> > that it was a pigment based ink.
> > 
> > I did have moderate success stacking tranparenies. 
> > This allowed me to increase the exposure time, but
> > because only the first transparency was ink down (the
> > second had to have a full 5 mil separation for the
> > thickness of the first transparency, the edges were
> > not very clean.
> > 
> > I then had a brainstorm, I realized that my UV filters
> > for my flourescent lighting were amber.  I decided to
> > try other colors... I quickly discovered that yellow
> > was just as dark (in UV) as black. Disappointed that
> > it was not darker, I began thinking about ways I could
> > change the formulation of the ink to include a
> > coreactive UV blocking chemical. I started searching
> > the net when I discovered that ink fading as a result
> > of UV is a real problem for photography. To my
> > surprise, my printer already contained an ink that
> > was UV blocking.  All I had to do was tell the printer
> > that it was printing on high resolution photopaper. 
> > This automatically switched cartridges to the PC
> > (Photo Cyan) and PM (Photomagenta). Yellow remains the
> > same because yellow only fades to yellow.
> > 
> > In any case, once I did that, I was able to fully
> > expose the Photoresist. In comparing a foil blocked
> > section and a photo ink exposed section there
> > was little difference. Moreover, in testing artwork
> > created by a real photoplotter (costing $200,000). 
> > There was no difference. The only difference was that
> > I settled on "GREEN" as being the color that was best.
> > This selected the darkness of yellow in UV and the
> > chemical UV blocking in Photo Cyan to produce a very
> > dark black in UV and a pretty green in visible... :-)
> > 
> > Perfect exposures!  That along with unbelievable
> > resolution of these printers make for a killer
> > combination for producing your own artwork and
> > consequently your own circuit boards.
> > 
> > The bottom line is this. You DON'T want a printer with
> > a dark black! Forget whether it is pigment based ink
> > or dye based ink. That is all irrelavent, none of them
> > are going to be dark enough.
> > 
> > You want a PHOTO printer with PHOTO ink.  Further ALL
> > photoprinters have high resolution in color!  Even the
> > cheap ones ($100)! Just make sure a photo ink is
> > available either from the manufacturer or for an ink
> > refiller. All photo ink is, is ink with UV blocking
> > added so the photos you print don't fade.
> > 
> > What will the photoplotter companies do???
> > 
> > Armed with this information, there is no reason
> > everyone on this list does not do steves killer mod
> > for the Philips Vesta camera or the many circuits
> > for telescope motorization and tracking.
> > 
> > 
> > Best
> > 
> > Marvin Dickens
> > Alpharetta, Georgia
> > 
> > =====
> > Registered Linux User No. 80253
> > If you use linux, get counted at: 
> > http://www.linuxcounter.org
> > 
> > 
> > 		
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