Applying and exposing dry film photoresist and building a PCB.

[@mikeworrell1316]

I would watch Clive solder 128 connections, because he would start telling stories that end with things like "and the transformer explosion lifted the lorrie 3 feet into the air; quite exciting!" and then he would take a sip of ginger beer and rum.

[@DesmondsDonders]

That sounds like Clive :-)

[@ADR69]

Exactly how I thought as well

[@jamesvalentine925]

The stories that accompany these videos are one of the best parts of the channel. Although I sometimes solder in the region of 128 connections and find it tedious towards the end, it's quite therapeutic watching someone else doing it.

[@vibingwithvinyl]

It sometimes reminds me of The Fast Show. "And I was very, very... very drunk."

[@drteeth7054]

Fully agree! BG's stories are one of many reasons I love his vids.

[@UpcycleElectronics]

_To anyone interested in etching their own boards:_ By no means am I the expert here,... but I've experimented a lot over the last year. The biggest thing that helped me with my photoresist setup was someone that recommended I try "Dupont Riston 215" photoresist film. The film itself is nice but not substantially different from the cheap Chinese stuff (as long as it's fresh film). The big difference for me was the datasheet. There is an actual datasheet available online with detailed specs for developing film. Of course these specifications pertain to industrial standard equipment and environments. However they are excellent as a general ballpark guide. The datasheet also mentioned things like the "Stouffer 21 Step Guide." This sent me on a search that resulted in the creation of my own transparency for testing exposure times with fine resolution traces. The trick is to setup a board with the test pattern and cover it with a sheet of light blocking paper or, like I use, cardboard. This cover is removed a little bit at a time periodically. How fast this is done depends on the power of your exposure source. As an example, in the Southern California sun between ~11am to ~3pm my ideal exposure time is just under 3 seconds for photoresist (5 seconds for Dupont Dynamask dry film solder mask). A weaker light source will take longer. When I was establishing how long to expose my photoresist I moved the exposure cover every .5 seconds for 10 steps across the board. I had these steps marked on the transparency too. Once I'm done I recover everything and develop the resist film. If you have a super fine resolution design on your test transparency with difficult to resolve details you'll quickly see exactly how long to expose your film. IIRC Dupont Riston 215 film is specified for a maximum resolution of ~200nm. That's smaller than any hobbyist design will ever be. This requires industrial equipment to achieve anyways. However, during the test I managed to resolve a hair and dust if that gives you an idea of the possibilities. This test revealed I was over exposing my photoresist and also adding too much developer to my solution in order to compensate for the exposure. Using the datasheet I came up with a development solution ratio of 3.9g of sodium carbonate to 1000mL of distilled water. The trick is to get the water up to a temperature that is about as warm as you can comfortably put your hands in. With this combo my film develops in well under 1 minute and inside of the datasheet specification. The datasheet also has a fairly tight tolerance spec for how hot to heat the film. I found I was overheating my film too. After seeing the temperature spec, I used a thermocouple with my DMM to dial in the temperature of my iron. I used a travel iron (bc no steam holes) before I got an Amazon basics laminator. I marked the temperature on the dial of the iron. This fixed lots of my problems too. Also, I switched to cleaning with 00 fine steel wool. That helped a bit. However, the big improvement to my prep was someone mentioning white powdered dishwasher detergent. The protective coating chemical used for preventing copper clad's oxidation is hydrophobic (causes water to bead). This must be completely removed. Only when water sheets off completely evenly is the board clean. White powdered dishwasher detergent will achieve this. Last thing I'll mention, I sprayed water on my boards to apply film and still do for smaller boards. I ruined a bunch of film doing this on my first few projects larger than 10cmX10cm (1st was actually 210mmX180mm). My solution was to submerge the entire board in water and apply the film under water first, placing the film and getting it started while submerged. Then I remove and squeegee the rest of the water. With my larger boards and sprayed water I had all kinds of trouble with alignment and wrinkles ruining film. GL. I hope this helps someone like my past self :-) -Jake

[@bigclivedotcom]

My own recent experiments have involved cleaning the PCB with dish soap and a green scouring pad. I then place the PCB under a slow running tap and glide the film under the flow and onto the PCB before squeegeeing out the water. To set it I used water that had just boiled so it was as hot as possible without risking making the trapped humidity steam and cause blisters in the film. I've been using 1g sodium carbonate per 50ml warm water.

[@UpcycleElectronics]

@@bigclivedotcom Thanks, I came looking for the upload where you talked about the pcb holder you have. I was telling someone else about it and realized I hadn't saved the reference. ...then got sidetracked and watched this one again for the inkjet silkscreen transparency paper. My laser printer's toner deposition rate with transparencies is my biggest challenge to overcome right now. I have to basically use a marker over everything but the very edge of the toner print to get perfect results. I've tried stuff like doubling up the print Mr Carlson style but I can barely get 1 sheet perfectly butted up to the board. Two is just a terrible idea in my attempts. I still haven't built a good exposure light box setup I like, but here in SoCal we have about a month of cloudy days between late May and early June. This got me trying a toner transfer and a suggestion someone mentioned to me about a month ago. I tried using inkjet photopaper with my laser printer. I tried some I already had, one glossy HP branded and one old semi-gloss Kodak branded. The HP stuff basically glued itself to my board. It took a stainless steel scrubber to remove, -not so great. The Kodak stuff was a lighter weight paper. It still stuck to the board worse than any other papers I've tried, (except the HP). However, both of these inkjet photopapers picked up more laser toner than anything else I've seen, and by a long shot too. I printed them on my "transparency" print setting as this has the maximum toner on my old Brother printer. Anyways I soaked the kodak paper in water for about an hour just to see if I could get the paper off. It didn't seem to help. I ended up trying a pink block type pencil eraser to remove the last layer of paper, and that actually did the job quite well, no damage either. I was just making a little LCD breakout board. This toner transfer is the best results I've ever seen from a transfer. I've tried various papers from news print, to glossy mags, to old books, and even Avery label backing sheets, nothing compares to this inkjet photopaper. I went back and thanked the guy that suggested it. He mentioned trying even lighter weight papers if I can find them. He also said to wet the board prior to ironing the transfer. I was shocked at the quality from this setup. I mean I've done a few dozen transfers so far and this was well beyond my expectations. The LCD flat flex was a 14pin 0.5mm pitch. I thought I was really pushing it to try to add the breakout header pinout between my traces in 4pt/1.5mm positive text. I've done this with photoresist and negative text but not positive and this small. They came out perfect with the transfer. I even manually tinned the whole board without problems lifting the text. For anything small I'll probably use this technique from now on if I keep getting these results. I also heated some old ferric chloride for the first etch above room temp with it. I was hoping I could still use it instead of making another batch of hydrochloric acid mix. The last time I used it at room temp the board took 45 minutes to etch and thats with my microwave turntable agitator setup too. With heat the board was done in under 5 minutes. I just used an old 1970's electric casserole warmer thingy I got from the local junk store for $1. It doesn't even have a temperature setting...or switch. Heck it barely gets warm, but it makes a giant difference for the etch time. I was about to retire this mix as it's around 3-4 years old and is well used...or so I thought. Anyways, if you ever have the inclination to try a toner transfer again, try inkjet photo paper in a laser printer I highly recommend it :-)

[@roninpawn]

Love watching these step-by-step's, Clive. Don't care that you've showed your process before. I'm always on board for more like this. Please don't stop yourself from doing these project build-a-longs if you start to think they're repetitive. They are a favorite of mine.

[@EnriquePage]

Clive, we can watch you solder 1200 connections, as long as you speak while you do it, it'll never get boring!

[@mrp123123123]

6:55 "I certainly don't use it on my clothing." Words of a genuine bachelor.

[@thomas316]

Iron, tupperware, rubber gloves and a sponge. This episode had them all.

[@mordokch]

Funnily enough I have the exact same iron, which has been used for all sorts of stuff, but it's never ever seen an item of clothing other than to iron on transfers. I call mine 'Burny' :)

[@nferraro222]

Took me a moment to identify the device. Might be good for grilled cheese sandwiches.

[@jamesvalentine925]

We own an iron, I think my wife is under the impression it's an ornament though. Occasionally I use it for dealing with transfers etc... Life's too short to iron clothes.

[@danmackintosh6325]

This is what I keep attempting to tell my better half, I think the message is slowly getting home although she does still iron school uniform which is sort of acceptable IMO. Good to know there is a valid and genuine use for the iron though after all...

[@raymondmucklow3793]

I can't say it enough I dig these projects.

[@thekrautist]

I have become much more confident in my soldering since I started watching some bearded Scottish git to it so masterfully. Because if you gotta ape someone, ape someone with a bear- er, ape someone who knows what they're doing. So thank you Clive, without you I wouldn't have a desk fan now.

[@dawnlightening]

What a nice, chatty "electronics enthusiast"! I loved how he patiently (and lovingly) rubbed and twiddled the pcb in clearly under-strength developer for around 6 times longer than I would have waited for. I've added this vid to my likes so that I can watch it on my 'off' days and be re-inspired by Clive's patience. Thank you Clive!

[@bigclivedotcom]

I'd rather it developed slower than do the "everything disappears" thing.

[@Kalumbatsch]

After a lot of frustration, what made the difference for me was making the mask really opaque, when you print on a foil and hold it in front of a light, you can see that the black ink or toner is still quite transparent and you'll expose everything a little bit. I printed two layers of toner on the same sheet and that made it black as night. After that I didn't have to rub anything, the unexposed stuff came clean off in less than a minute.

[@dawnlightening]

@@Kalumbatsch Excellent observation! What I usually do, is print two adjacent masks on the same trasparency. I then cut one of them out and place it over the other. I am careful to align the tracks so that the two masks exactly coincide. I then sellotape the edges of the top mask to keep it in position. In this way I overcome the problem of see-through solid areas. I find this easier than overprinting on the same transparency. Overprinting often misaligns the first and second prints, at least it does on my Samsung laser printer.

[@JohannSwart_JWS]

You can bake bicarb in the oven at 100 C for a while to make sodium carbonate. It reverts back after a while as it absorbs water from the air. Also happens to your store bought carbonate, so store it airtight. Good video. I've also used that printing film. VERY expensive stuff, but it works well on a pigment based inkjet - not for dye based inks.

[@craigs5212]

I drill my holes with a very similar hand tool built from a small DC brushed motor fitted with a pin chuck. It's wired with a foot switch to start and stop the motor. When you let your foot off the switch the motor armature is also shorted, the back emf instantly stops the motor. This allows you to position the drill in the dimple hole of the next pad with the motor stopped reducing the chance of breaking the drill bit.

[@LMacNeill]

That was excellent. I enjoyed seeing the entire process, start-to-finish. Great job -- thanks!

[@maxheadrom3088]

Indeed! Really excellent! The best I've seen around. One note: drawing by hand is the really time consuming process!

[@JohnnyX50]

When I was in training for electronics back in the 90's we used PCB that had the photo sensitive coating already on it with a black protective peel away. That stuff was a bluish green but only changed colour very very faintly to a yellowish colour when exposed to the UV unit. It was quite posh I believe they were clinical tubes in a briefcase style housing, looking almost like a flatbed scanner. You locked down the lid, set the timer and waited lol. I have no idea what the developing solution was but the developer, etching and wash chemicals were in a 3 stage bath thing with lidded baskets where you moved your boards from one bath to the next. I remember the etching bath had that same horrid yellow black chemical with a heater and bubble blower built in it. I miss those days, you always remind me of the things I miss in electronics. The experiments, the explosions, the fun times and the headaches when things just wont work lol :D

[@GenericAnimeBoy]

You could just skip ahead but you won't because Clive's rich, calming brogue has lulled your cat to sleep on your lap.

[@tom_something]

Leaving voids in the middles of the pads to help center the drill bit is really clever.

[@ElmerFuddGun]

??? I've never known one not to even back in the old school days using manually placed tape on clear film. It drills so much easier and faster without the need to worry about breaking drill bits. Drilling through copper just wears out the bits faster for no reason.

[@tom_something]

Interesting.I don't design circuits. I'm just a fan, so there's a lot I don't know.

[@theskett]

There's a lot we all don't know. For example, copper sure doesn't wear out tungsten carbide bits. Fiberglass, otoh, is fairly bit-abrasive. Copper 3 vs. glass 5.5: geology.com/minerals/mohs-hardness-scale.shtml

[@tom_something]

As I understand it, those bits he's using are on their second tour of duty anyway.

[@theskett]

Didn't volunteer, tho ;-)

[@krmlzr1079]

honestly first time i watched from first second to the last one. Normally i watch 50% and listen 50% while working. Like the way you showed a whole process from etching to soldering to explaining and showing. good video clive!

[@neoncyber2001]

Cheers! I can always count on The Big Clive video archive to have what I need. Plus lots of good experience based information that you don't get from the manufacturers!

[@bakonfreek]

Actually sort of want to watch Clive run through 128 solder joints.

[@goneutt]

In the mechatronics lab we made PCBs using an amped up awards laser engraver that could do two sides, but mainly used for single sides. Applied a varnish over the copper, and the laser burned off everything but the trace. Then flip the board and it could drill the holes and burn in other designs. Those were the days.

[@klauspetersen8593]

Well explained as usual. There seem to be a lot of videos on KZbin explaining how to etch homemade pcbs but not so many great videos about how to apply a solder mask to homemade pcbs.

[@biggothkitty]

Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda is Sodium Carbonate. We use it a lot for removing rust via electrolysis in restoration projects.

[@klinglerjh]

Would Borax work?

[@Zadster]

This looks like the ideal thing for a therapy room in a hospital or whatever, those colour changing LEDs are hypnotic.

[@PIXscotland]

Go on... You know you want to short out half of the panel to bring that current up...

[@bigclivedotcom]

I do. Maybe nudge it down to a 6 by 6 array.

[@ZeedijkMike]

I might very well "borrow" this. Love the slow colour changing LEDs.

[@jaishetty8586]

Actually LEDS work more efficiently when switched at a hi frequency than a DC voltage. It is also much brighter, The driving voltage threshold is almost enough to destroy the LED, if it isn't switched off in time.

[@Anvilshock]

Lovely enjoyable video, thank you very much! I like the board having multiple holes to fit different dropper cap sizes! Simple and clever!

[@jamesg1367]

Just for info, sodium bicarbonate decomposes into sodium carbonate, water and CO2 at 200C. A bit of time in the oven, and your very ordinary baking soda magically becomes your very special developer.

[@cmotdibbler4454]

You are too hot it's 200 F (~93.3C)

[@firmman4505]

CMOT Dibbler ok

[@CoherentPhoton]

​@@cmotdibbler4454 At 200 F it would take an hour or so from what I'm reading. At 200 C it's 15mins. I don't think our normal food ovens get hot enough to cause a problem for sodium bicarbonate. It melts at 3000 C so prolly keep it less than that I reckon ;)

[@pvc988]

I also like to paint the PCB with some rosin/acetone mixture before soldering. It evaporates quickly, makes soldering really easy and protects copper from oxidizing over time.

[@ASKARIwest]

This was very interesting. The whole process was cool to watch. Circuits are quite beautiful in their own way.

[@theskett]

ASKARIwest You might enjoy scanlime's channel, especially where she assembles Boldport kits. Or assembles BC's LED tree, even :-)

[@robbs96]

Where "baking soda" is sodium bicarbonate, "washing soda" is sodium carbonate AKA soda ash. cheap easy access from the supermarket, at least in the states. Thanks for all your great videos Clive!

[@BlueKitsuneSakai]

Seeing this makes me want to see you build a sort of "firecracker string" Out of components like LEDs, capacitors, and the like. Basically, one pops, which causes the next to fail then the next and so on. Dramatically of course!

[@RelakS__]

I don't know if it is a big thing, but when I did my last etches years ago, I just put a sticky tape to the back of the PCB, and carefully laid it to the ferrite chloride. It floated on the top of it, and had nice etch, while every possible residue just went down to the bottom of the container, and with the sticky tape I was able to get it out with clear hands. Have to check for bubbles though :)

[@ulwur]

When I did this I printed the layout with a b/w laser on paper and shone the UW through the paper direct to the photoresist. Skipping the transparency. Toner side to the resist made for super sharp contours!

[@XaFFaX]

9:17 I wonder what Clive considers a "warm water". Would 10C be warm by Clive's standards :D ?

[@BogdanSerban]

This came at the right time. I too was getting frustrated at the toner transfer method. Will definitely try this after all.

[@wreckervilla]

I prefer those more diffuse LEDs honestly, quite a good effect. Nicely done

[@craigs5212]

I used Shipley AZ111liquid pos photresist for years, the developer was the same sodium carbonate but it also contained a surfacant (detergent) to help out the development process. I would experiment adding a little laundry detergent to your sodium carbonate solution and see how that works. I started with the ferric chloride, but switched to ammonium persulfate because it was supplied dry and did not stain like the ferric chloride and was less caustic. The down side is that it needs to be heated to work. Also used the muriatic acid -- hydrogen peroxide etchant which works quite nicely. To strip the resist -- acetone, or strong Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) solution. But now I get the boards built by JLC PCB in China, can't buy the blank boards for the price JLC charges

[@KarldorisLambley]

i have finally bought a laser printer (although im a bit pissed off as the box said "laser printer", but it appears it uses LEDs, not a laser. no matter) to accompany my photo-resist sheets, sodium carbonate, FeCl, plastic trays, a UVA lamp i made, and PCB blanks. the bit im not looking forward to is faffing about with software to make my own PCB layouts. i did try drawing the PCBs freehand, but it was a right balls up. laying down SMD 555 and 4017 traces freehand is, i discovered, impossible, for me. I am really looking forward to doing something with all the BC gerber files I've downloaded. may i trouble you BC to tell me what software you recommend for making layouts, please?

[@bigclivedotcom]

Thanks. I use Sprint layout, but these days the online Easy EDA may be a good option, or Kicad may be good too.

[@jrnandreassen3338]

You can convert sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate quite easily in the oven. Just heat it to above 70 degrees Celsius for an hour or so and you'll be fine (yes, I do metric (and so should everyone!)) This process will convert the bicarbonate to carbonate, CO2 and water. The time it takes will depend on the volume you make and the thickness of it. I learned this trick from a sausage maker in Norway.

[@ChrisD4335]

You didn't use your bag o etchant system. Did you decide Tupperware is better?

[@bigclivedotcom]

It was just for variety.

[@CoherentPhoton]

Great video mate, I searched for a video about using dry film photoresist, I knew that when I saw your name the video would provide all the answers I knew I wanted and others that I didn't know I wanted :) Just wanted to add that incase you don't know, if all you have is sodium bicarbonate but you want sodium carbonate. Preheat your oven to 200C and bake the bicarb for 15 mins. At temperatures above 80C, sodium bicarbonate breaks down to sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Since it's in a hot oven, after 15min all you have left is sodium carbonate. BTW, I'm not a chemist. I heard this ages ago and just googled it, gave you this info from a scientific amercan chemistry project for kids called "Vanishing Baking Soda".

[@bigclivedotcom]

At some point I discovered that sodium carbonate was sold in big packs in the laundry aisle of the local supermarket.

[@theflash9119]

i love these long for videos Clive, would love to see more soldering vids too!

[@alec4672]

I've been trying to find a reliable detailed way to etch brass plaque and name tags for a solid 2 months now. Cant believe I found all the information I needed from a pcb etching video from a channel I've been subscribed to for over 2 years. Goes to show you'll find it when your not looking.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Also check out electroetching which is well suited to surface etching of plaques.

[@alec4672]

@@bigclivedotcom Thanks for the reply and the tip! Love the videos you and AvE are top two.

[@boblewis5558]

For beginners and more experienced users ... EasyEDA is: 1. multiplatform (Linux, Windoze or MAC) 2. Online OR local 3. Can do schematic to PCB 4. Can do PCB direct 5. Has multiple output options 6. VERY easy to use and learn, especially for anyone with any previous board design experience 7. 100% FREE 8. No time limit on use 9. No restriction on board size (unlike some free offerings) 10. Double OR single sided. 11. Produces separate layers for: - top & bottom circuit for layout - top & bottom silk screen layout 12. SMD &/or Through Hole components. Many other useful features As someone who (DECADES ago!) used to design boards using ChartPak adhesive tapes, dots, outlines etc on. 4x size sheet (20 cm X 10cm board = 80 cm X 40cm) using EasyEDA instead is an absolute doddle! Highly recommended. And if you don't like it ... Ditch it ... It costs NOTHING after all!

[@easymac79]

9:00 It's pretty easy to make Sodium Carbonate from Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda). Simply heat it on a stove or flame with a suitable pan. It will appear to boil as the extra Carbon Dioxide escapes. Leaving Sodium Carbonate.

[@MrMartinSchou]

I'm suddenly wondering if a laser cutter could do the etching and "drilling" for circuit boards. Something like the Glowforge can etch materials as well as cut them, so maybe it could be adjusted to vaporize the copper instead of using etch as well as cutting the holes in the fibreglass.

[@chemputer]

Just a tip, *you can easily turn Sodium Bicarbonate into Sodium Carbonate* by putting it in the oven at a fairly low temperature. Slightly above the boiling point of water works great, so 105°C (220°F) for an hour will do the trick. Technically the decomposition reaction occurs above 50°C, but it's faster the hotter it is, but you don't want it TOO hot, as there are diminishing returns above about 100°C and you might cause unwanted side reactions. The high temp causes the NaHCO3 *(Sodium Bicarbonate)* to decompose to produce Na2CO3 *(Sodium Carbonate),* H2O (Water, which evaporates) and CO (Carbon Monoxide, which is a gas.) The full reaction is: *_2NaHCO3 > NaCO3 + H2O + CO_* So if you've only got Sodium Bicarbonate, don't fret!

[@peterwerner5915]

"Corrosive vapours," and "acceptable," in the same sentence. Classic Clive.

[@locouk]

Have you tried building one of the 8 by 8 LED cubes yet? I know they're old hat now, but they are mesmerizing to see them go through their light sequences. With your advanced knowledge, maybe a 16 by 16 or 32 by 32 is an adventurous possibility.

[@zh84]

A 32 by 32 by 32 LED cube would be 32768 LEDs. That's a lot of soldering...

[@Mentorcase]

I have one sitting on my desk still in pieces as a kit and haven't got the courage to start it yet.

[@nonprofitplague7732]

Mentorcase i would love to get one of those cube kits id add a few features though

[@Mentorcase]

Mine has extra features, such as a sd and USB input and a small amp and speaker and a perspex case to cover it.

[@Anvilshock]

The cubes are built in layers. The biggest challenge of LED cubes is actually coming up with a way to hold the damn LEDs in place while soldering them into a layer, ie. making your own jig. From there, it becomes trivial to just repeat the process of bending leads, arranging the LEDs, and soldering. One method that works rather well with 2/3/4 LEDs is an array of breadboards (just the middle pieces without the power rails) where you plug in bits of header pins (as this guy did: emalliab.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/icstation-4x4x4-led-cube-shield-for-arduino-hardware-build/). Others just poke the (round) LEDs through cardboard or drilled plywood, bending the legs a bit differently. It's really no wizardry. Enjoy!

[@maxheadrom3088]

My sister, who's a dentist, has an x-ray development box - very simple and, I think, not expensive. It's made or a red acrylic and has holes with sleeves for the hands. I think Clive should try before buying the box because after seeing the pimball machine video I noticed the dude is really - I mean really really - big.

[@mauricehollands2425]

Thank you Clive! Appreciate the reply!! Is there a particular brand of resist you use? I am trying to use the process to etch my knife blades, so obviously I can't use a laminator either!

[@bigclivedotcom]

The stuff I've been using is generic eBay stuff.

[@JuanHerrero]

Did you use glossy magazine pages as it is recommended with the toner transfer method? If I remember correctly the paper is glossy because it has got a layer of ceramic material. "For decades, glossy paper, the type used in magazines, was made using a white clay called kaolin (named after the Chinese region Kao-Ling where it was mined to produce porcelain). The clay is used to fill the spaces between the fibers in the paper and to coat the paper so that it will have a smooth surface. This makes the paper more suitable for the reproduction of photographs, especially color photos."

[@bigclivedotcom]

I tried glossy photo paper and magazine paper. Both had issues with desired toner coming off when trying to wash away the paper/clay residue in detailed areas.

[@nathantron]

May I ask why you went with the full name Big Clive Dot Com? it's not something that can be skimmed by robots, so I'm slightly confused why keep the dot.

[@thehappylittlefoxakabenji8154]

I usually put my board so it floats on top of the etchant but I do have a proper water tank thingy that allows you to see how its etching I stand mine above the radiator to warm it up I have also used my iron to apply transfers veneers soften hot melt glued cardboard boxes even cooked some baked beans ! I have yet to iron a shirt with it !

[@AndyHullMcPenguin]

Somewhere I think I have a minicraft jigsaw, almost identical to that little drill. Same black plastic, same on off switch. Also from RME about 1000 yers ago. I'll need to dig around and see if I can find it.

[@tom_something]

I've read that heating sodium bicarbonate will give you sodium carbonate. The byproducts are carbon dioxide and water, so if that's correct, this is safe to do in your home oven.

[@Anvilshock]

This is correct. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate#Thermal_decomposition for a description and associated sources.

[@Foxfatherracing]

been doing it for years its safe not even a smell

[@theskett]

But provided you can buy washing soda, it's usually much cheaper than bicarb; plus, no-bake :-)

[@ChozoSR388]

theskett Cheaper than $0.79/£0.58 per box of bicarb?

[@Anvilshock]

Depends on the box. Is it a metric box or an imperial one? Troy or Avoirdupois? Long box or short box? Is it biscuit bicarb or cake bicarb? Is it a vegan box? Does it come with batteries? Does it work under water?

[@VulpisFoxfire]

Hmmm. Shame All Electronics doesn't have a UK/Scottish branch...they have board-etchig stuff pretty cheap. And I know the acid they sell is in dry form--I don't know if you have the same hazardous shipping issues with dry rather than liquid acid.

[@irandom419]

For toner to copper clad, I used the laser printer safe overhead transparencies with an iron. It works fine for me since I rarely make boards.

[@JimTheZombieHunter]

@12:41 .. I've been meaning to try toner transfer with those laser printer sheets specifically designed for iron on t-shirt transfers.

[@anvz6]

I think the resistor in series with the input voltage is needed because at start the capacitor is a short circuit. If you had bad luck and plugs it when the voltage is on it's maximum value, you could blow the LEDs.

[@namespacetoosmall]

Hurrah for build videos!

[@dilpagalho4306]

Humble suggestions: 1) Please go thru the steps of printing the negative transparency, exposing the UV on camera. You seem to spend of lot of time on washing off the resist and etching. Could have spent some of that time on covering all the other steps...thanks for the video. Look forward to more :)

[@drteeth7054]

To make an inkjet print with black inks rather than a mix of colours, "greyscale" printing shoild be enabled in the printer driver options.

[@tomgeorge3726]

Hi Clive, if I have to trim LED legs before fitting them to a board, I cut them so that the long lead when trimmed is still longer than the other. Tom...

[@drteeth7054]

When cutting LED leads, I cut them wonky so that the positive is still the longer. I can very rarely tell where the flat but is as I find it indistinct.

[@jameslaine2472]

Darn, I thought you were going to show more than just the PCB copper etching; I was hoping to see what method you used to add the red and white marks on the black board you showed at 0:17.

[@bigclivedotcom]

You can apply those using similar techniques, but by that point you might as well get a batch fully manufactured.

[@therealchayd]

Sprint layout rocks!

[@krmusick]

I'd never skip a moment Clive. I don't even play faster. :)

[@beachcomberbob3496]

Here's a wee technical question - what's the minimum line width, or even hole diameter, that you've found will still resolve on your etch? Thanks.

[@Clancydaenlightened]

you can also use hydrogen peroxide, salt, and an acid (vinegar works but a more concentrated acid will work faster), which will form a cupric chloride etch, just add copper

[@deanhedin1615]

Thanks for the vid, Clive...and thanks for doing it in real time. The kit I got came with a packet of "Developer" powder and another packet of "Release Agent" powder. Sadly with only Chinese labeling (which I translated) I presume the release agent is to remove the resist after etching. My intent is to use the UV 3d printer for exposure. Wish me luck...

[@jsquaredrestorations8573]

Did you try shorting out some LEDs to get the current up in the rest to see if you can improve brightness?

[@IanMcLeish]

Clive. how would they have looked if they were set in another plane? If they were placed in a different comb position so that they were "blurred"? Perhaps those positions wouldn't have allowed that amount of blur, and it would have defeated your plan to replicate an idian temple floor. but it might have looked cool? Yeah, over a year late to the party, but that is me - always late!

[@spokehedz]

I wonder if you could use the clear LED's for brightness, but then put a thin sheet of frosted plastic or something similar so that the light was collimated up until right before the lens, losing the least amount of light inside the case. Gosh now I want to make a PCB with an ungodly amount of 5050 slowchange LED's or even smaller maybe.

[@weaselbox6746]

really really enjoyed this video clive!! : o ) thanks clive!

[@dimitar4y]

Speaking of shorting caps, I shorted a 400V DC 1000nF capacitor. MAN was that a fun experience. It was like a flashbang.

[@0x8badf00d]

1000nF or 1000µF?

[@aspectcarl]

May I say you handle that steam iron like a complete ironing pro :D

[@shadowzedge5793]

Would it be possible to use a heater similar to those used in aquariums to heat to copper etchant as well as using a waterfall type to have the etchant flow over the board removing material with as little interaction with the chemicals?

[@qwerty-cg7hv]

I'm only 2 years late to comment on your post, but! I have an RS unit that I use and it has just that, an aquarium style heater and also a small aquarium air pump to agitate the fluid, both for developing and etching. The board hangs vertically in a perforated sleeve. Fortunately I found it cheaply in a local auction a few years ago. It has speeded up my production no end :-) also everything tends to happen more evenly on the board.

[@deus.gladium1617]

Hi Clive, Have you tried toner transfer paper? I found some a while back that's a yellow colour that seemed to work quite nicely and peel right off in one piece with a little water. Not sure if you've already tried this but if not it may be worth a shot.

[@deus.gladium1617]

Oh also, if you have a p.o box or something I could post you a couple of sheets cut to a5 to fit in my envelopes.

[@athraxblackspire8437]

Hi! If you can't find any sodium carbonate, you can also use sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner. Careful, very caustic!) or buy some sodium bicarbonate (baking powder!) and heat it in a pan for 20 minutes. This turns the bicarb into normal sodium carbonate. As for etching with ferric chloride... try cupric chloride CuCl2 instead. You can make it yourself from copper, muriatic acid (HCl)(sold as concrete cleaner at home depot) and a little time. It can be re-used pretty much indefinitely. If it gets too discolored, add a tiny bit more muriatic acid (HCl) and simply let it stand for some time.

[@Landogarner83]

Hey Clive some tips you might find useful: - for drilling holes larger than 0.7mm in pcb I use tungsten spear tip bits because those are much less prone to breaking than the spiral drill bits and self center really nicely. (havent found any smaller than 0.8 though :( -That Nurdrage tip also works for regenerating used ferric cloride if you can get hydrochloric/muriatic acid. If you can't get the acid there is a workaround using "PH Minus" from pool supplies in combination with table salt and some tupperware.

[@thrownchance]

I was wondering how small you can make the trace width with this aproach. I guess the achievable resolution for the printed silk screen is limiting first and the exposing of the photoresist is the next problem.

[@Blacktronics]

would love to hear some ideas on how to get decent RGB color mixing on these and still having a fairly focused beam i guess a half clear half diffused LED would be neato, have diffused resin around the chips and a focusing clear dome on top

[@killernurd]

Worse comes to worst, you can always chemically alter sodium bicarbonate by baking it for a couple of hours in a normal kitchen oven, turning it into sodium carbonate.

[@fredmiller217]

Thank you so much for sharing. I have tried this dry film method several times with no success. I'm pretty sure that my problem is in the soda wash proportions. I'm not sure what 8 grams is. My kitchen scale seems to weight out a lot more powder than I see in your mixing tray. Is this weight, volume or some other measurement that I may be missing. How do you measure out 8 grams?

[@bigclivedotcom]

8 grams is about a quarter of an ounce.

[@gh-ur2lx]

Trying to get the hang of this method. I used to use the pre-sensitised boards from Maplin years ago, but this method is much cheaper. For the exposure I have tried a 200W incandescent bulb, with the bulb about 10cm from the board an exposure time of 15 mins seems about right. I also have an eprom eraser I am thinking of trying, but i think the incandescent lamp may be a more 'gentle' way to expose the board and less time critical. I have an 11W UV CFL bulb but this seems inferior. My laser printer doesn't do too well with transparencies as the toner doesnt stick properly, leaving poor opacity and a smeary 'trail' down the page. Tracing paper seems ok, but one other method worthy of further investigation is to use ordinary paper with a few drops of baby oil soaked in. The oil makes the paper transparent and the oil helps it to stick to the board. Developing seems the tricky part for me, it all looks well until the last remnants of photo resist remain on the board, then I get tracks peeling off all of a sudden. After 3 days of trying to perfect this method, I have made some progress but am still not quite happy with the results. Another idea I have is to apply toner reactive film to the transparency/tracing paper, this stuff is supposed to stick only to the toner so should increase the opacity of the artwork, it is available cheaply and is intended for making your own greetings cards, etc. I got the idea watching a video where someone used 'trf' film along with the toner transfer method of DIY PCB production.

[@DasGrinch]

So was it a bad LED or a bridge, or something else?

[@bigclivedotcom]

Tiny solder bridge.

[@Agent24Electronics]

It's amazing just how small some solder whiskers can be.

[@weaselbox6746]

marathonning you building pcbs tonight!

[@Smidge204]

Allegedly you can make a homebrew PCB etchant made from white vinegar and table salt. I've made my own using hydrochloric acid (aka muriatic acid, sold as concrete cleaner or a swimming pool chemical) which works a treat, and is a beautiful shade of green! But the vinegar + salt mix seems usable and the materials ought to be readily available.

[@YSoreil]

That's pretty cool, it's a very similar process to how I develop normal colour negative film. For film we agitate quite strongly, you really can put a lot more force on it if you want a very clean dissolving. Cool video, going to try this myself.

[@AndrewWalsh43]

Much prefer the diffused LED's, nicer color. I wonder what value capacitors you might use to get a brighter output. would you consider giving some of these away to some of your lucky subscribers?

[@qwerty-cg7hv]

How the heck did you hold that drill steady enough to do that? When I first started making PCBs I tried hand holding one, from Maplin! It was a dismal failure, it cost more in bits than I care to think about. Fortunately we have a very good auction house locally and one of the things that I found there was a proper, RS supplied, PCB pillar drill, complete with dust extraction. I like the smell of drilled PCBs but allegedly it's not all that healthy :-( On a different note. I have done some very fine (fine as in thin, not as in great) tracked PCBs and found it better to print so that the side of the acetate against the board had the printing on, this way there was no chance of the UV creeping around the print and casting a small shadow onto the resist, even though the acetate is thin there was a gap between the toner/ink and the resist. Although I'm nearly 4 years behind the video can I just say thanks and it made a good watch, thank you.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I've drilled a lot of holes in PCBs and initially broke quite a few drills until I mastered drilling with tungsten carbide bits.

[@MazeFrame]

Quite enjoyable video. I really want to build something like this myself now. Could try putting a diffuser in front of the clear LEDs.

[@shifter65]

What for and where does one search to get the silkscreen industry sheet mentioned at 2:20?

[@bigclivedotcom]

eBay keywords - silk screen inkjet transparency waterproof

[@shifter65]

@@bigclivedotcom Ah, thanks for the reply!

[@UltimatePerfection]

How about making a series where you explain how to make cool electronic gadgets from scratch in a way that's understandable for people with no formal electronic or electrical education? Such series would also explain where to order components online, what to look for so you won't get screwed over by bad sellers and so on. I think such thing would rock and you'd be very good at it, this video proves enough that you have a knack for teaching and it would bring many new viewers to tge channel.

[@macro820]

Diffused led's look cool, kind of looks like a giant LED matrix chip

[@sonnyobrien]

Clive, I am interested in foregoing a UV box to expose this material. Do you know the exposure times for leaving the film between glass exposed in the sun? THANKS!

[@bigclivedotcom]

You can test it before the main exposure with a piece of the film on its own. The colour change is also very visible. Make sure the glass is clamped down firmly on the transparency to prevent light leaking underneath.

[@zsombor_99]

Good! 👍 The slow relaxing randomness... 😏

[@Xaelloss]

The laminator isn't supposed to help you apply the photoresist -- you're to use it afterwards to fuse the thing onto the PCB. Supposedly, it's simpler than using an iron but I don't have one. The technique that works for me personally is not to peel the protective film all the way, but to remove it gradually as you apply the material onto the board, flattening it with a squeegee or something similar as you go. The wet method is fine too, of course, and I believe this is how they apply coloured film onto cars and other large objects.

[@bartomiej368]

Did you try photo resist in spray? Like positiv 20, these last for about 1.5 square meters of pcb and develop faster

[@codebeat4192]

Nice video, like the safe soda method, is there also a more friendly developer available? What is the name of the transparent sheets you use to print the circuit on? Is it suitable for inkjet printers or do you need a laser printer?

[@bigclivedotcom]

If you look on eBay for waterproof inkjet film you'll find it. The safest etchant is possibly the ferric chloride. Others tend to be very slow or acid based.

[@codebeat4192]

Thank you for the quick answer! Thumbs up! ;-)