Laser Engraving PCB's (Super Simple)

[@crazynanoman]

Laser small hole in center of pads to help drill bit without punching each hole.

[@bitofelectronics]

Yes sir you are right, but sometimes I over etch it and the whole pad becomes as thin as a human hair 😅

[@3DZappy]

Good video. Covering all.

[@furkann38]

Çok teşekkürler gayet güzel bir çalışma olmuş.

[@bitofelectronics]

Rica ederim :)

[@arjunrao9978]

Excellent Video 👍🙏🏼

[@GameAndJokes]

Can we also make this work for smd pcb ?

[@bitofelectronics]

Yes, you can use it to make SMD PCBs, but you will need a higher quality laser. Don't expect it to engrave very small footprints, like those of the STM32F103CBT6

[@GameAndJokes]

@@bitofelectronics I really appreciate your response, I m getting started with PCB milling and could I use 3018 CNC for it ? any advice?

[@bitofelectronics]

​ @GameAndJokes You are welcome ☺,i don't have any experience with PCB milling, but I know the 3018 CNC. It's great for beginners, and you can create some simple circuits with it. I believe it uses a 775 motor as the spindle, which you could consider upgrading in the future. I've heard it has low-quality ball bearings and vibrates a little while engraving.

[@ribvicky]

Nice detailed video. Thanx 🙏 Will this laser be able to cut vinyl tape pasted on the pcb board?

[@bitofelectronics]

Well I didn't try cutting any vinyl with my laser, but I did some research for you. Maybe getting a more powerful laser is a better idea. I also found that cutting vinyl with a laser creates harmful gases, so be careful.

[@ribvicky]

​@@bitofelectronicsThanx for the reply! To tackle the harmful gas thing, I am thinking of attaching a vaccum cleaner port near the laser module. I believe it will take care of that situation, isn't it? Secondly, my budget is not great so I am concerned about the dot resolution of that cheap $40 laser. Can you tell me the dot diameter you have? Because if I look at your 1206 pad, the isolation looks quite thick.

[@bitofelectronics]

@@ribvicky Well, when I was engraving wood, I tried sucking the fumes into my vacuum cleaner. It filtered about 50% of it, and it's been like 6 months now. Whenever I power up my vacuum cleaner, it still fills the room with a burned wood smell lol. If you plan to put the vacuum cleaner outside and don't plan to use it for cleaning your house in the future, I think it's a good idea :D As for the laser dot size, as you can see at 7:05, the thinnest PCB trace is around 0.3 mm (12 mils), and it's about to disappear. So, I assume the dot size is something around 0.14 mm.

[@ribvicky]

@@bitofelectronics Yes offcourse I will not use that VC for home 😁 Don't want to get kicked out 😀😀 and regarding dot size, I don't think it's 0.14mm. just look at the isolation track around your traces (this is where your laser is actually cutting the paint) that looks quite thick to me. If it was 0.14mm then the isolation would have been very very thin making the pads look bigger.

[@bitofelectronics]

@@ribvicky ibb.co/F83XrnH take a look at this photo, the thickness is about 0.3 mm horizontally and 0.25 mm vertically. However, I think the circuit in the video looks better than the circuit in the photo.

[@subhimesto7123]

Hey man, Great video! I was going to build a grbl based Cnc Engraver/cutter to make PCBs, everything was going great but your video made me realize that I need a really precise laser. my machine has 2000 steps per mm which is plenty, but the laser dot should be small to get good results, any Idea how I can solve this problem?

[@bitofelectronics]

Well, I don't remember where I heard this, but I heard that Chinese laser producers use two modules instead of one to make more powerful laser modules, which results in a bigger dot. Maybe something less powerful but of better quality can achieve better results. I asked ChatGPT about this, and it agrees they do this and suggested this brand: neje.shop/collections/neje-laser-engraver-laser-cutter-laser-module-kits-cnc-wood-router/products/10w-laser-module-kit-for-3d-printer-cnc-laser-machine-arduino-project-wood-routter-machine

[@subhimesto7123]

​@@bitofelectronics Thank you so much man! The feedback was 100% helpful, I'll make sure to get a high quality 5.5 watt laser to get better results, budget is a little bit low at the moment but when I set everything up I'll make sure to share my results.

[@bitofelectronics]

@@subhimesto7123 You are welcome ,good luck on your project 😊

[@splendensregan5270]

Hi! Is there anyway to use the drill file with lasergrbl to make the pinpoint of the holes?

[@bitofelectronics]

Hello, you can export just the drill files and board edge files as single PNG image from your CAD software. Then, upload that file to LaserGRBL as shown in the video, Once you've aligned the board edge using the outline function in LaserGRBL you can precisely pinpoint the holes.

[@sergeantsapient]

What's the minimum wattage for the laser? Is a 2.5W laser going to work (assuming the paint method)?

[@bitofelectronics]

Hi, a 2.5W laser should be fine for this purpose if it doesnt engrave all the way through in the first pass it should be able to do so in a second pass. I recommend not going below 2W for this kind of work. However the manufacturer of the laser is also important as some sellers (especially from China 🙃) may list inaccurate power ratings for their lasers.

[@sergeantsapient]

@@bitofelectronics Thank you for the response. Much appreciated.

[@el3ndiill]

how thin can be the traces? 0.3mm is possible?

[@bitofelectronics]

At 7:05 you can see that the 6th trace in the top-left corner is the thinnest, measuring 0.3 mm. It’s set to 0.3 mm in the software, but in reality, it’s even thinner due to the laser’s dot size (mentioned at 0:55). If you buy a good laser with a small dot size, you can engrave traces pretty close to 0.3 mm. However etching will also be a challenge, so keep this in mind :)

[@bozkurtccc444]

👏

[@emrullahdestegul5902]

laser led en az kaç watt olsa bu işi yapabilir.

[@bitofelectronics]

Hocam eğer lazer tek geçişte boyayı kazısın istiyorsanız en az 4watt alın derim.

[@wrooblewski]

Hi, how many Watts this laser have?

[@bitofelectronics]

Hi, the laser has a 20-watt input power and a 4-watt optical output power.

[@bot3d]

I think with paper tape will also work

[@bitofelectronics]

Yeah it will work, but paint is more durable to heat. So when I'm engraving a small point the surrounding paint won't be affected by the heat as much as the paper tape would be.