Over Engineering A PCB Agitator

[@KyleJamieson]

Finally, Arduino project I can understand the code for.

[@amandahugankiss4110]

oh, man.. i have been learning character arrays the past couple days. 10thX at best.

[@recurveninja]

Agitators are great if you're making a lot of PCBs. If you just need one board and want it as quick as possible, it's a lot faster to just dip a sponge in your etchant and manually scrub the copper away. If your resist is thoroughly stuck (I recommend dry film photoresist applied with a laminator) it won't wipe off.

[@winstonsmith478]

"If your resist is thoroughly stuck" - often not adequately everywhere with the toner transfer method. I rigged up a low profile plastic food container with an adhesive tape anchored hook of the kind used to hang things on walls attached to one end and connected to a mains powered synchronous motor ($6.99 on the A place) to slowly lift and lower one end of the rectangular food container. The other end acts as the pivot point. Under that, to keep the etchant warm, I use a mains powered personal heating pad protected by a plastic bag well-sealed with plastic shipping tape. All of that is inside a low-profile household storage container with lid.

[@recurveninja]

@@winstonsmith478 I was never able to get the toner transfer method to work very reliably. I've been using a consumer MSLA 3D printer to expose dry film photoresist, simplifies things greatly and allows for an amazing level of detail.

[@Ahnii]

A chemist I just wanted to add: Please ALWAYS add the acid/ base to the solvent (water) not the other way around! Adding solvent to dry acids/ bases can lead to violent reactions because the process being exothermic the heat is contained in a small amount of liquid and your creating a small amount of highly concentrated solution, which can be much more reactive. Im also unsure about the lifespan of that moter😅 maybe a dc motor would have been a better fit, but only time will tell🙃

[@ProtonOne11]

The best agiator for etching PCBs imho is just a 5$ aquarium air pump and a hose with a few holes in them. I prefer to use a narrow glass vase where the PCB can stand upright in, and just run the air-hose to the bottom of the tank. There are some bubbling stones that won't get eaten up in the acid and do even better at agitating, but that takes some testing and experiments to find good ones that survive the acid bath. If the air pump ever fails, it's easy and cheap to replace. And you don't need any electronics and/or mechanics anywhere near the nasty acid. However with bubbling air thru the acid, the risk of exposing other stuff in your shop to some acid vapor is probably higher, so doing it outside or in a very well ventilated area is a bit more critical. Working with any acid needs proper protection and risk mitigation anyway tho. Just like burning off spraypaint from your PCB with a laser needs proper ventillation/filtration. It sounds and looks easy, but people need to be made aware of the health and safety risks and how to deal with them properly. I would not even work with concrete without wearing gloves and protective eyewear. Seen some pretty nasty skin irritations getting caused by the highly caustic and extremely alkaline properties of cement (up to pH 13!).

[@ProtonOne11]

By the way, when mixing up etching powder and water to make the etching acid, you always slowly put the nasty powder into the neutral liquid, and not pour the liquid over a mountain of powder, creating possible highly concentrated acid splashes. Chemistry 101.

[@Iain240]

wohoo the concrete is back!

[@matthewarchibald5118]

2:28 *a digital pin of your choice which supports pwm output -> these are pins 3,5,6,9,10,11

[@Borgedesigns]

Very good to know ty

[@ThatRobHuman]

Instead of using concrete, I've taken to using Black Grout. More expensive (but still fairly cheap all things considered), but makes a big aesthetic difference.

[@mrday60]

electronics beneath a liquid container was a hard lesson for me. if you value mistakes; make sure the enclosure is water-proof

[@homemadetools]

Nice job on a rarely built homemade tool. We shared this video on our homemade tool forum last week 😎

[@weisnowhere]

Thanks for the guidance, I'm doing this method of PCB manufacturing for my school and was just going to start designing my own agitator!

[@deathreaper1170]

that minecraft music hitting hard

[@wizrom3046]

Ferric Chloride! Warm it up to warm coffee temps ie 45'C and it will remove that copper 5 times faster than the etchant you are using. Maybe 1 to 2 minutes of swishing, depending how fresh your FC is

[@jukees3658]

3D printer is perfect for this, you dont even need to do anything to it. Just put the bath on the hotbed and script it to go back and forth.

[@spliter88]

That's a great idea! Up there with using the print hotbed to dry out filament in the box the filament came in.

[@Psyden5757]

You can even turn on the hotbed at 40-45°C for even faster etching

[@WoLpH]

Attach some magnets to your container (assuming your printer has a magnetic bed) and it's locked in place too!

[@lennoxbaumbach390]

This should also do well in various lab applications.

[@HK-oc3pn]

Maybe a (simpler) dc motor for a next one? A 3d printed gear could fine-tune speed

[@davidandrews8566]

Nice looking well made piece of kit

[@maxsogan5177]

really enjoy your content! keep up the good work!

[@peter360adventures9]

Awesome build.

[@WoLpH]

With over engineering I was actually expecting configurable speed and stroke length, but you're absolutely right... this is very much over engineered as well. I personally would have gone for a simpler option, just a motor with reduction gears built-in so you don't even need the arduino.

[@BernardSandler]

I really would’ve loved this in my dark room days. I can imagine a kind of shelf that would’ve held all the various trays and just had this gently rocking them back-and-forth.

[@Borgedesigns]

My first thought is what an amazing set piece that would be to film with

[@AyrtonMcNamee-zq1ot]

I love your videos dude. Youve got a talent for presenting and I can tell by your designs you know what youre doing. Keep it up sir!!!

[@BenedictTanShanWen]

Not hating on using concrete, but I would have just added a slot to c-clamp it to a table edge.

[@robertjung8929]

you could have over engineered it a bit more by adding heating of the etching bath 😁

[@tumpen1]

While watching you using the arbor press, and then cutting to the soldering iron free hand, i thought, why not combine? Maybe possible with just an attachment.

[@TeslaSpain]

As always, amazing

[@daysejones968]

you've become my favorite yt channel very fast

[@theboss2k]

Great build but for pcb you can put it vertical inside a transparent container and an acuarium bubbler at the bottom, no need to move pcb

[@lsav1085]

Great video, thanks

[@osmanpasha_diy]

Cool, but overengineered indeed) Some people just put a vat on a 3D printer table and run some gcode to shake it) And some just attach a vibromotor to a vat.

[@Psyden5757]

What's the forbidden sprite etchant? seen it a few times but never looked into it

[@pixobit5882]

Can't you just use a 3D Printer Bed and some custom gcode that moves the Bed?

[@legjit]

Dropping you a like for using Stal

[@tjiani111]

I'm curious, why didn't you use orange in this build?

[@b5a5m5]

Interesting that the face down side of the copper etches faster in the non agitated sample…

[@omnomspaghettios286]

I thought you were over engineering an alligator, but cool video nonetheless! :D

[@aronseptianto8142]

i feel like a servo for this project is a bit overkill for this, a brushed motor with a crankshaft would i think do the same thing either cheaper, easier or faster

[@OfBronzeandBlaze]

Rather than using an arcing mechanism, have you considered using an ultrasonic cleaning machine?

[@75keg75]

Would an ultrasonic cleaner be a little safer - as you don’t have a plastic takeaway container held with tape balancing on the jig that risks spilling fluid.. 3d print yourself some containers to fit exactly to the platform.

[@Dellpodder]

I love the construction technique of hollow 3D prints filled with concrete. I bet that makes for a really solid machine base. Just a suggestion: try putting some paint in the debossed 'THE AGITATOR 9000' lettering to make it really stand out.

[@plc_memes]

Love your videos. Are those your birds we can hear in the background? It would be a cool idea to make them some enriching/interactive toys.

[@Eridescent]

It could be, but many parts of Australia are naturally filled with incredible wild birdsong, too. One of the great things about living here :)

[@nikelborm]

dude, why not just use Magnetic stirrer? You put an oval magnet into a container with chemical solution, and put the container on top of a device, that rotates the magnet inside. It's as simple as that and the reaction is going MUCH more effectively and faster

[@Scrogan]

Now add a heating element

[@JohnHartono]

What etching solution did you used in this video?

[@jiijijjijiijiij]

Concrete is such a smart solution for stability and rigidity and who knows how many other things, but the filling process really bugs my OCD haha. Have you experimented with using some kind of sacrificial "sprue" like the kind that gets used in metal casting? It could help you get a fully filled closed volume with no mess. Since you can't easily just hack off any excess concrete like you would with metal in a metal pour, then maybe some kind of simple slide seal or a plug could be added to the sprue to create a clean "cut".

[@lutfijd]

what is the etching solution you are using?

[@Peter_A1466]

Just what I am wondering! Anyone an answer?

[@ianwhaples3837]

can this be speed up further by agitating an ultrasonic bath?

[@Whiskeyj456]

Would an ultrasonic cleaner with that solution in it work?

[@renevile]

the title is acurate, i mean a toggle switch can do the exact same thing as the arduino in this setup

[@erremilia]

I love your videos, but you make one critical mistake with your soldering that basically comprimises it all. You're applying your tin directly to the iron, instead of the heated up pad meaning it doesn't flow over the pad and instead balls up like at 2:05.

[@jiijijjijiijiij]

"Critical" is an exaggeration when he still has the final result he wanted. It's fine. If the joints fail then he can fix them.

[@erremilia]

@@jiijijjijiijiij I don't really see the point in your comment, It's a bad mistake and It's easy to avoid so of course I'm going to try an inform them how to not do that. It's about longetivity and doing it right the first time, and there's no harm in having it done wrong.

[@jiijijjijiijiij]

@@erremilia My point is you're overstating how big of a deal it is. This is a case of someone doing some minor soldering work because he's forced to do it, and because it's a very simple circuit there will be no consequences if the circuit fails. Most people will put off forcing themselves to learn reliable technique until a time where it actually becomes critical. Now isn't that time, and it's kinda silly to pretend otherwise.

[@erremilia]

@@jiijijjijiijiij If there were any issues here that related to soldering, which there was quite a large chance of this story would've been different and this would've cost him time. It's a simple rule to follow, and It's okay to have made the mistake. It *is* a critical soldering issue and it always will be. My comment does no harm.

[@jiijijjijiijiij]

@@erremilia I said it was exaggerated to the point of being silly, never that it was causing "harm". Nobody is attacking you. Maybe try chilling out.

[@williamfan3000]

Nice degign can you tell me how can i get this modle ?

[@Cerv3ra]

playing PATRICIAN? in the back?

[@MSP_TechLab]

Spraying is more effective.

[@ChriFux]

etchitator

[@qazer10]

The forbidden sprite 😂

[@carpdog42]

so over-engineered. I have seen some in real labs that are so dirt simple. Literally a platfrom on 3 legs with two of them being vinyl tube and the third being bent and attached to a direct driven motor.

[@aususer415]

Haha… and here I was using an unbalanced washing machine fir the last 30 years 🤔🤷‍♂️😊

[@dd07871]

🤦

[@StuartGeers]

Opportunity missed. It should have been 9001..... So it's OVER 9000!!!!!!!!