How to make a PCB with laser - Ortur laser from Gearbest.com 

Thanks 😋

Yes, just create a rig so you can precisely place the PCB in place again. Then you spray paint it again and burn the pain off the pads :-)

​@@DIYTECHBROS Thank you very much for the hint. But, what about a follow-up video? I didn't find any similar on the web. Best regards

Hi. Did you have any success doing this with FlatCAM? I'm trying to use pcb2gcode.

Lightburn, engrave from image or trace image :-)

@@DIYTECHBROS Yey thanks a lot! That's what I needed. I'm going to use a CNC mill with an engraver. to mechanically remove the excess copper. It wouldn't look as pretty but for prototyping could be somewhat faster.

I do it with 0.7w monomode laser

No, just pick a dark colour without any metallics or UV filter. Go for the cheapest one you can find 😄

Sure! Laser GRBL is included in the download package from Ortur. But I like to use LightBurn as you can do designs and adjust almost any objects.

@@DIYTECHBROS Thanks for the response but I was wandering, if you port an image from Kicad or some other PCB software. You wind up burning the tracks. IE you wind up etching away the tracks and not around the tracks. I'd love to know your process for how you do this. Maybe an idea for another video?

That's actually very easy in LightBurn! Export the image of the PCB and import it into LightBurn. Have LightBurn trace the image. That creates lines around the tracks. And, if needed there is a function to offset the lines outwards. Thanks for the video idea :-)

@@DIYTECHBROS Thanks for that I'll check it out

Thanks! I’ll keep that in mind :-)

You have a nice zoom at 1:58 , results seems clean enough. I think I will go for this solution for my PCBs, cleanest and easiest one :)

Yes, the plan was actually to include that in the video, BUT, after a few test we found a few issues. The biggest one is if you are not able to clean it good enough the soldering becomes a headache!

Export the PCB from easyEDA to DXF format. Lightburn will open it.

Try to use the Trace Image feature in Lightburn :-)

Use flatcam to create your Gerber and burn as gcode no SVG or other rubbish tool as inkscape....you are a PCB designer not tee-shirt publisher😊😊.export your gcode processed as grbl laser ,burn varnish with also grbl laser....works fine but as my case and reason to post here my disappointment about the process,the laser ends after 4 PCBs.....

2. paint can be removed by acetone or paint thinner., 1.iam guessing acylic paint. etchant is probably ferrous chloride

@@Vegetakhan Thanks

you can use hydrogen peroxide with Hcl liquid . The ratio of mixing 1 ( h.p.) to 4 (Hcl) . Alternate method , use only ferric chloride .

Thanks

Not at these power levels, it's not cost effective, as you will also destroy the PCB. See other comments.

Using photoresist need more time in laser, because have to pass above larger areas. Using paint spray, you have to pass laser only thin area around the tracks, this is faster. And cheaper too.

@@WilkerAzevedo True black paint is good but the details are not great, professional PCB fab houses uses film or liquid based UV photoresists. Also photoresists does not need more time, you need to properly apply it to the board and use much less optical output power, requires only 30-60mW optical power in the UV range. There is a youtuber who did a video about CNC UV laser PCB photoresists, his channel name is "Marco Reps", check it out, he made two videos about it.

@@ShopperPlug Thanks, got a 2.5W with my 3018.

@@WilkerAzevedo Photoresits are dirt cheap. You buy them in a roll in quantity and it's super cheap. Your state of the art iPhones and Macbooks PCBs are all made using photoresit, matter of fact all of your electronics are made professionally using photoresits. Professionals uses photoresit because it produces much higher quality and finer details of the PCB layout. Black paint spray is not great for precision PCB designs. There is also a special photoresit paint which is in liquid form, this is also used in high precision PCB designs. The key objective is using smaller wavelength of light such as around 300-400 nanometers (Near ultraviolet) to produce higher quality sensitize PCBs, red lasers are around 670 nm, it will never produce higher quality PCB designs compared to photoresit method for ultra precision work. Such as making a PCB which have a FPGA chip containing hundreds to thousands of ball grid array (BGA).

@@alwayscensored6871 Nice, let me know how it worked out for you. The lower the wavelength, the better it is for the photoresit to sensitize, around 300nm is ideal, however these lasers are super expensive. The common 420nm lasers are easy to get and cheap. You only need to drive they at super low power, like 30-60 milliwatt. When you are drilling holes into the PCB, make sure you wear a mask, almost all common PCBs are made from fiber glass, this can cause permanent damage to your lungs if you breath the dusts from the PCBs, therefore put a cover or simply do not breath the dusts produced from the PCB while drilling. Make a youtube video if you can.

Nope! Some fiber lasers can manage, but the results are not very good. Remember, if there is enough energy to cut copper a bit of the fiberglass will also burn away.

maybe, never tried? :-)

@@DIYTECHBROS I've been trying just that over the last couple of days and yes, it works fine using a 450nm "Blue" laser. I run at about 10% laser power and 1000m/min and it very nicely darkens the photoresist in one pass. However.. simply exposing the outline results in 'tracks' that are far too thin to survive the developing process and will fall off the copper if they don't get dissolved away. So its necessary to expose the tracks and pads as a laser raster, which works, but its a slow process to do - the accuracy of these diode laser mechanics isn't reliably up to any sort of speed making exposing even a small PCB hours long. (these are 0.2mm lasers beam width) Quite frankly, its just not worth all the messing about. Get a laser printer and a modified laminator and use toner transfer.

Yes, its will work...

Much money in a expansive laser. No way!

I have similar problems. Did you find a solution?

@@mod100 unfortunately no. I stopped playing with it. Maybe scuffing it gently with scotch-brite after? or a different brand/type of paint?

@@angst_ , maybe. I tried synthetic enamel and water-based paint and got the better results with the synthetic enamel, but there was still that residue which prevented the eching solution from etching the copper.

Yes :-)

That’s a very good question! I’m not going to say that a laser is soooo much better, but in terms of accuracy and reliability a laser will give you perfect results every time. No lines will be broken transfer, no weal lines etc. In terms of equipment, one requires a laser printer while the other a laser engraver… BUT, we actually usually use a CNC to mill our PCBs 🤠

@@DIYTECHBROS, I recently bought a mini 3018 CNC kit I am going to use to mill simple circuits (filter, amplifier, mixer, impedance matching network, attenuator, etc) for an RF class I'm teaching. Your videos have been very helpful.

You let the paint dry before you use the laser

Yes thank you, why not just cut the copper? I really wanted to know to decide whether to buy the machine or not

@@Gadget_Plus To cut copper using laser requires high power. This way is cheaper.

Simplified answer, no. A soldering iron does 3 things at once, heats up the pad, the leg of a device and the solder. It does this by being in contact with and transferring heat to all 3 at the same time. Complicated answer, yes, it can be done. But with a simple setup and a diode laser it will be more a hobby project than and actual "soldering station".

@@DIYTECHBROS interesting

Never thought about it, that way. Are you thinking SMD components? The only difficult part of SMD's would be the packages that have no legs, I guess there could be enough heat transfer from the copper to the pad and solder paste. You might have issues with larger though-hole components, but I'm only guessing, This is an interesting idea, if I invest in a laser cutter for this operation, maybe it could do some smd soldering for me

@@DIYTECHBROS I guess a solder paste applied to the pads could be heated with a laser, which will seat the smd component? I guess one will have to try, but first, what laser printer?

Well, the simplified answer was no, but the more accurate answer is that you can even do welding with lasers… so you can make it happen. But most current diode lasers have 5-40 watt with a focus spot of 0.1 x 0.1 mm - so thinking a CO2 laser will be better suited.

Can you explain what u mean? Sounds interesting

@@martinshkreli9681 he uses the toner transfer method. I do it using a laminator.

It’s a bit hit and miss though isn’t it? Would you tell me where you bought your laser printer for $1, I would like to try this.

Me 2 🤠

@@DIYTECHBROS sorry to hear that buddy 😔

😁