I like your jig for stripping long lengths of wire - I'll give that a try. I do a similar thing to make many pre-cut short lengths by stripping a short piece of multi-strand wire, then cutting the wire to produce a bunch of short pieces that I use for via stuffing. I particularly like your tip on the "sewing method". I have been using "Z" bends for years. It works well as long as the via hole properly matches the wire size with minimal clearance: 1) Hold the board in your hand while loading a short piece of pre-cut wire through a via from the top of the board using tweezers. 2) Bend the top of the wire over the board while still holding the wire with the tweezers. 3) Use your finger on the bottom of the board to bend the bottom of the wire in the opposite direction as the top bend. You don't have to flip the board over, or see what you're doing, just bend it. 4) Keep doing that until all wires are loaded and bent over on top and bottom with no soldering. 5) Place the board on a hard flat surface such as a ceramic tile square. 6) Place a piece of hard flat material, such as a ceramic tile square, on the top of the board and press down to sharpen the bends on top and bottom. This does not provide sharp bends on all of the wires because many via wires stack on top of each other causing variations in height. This is not a problem as it will be corrected later. 7) Use a scalpel to trim the long wire ends off near the edge of all vias on the top and bottom of the board. 8) Forcefully squish the board once more between the two flat surfaces to assure sharp bends on all of the wires. 9) Flux the entire board using good quality electrical flux and solder-coat the whole thing by lightly dragging a wide, solder loaded iron across the entire board. It helps to do this at an angle, letting gravity aid in flowing the solder from top to bottom. If you find you have used too much solder, simply slurp it up near the bottom of the board with solder wick. Solder coat both sides of the board. The final solder coat solders all of the vias with a single pass, provides a protective solder coating on all of the traces so that the CU does not oxidize, and makes it easier to solder components. I use a water-soluble flux and clean it under running water with a light scouring pad using a very light touch. This provides a very clean looking board with a brushed-metal surface finish.
That's excellent, will try that next board. I usually solder-tin the boards anyway as it makes everything easier and better. Also the scratch milling I do works best on 1/2 ounce copper, so the extra metal will help there too. Thanks for the detailed instructions, pinned for others to see :).
Thank you...this video saved me dozens of hours of trial and error. One tip I stumbled upon is if the pcb design can use through-hole components for places that could use a via, then the leads of those through-hole components can be vias...but I don't know how good that is. Also I saw a lot about using copper rivets, but am not sure how compares either.
Good point on the through holes, I have a lot of old 74 chips sitting around, I bet even snipping those off once soldered would work. There should be a way to even make that kind of holder, hmm! I have used copper rivets, and they do work, but they are pretty finicky. They give a great result, but aren’t quick to do, at least for me.
You can use conductive silver paint. Dip a wire in it and then paint the inside of the hole. Most times these vias are not a real connection but have a resistance of around 10 to 100 Ohms.
Good question, and it can be tricky. Ideally you would just solder the bottom and connect to the top layer with vias elsewhere. With DIP components I've sometimes soldered the top as well to save a via, but with IC sockets or headers that isn't always possible. I've tried making the holes slightly oversize, and pushing a thin wire through from the bottom before soldering, but it was very finicky. I've also hacked headers by using extra long ones - ugly but it works. That's the kind of thing that plated vias will always be better though. These days I'd probably just find away around needing that for prototypes, and then do it right on boards sent away as things get closer to final :)
I had some medium ones, and they worked ok (it was hard to find very small ones). They took a while to put in correctly, though I think a better tool would have helped. Then I found I still needed to solder them, but again a better tool would have probably crimped them hard enough to not need that. But yes, automating those a bit with the right tools would be a good solution I think :).
well often, you solder one side, all fine, flip the board and solder the other side and it pops out sticking to the iron. A tighter hole offers some grip, but then it's harder to put in. But as I mentioned in the first moments of the video, a lot of that was just a skill issue for me too :)
simply you expect through hole components and vias to connect F.CU and B.CU and to be able to route their connections on Front or Back layer but what happens on home PCBs is that doesn't happen so you need a wire to connect both layers basically
Uhhh excuse me? I and millions of other makers have been doing this for years, almost 20 in my case. I found this video because I realized it had been awhile since I thought about it and wanted to see if anyone had any better ideas.
This channel is underrated.
Thank you sir :). I haven't been exactly prolific lately(!) - thanks for the kind nudge.
Keep them coming Robin! I tried scratch milling on my cheap 1610 mill and it did much better than the engraving bits ever could.
Oh wow, SO great to hear you tried it and had success! Thanks for letting me know Mark, that totally makes my day!
I like your jig for stripping long lengths of wire - I'll give that a try. I do a similar thing to make many pre-cut short lengths by stripping a short piece of multi-strand wire, then cutting the wire to produce a bunch of short pieces that I use for via stuffing. I particularly like your tip on the "sewing method".
I have been using "Z" bends for years. It works well as long as the via hole properly matches the wire size with minimal clearance:
1) Hold the board in your hand while loading a short piece of pre-cut wire through a via from the top of the board using tweezers.
2) Bend the top of the wire over the board while still holding the wire with the tweezers.
3) Use your finger on the bottom of the board to bend the bottom of the wire in the opposite direction as the top bend. You don't have to flip the board over, or see what you're doing, just bend it.
4) Keep doing that until all wires are loaded and bent over on top and bottom with no soldering.
5) Place the board on a hard flat surface such as a ceramic tile square.
6) Place a piece of hard flat material, such as a ceramic tile square, on the top of the board and press down to sharpen the bends on top and bottom. This does not provide sharp bends on all of the wires because many via wires stack on top of each other causing variations in height. This is not a problem as it will be corrected later.
7) Use a scalpel to trim the long wire ends off near the edge of all vias on the top and bottom of the board.
8) Forcefully squish the board once more between the two flat surfaces to assure sharp bends on all of the wires.
9) Flux the entire board using good quality electrical flux and solder-coat the whole thing by lightly dragging a wide, solder loaded iron across the entire board. It helps to do this at an angle, letting gravity aid in flowing the solder from top to bottom. If you find you have used too much solder, simply slurp it up near the bottom of the board with solder wick. Solder coat both sides of the board.
The final solder coat solders all of the vias with a single pass, provides a protective solder coating on all of the traces so that the CU does not oxidize, and makes it easier to solder components. I use a water-soluble flux and clean it under running water with a light scouring pad using a very light touch. This provides a very clean looking board with a brushed-metal surface finish.
That's excellent, will try that next board. I usually solder-tin the boards anyway as it makes everything easier and better. Also the scratch milling I do works best on 1/2 ounce copper, so the extra metal will help there too. Thanks for the detailed instructions, pinned for others to see :).
Thank you...this video saved me dozens of hours of trial and error. One tip I stumbled upon is if the pcb design can use through-hole components for places that could use a via, then the leads of those through-hole components can be vias...but I don't know how good that is. Also I saw a lot about using copper rivets, but am not sure how compares either.
Good point on the through holes, I have a lot of old 74 chips sitting around, I bet even snipping those off once soldered would work. There should be a way to even make that kind of holder, hmm! I have used copper rivets, and they do work, but they are pretty finicky. They give a great result, but aren’t quick to do, at least for me.
thanks for shared your experience
Thanks a lot for your valuable experimental tips 😇
You can use conductive silver paint. Dip a wire in it and then paint the inside of the hole. Most times these vias are not a real connection but have a resistance of around 10 to 100 Ohms.
Great tip, I will give that a try, thanks!
Graphite spray,scrub,electroplate
Good ideas. Thanks for the video!
Electroplating is the best thing.
No shit, genius. This isn't about the "best" method, it's about easy to do at home methods.
game changer, thanks man
Thanks, keep uploading!
Thank you! Very helpful
Very good info!
hello and thank you:) I have one question, what about some component like IC socket have to connect both side, what can we do for this?
Good question, and it can be tricky. Ideally you would just solder the bottom and connect to the top layer with vias elsewhere. With DIP components I've sometimes soldered the top as well to save a via, but with IC sockets or headers that isn't always possible. I've tried making the holes slightly oversize, and pushing a thin wire through from the bottom before soldering, but it was very finicky. I've also hacked headers by using extra long ones - ugly but it works. That's the kind of thing that plated vias will always be better though. These days I'd probably just find away around needing that for prototypes, and then do it right on boards sent away as things get closer to final :)
@@robindebreuil what a beauty solutions:) thank you so much
Have you tried special copper rivets?
I had some medium ones, and they worked ok (it was hard to find very small ones). They took a while to put in correctly, though I think a better tool would have helped. Then I found I still needed to solder them, but again a better tool would have probably crimped them hard enough to not need that. But yes, automating those a bit with the right tools would be a good solution I think :).
I don't understand the original problem to use a wire for a via. With 2 layers - how is that hard exactly?
well often, you solder one side, all fine, flip the board and solder the other side and it pops out sticking to the iron. A tighter hole offers some grip, but then it's harder to put in. But as I mentioned in the first moments of the video, a lot of that was just a skill issue for me too :)
simply you expect through hole components and vias to connect F.CU and B.CU and to be able to route their connections on Front or Back layer but what happens on home PCBs is that doesn't happen so you need a wire to connect both layers basically
@@mahmoudsalah7628 That was my point. Just not sure what is hard about it.
@@tcurdt people mostly curious if there is a better way or something
Thank you!
how to make via for a single sided zera pcb 👀👄
thank you very much
Nice video 😁
Thanks man..😉😉
I buy a thousand 0.4mm copper rivets and... well you know.. rivet.
Where did you get it?
Rivets from Bungard for example. 1000 piece 18-20 € . A little bit expensive it work fine. Mouser, Reichelt Elektronik or Conrad Elektronik
Nobody in the world had the idea , that you can create a via with a wire . You should apply for a patent and a Nobel prize.
Uhhh excuse me? I and millions of other makers have been doing this for years, almost 20 in my case. I found this video because I realized it had been awhile since I thought about it and wanted to see if anyone had any better ideas.
@@TheSolongsidekick i think he was ironic