The accent, tone of voice, plus lines like that one are exactly what I look for in this kind of youtuber. They always know what they're talking about, and the videos are always that one perfect style of video. Even getting some minor I Did A Thing vibes here, I love it!
You need a fan pointed at the work piece. The laser heats the air around the traces and that causes local refraction, so your laser accuracy is wobbly. If you keep a fan on, then that moves the hot air out of the way quickly, so you'll get more consistent lines.
I somewhat doubt that a few °C hotter air will have _such_ a drastically different refractive index that it bends "blue" light so much in such a short distance.
Between this kind of calm, deliberate narration of technical videos like these and clips of TNG where Picard admonishes people, I'm in a very happy place right now.
This is a really great presentation of laser PCB etching! I was looking at the Cetus3D because of the linear rails but had reasoned that it was of no practical use for my needs printing Ultem 9085, until now I see what can be done using it as a laser machine and only $299 plus parts that’s awesome! The download links, intelligent straight forward content that I can watch all the way through while enjoying the ever so subtle wit of the presenter is quite refreshing! Subscribed!
Hey man, I know its a bit late, but if you use a raspberry pi with octoprint on it, and connect a camera, it has an option that will tell the hotend to move out of the way after every later and it'll take a picture and store it
Nice mod, but I wonder if there is a more direct way to do this... Given that the photo-resist is a layer that polymerizes when exposed to light, to protect the copper layer from the etchant, and you have a 3D printer which is designed to lay down layers of polymer anyway, perhaps there is a suitable polymer that could be directly printed in a single layer on a plain copper board, avoiding the necessity for the laser, photo-resist and developer?
i waana ask a very basic question, lets say i want to have a cnc to drill pcb holes, how can get a correct orientation/alignment in order to make sure that the drill will go to the exact location where the drilling points actually are, without deviation ?
Would it be fine to use 405nm with 500mW that has TTL/PWM control? I should be able to bring down the wattage due to controlling the duty cycle, right?
easily does 0.1mm features (65mA laser current, 405nm - 750mm feedspeed, careful with accel times) - ping me if u need some data (i burned a lot of bungard to get to right values ;)
Hi Marco! I have a couple of questions to ask you, I'm building a multifunction 3D printer + laser/miller for PCB work, I found your video very clear and helped me already a lot with flatCam and other tricks, my setup is based on Marlin firmware, that doesn't (completely) support G0 rapid movement (G0 works but at the same federate set for G1, not rapid), how did you manage to move the laser faster in ''laser-off'' movements? other issue with Marlin is that M42 to control the laser output is not buffered, thus I need to put an M400 command every time a call the M42, are you using a different firmware or trick to sync the laser switch with the movements? thanks in advance and my best compliments for your works!
Hi Marco, thank you so much for this brilliant video! Could you try using the laser to make a soldering stencil in this set up. Also, you mentioned improvements that you made, could you go into more detail about that?
I switched driver boards on my 3D printer to one of the 'quiet' ones - I presume this shapes the drive current or does micro-stepping. In any case, the vibration level went way down. I was wondering whether this would improve the quality of the traces on your setup.
Wouldn't lowering the printhead lessen all the angular deviation you are getting? As in: "less amplitude of the wobbles". Also maybe try using the laser with a tiny masking dot right above the board?
If you manage to tune the jerk and acceleration and decrease them from the firmware side, you could stop that axis dependent vibrations propagated because the small scale. that adjustment just eliminate the resonances.
How did you make the onscreen text, "large" follow your movements? Did you do it manually or did you use some clever software? And if you used some clever software, did you write it yourself?
For a really good timelapse try attaching your camera to the build plate. I did it to my printer and you can see the part grow and it is really cool. I just attached some spare aluminum cut into a strip and screwed the aluminum to an unused hole using a nut and bolt. Make sure it is pretty stiff or you will get some wobble in the timelapse. Good luck!
Wouldn't the circuit get exposed with the surrounding UV? What chemical did you use for the etching? Can u pleaaaase give out more info on your our diy PCB process pleaaaaase I wanna make them with my own printer!
Does anyone know what the laser wavelength range necessary to to etch the photosensitive copper clad boards this way? I am confused by the fact this laser has a wavelength of 405nm, but near to far UV light has a wavelength range of 100-400nm.
good touches of humor, like! because of the nature of step motor(steps generates mechanical vibration), you will not be able to get ultra-precise lines unless you use high gear ratios on each axis with some renunciation of speed, As you know, you can use bldc motors driven by sinusoidal or FOC control (like odrive) to reduce vibrations, it may be more costly but prototyping machine are also high priced
@@reps Thanks! I have since found a PDF one of the guy on the Cetus3D group posted showing all the missing base resistors ! Appalling electronic design !
A software dividing the plate in chess squares and 2 actuators moving some laser mirrors will increase the resolution a lot more, as there will be no vibrations in the frame. You could use multiple lasers as well for higher resolution - 9 smaller squares being burned at the same time, with 9 lasers, for increased productivity.
Is a 500mw 405nm laser powerful enough to do this? As that is what if offered for printers from crwality like the ender 3. Which is a 24v system and am having trouble finding a solution for this. Help please...
Hey :) you can try whit a lower Acceleration, i believe it will fix the wave /shaking/ vibration problem you can also Test your 3D Printer vibration whit that laser, draw square in each corner, then you can see if it shake more in some of the corner ( no it was not mean as a shaking joke ;) "hmm??? what this tiny transistor for" Haha! i love all your small lovely detail in your videos : ) thanks
Hi. Do you think only having 2 screws to fasten the surface of that whole module that carries the laser module is too weak? I saw construction of the cetus 3d - and I was curious why that bracket was so small.
The board is coated with a film that, when exposed to light, will wash away. You can buy boards with the film already applied. Search for "presensitized PCB".
Thanks for your reply sir.. I didn't understand that you have exposed the board in chemical solution before laser engraving right.. After the chemical process you put the copper clad pcb under the laser engraving machine..
The PCB is made with a photosensitive layer. That layer reacts to UV light. If I point the laser beam at it I can expose areas that I want to remove later. After exposing it like that I have to remove the now exposed photosensitive layer. That is usually done in a sodium hydroxide solution which will remove only the exposed material. Then I have a board with remaining unexposed photosensitive layer and bare copper areas which can be etched away in the next step.
Marco I tried doing this with a TTL controlled laser and the pins on top of the extruder seem to only put out about + or - .3 volts??? Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Sounds like open collector outputs. Take the outputs upto your positive supply rail (5v if your driving TTL) with a 10k resistor and then feed the output/bottom of the resistor to your device.
You are using positive photoresist, right? Because this method is only possible with positive photoresist if i understand correctly. Positive photoresist - you expose the tracks; negative photoresist - you expose everything but the tracks, right?
I know this video's a bit old, but have you tried using Octoprint and Octolapse for your timelapses? That's what I use for my timelapses, and it works out alright.
How bright laser would exposing an uv pcb need? Could 15mW modded laser pointer do it? I have a small cnc machine that has a laser capabilities and am wondering if I could make better pcbs by swapping the engraver tool for laser
I don't have any reliable data, but if it is a real UV 405 nm diode, you could just slow down until it exposes correctly. Put box on top of the machine, than it can basically take as long as it needs?
Hallo Marco, ich wollte mir auch einen Lasergravierer zulegen. Einen mit 1 x 1 m Arbeitsfläche um Schnittmuster direkt im Stoff auszuschneiden. 15 W hat dieses Modell. Ich weiß nicht, ob das zum Schneiden von Lodenstoffen reicht. Kann ich den Stoff den gravieren? Welche Unterlage sollte ich den nehmen, wenn das mit dem Schneiden klappte? Vielen Dank! LG Valentin
Ich weiß nicht, was Lodenstoffe sind, aber mit 15W lässt sich schon einiges schneiden. Textilien, die mit Poly* anfangen ohne Probleme. Als Unterlage wäre etwas Metallisches, das den Strahl nicht direkt in das Lasermodul zurück reflektiert, gut geeignet, vielleicht ein engmaschiges Metallgitter?
Danke für deinen Rat! Lodenstoffe sind Wollstoffe, meist schwere Stoffe, aus denen meist Wintermäntel gemacht werden. Jetzt muss ich mich nur noch trauen das Dingen aus China zu bestellen^^. Wenn ich die Maschine einrichte, werde ich dich sicher nochmal um Rat fragen ;D
An x & y motion could possibly be more accurate with leads that small. Who knows what the motion control is doing, following contours and the path. If you see in the video, there is some variance when he does a close -up. Burning it just like a laser printer would print, going with the axis in the motions would save the headache of figuring out any bounce vibrations, abrupt turns, and/or backlash. It's a laser-fine beam, not easy to calibrate the mechanics down to that precision.
Not sure what you mean by "who knows what the motion control is doing". It would be generating GCODE you can even check beforehand. With such a lightweight machine getting rid of backlash shouldn't be such a big deal - and it's something that should've already been taken care of for the 3d printing. Despite the rails I would rather be sceptical of the cantilever design.
By motion control - I was talking about the the g-code interpreter and step driving hardware. Backlash has nothing to do with the weight of a machine. Take a look at 5:09 on the video, and study the etched board. The pattern printed on the board, I am certain - does not match his layout. I have to assume the g-code export handle's arc's, and if not by now - Mr. Sweedish Accent Guy certainly knows how to process out his own g-code by this time. At 7:55, the board shows a great improvement, but still with many blemishes. There are actually crisp arc's and lines - and then some portions the pattern is distorted.
Change the marlin curve divider in firmware and set jerk to a low number like 5 it will clean up the tiny round pads also belts don't use the little spring like belt tensioner it adds springy-ness to the belts make the g#-tight
Bungard boards are well known in Germany, but the very last result I've shown was on a no-brand cheapo (see those droplets of photosensitive coating?) and even that worked great. I'm sure every other presensitized product and also that blue etch resist film will work fine.
Marco, could you confirm that the boards are sensitized with a positive photoresist? At least it appears to me that way from your process. I have negative film and I can burn it off with the laser to expose the copper. But the light causes it to polymerize (as it should) and then becomes harder to remove. I want to try with positive film but have not been able to find it, it should make for an easier development step.
I cannot understand why are you relating laser output with physical measurement. There are more factors to consider to achieve finer details, eg. microstepping, vibration, driver, optics, and the shape of the laser diode itself (which I assume is a rectangle for this kind of laser).
There are some nice timelapses to find on youtube that use the method you discribed. They look very statisfying. Way more than the ones with jumping print heads
Couple of things to check. Looks like some of the wobbles come from change of direction, check the machines axis for backlash, huge huge quality killer is backlash.
Also, check the linear rails for adjustment, might need tweaking a bit tighter to minimise the rattle wobble effect from the balls rolling around. Looks great though!
Do you really need all that extra mass on the moving head? Maybe the heat from the laser could be dissipated into the head itself. A more extreme weight saving technique is to only move a mirror, while the laser doesn't move, at least in the X direction. Laserprinters and professional PCB factories do it that way.
I had the same version from Eleks as yours only in the 2500mw version and I finally had enough as it just could not engrave all that well and I guess it was that electrolytic you showed is probably in it as well. I would have needed some way to be able to toggle the laser on and off much faster though it wasn't very good at greyscale either. I have an eBay Chinese laser 50w (really 40w) CO2 that will be here on Thursday thanks to that blue laser from Elek's being so crappy.
Very nice video sir.. Right now I am working on convert 3d printer to a pcb laser engraving machine.. This tutorial is very helpful to me.. After pcb engraving you have dipped the board in water right.. No chemical process.. May know the software for laser engraving pcbs
The exposed boards are developed in a sodium hydroxide solution as recommended by the manufacturer. The software that creates the machine movements from PCB gerber files is called FlatCAM and the software that sends it to the machine is called LaserWeb
me every time I plan to do something "im going work on the heated bed and whats this random transistor for?" 12 hours later... "Ill just work on the heated bed another day" lmao
The fiber seems the way to go, for a step - up from a laser diode. I do not know how much equipment involved. Looking at the co2 ones with the mirrors and all that stuff that needs cleaning and alignment, seems like too much. With a fibre line - just mount the end part somewhere, aim and have at it. I search " 25w fiber coupled laser" eBay and find $2,000+ USED equipment. Not really affordable.
I think it is a cheap way vs a fiber laser machine to metal marking 3kUSD -5kUSD, I mean, is more cheap than CO2, laser+psu+lens, I allready make a 80w co2 and I want to start working with fiber laser to mark metal and pcb without etching, A 25w-40w chinese fiber laser machine can cut 1.2mm of solid cooper with 10 or 15 pases, so I think is posible to reach someting with fiber laser. I allready get very nice results with estlcam+445nm laser to make pcb's. Look to my instructable in the last step there are some pics of a pcb for k40 co2 laser conversion to arduino. www.instructables.com/id/Heatsink-for-Diy-Laser-Engraver/
Excellent. I expect this can be done with other 3d printers. I have an anet a8 just in the mail. I hope its possible with it. Ill see once its assembled.
"warning labels are indicators of good tools"
I love this guy
Its kinda true though lol
The accent, tone of voice, plus lines like that one are exactly what I look for in this kind of youtuber. They always know what they're talking about, and the videos are always that one perfect style of video. Even getting some minor I Did A Thing vibes here, I love it!
You need a fan pointed at the work piece. The laser heats the air around the traces and that causes local refraction, so your laser accuracy is wobbly. If you keep a fan on, then that moves the hot air out of the way quickly, so you'll get more consistent lines.
I somewhat doubt that a few °C hotter air will have _such_ a drastically different refractive index that it bends "blue" light so much in such a short distance.
Not to mention it could damage the lens on the laser
Maybe is the plume created from ablation cause scattering? not sure just guessing
Leo Curious You say drastic, but we are only talking about sub .1mm vibration here.
@Blondie SL I know, how did we survive the stoneage 70's???
7:29 - Thank you for letting that sound ring out completely; that was very pleasant.
Between this kind of calm, deliberate narration of technical videos like these and clips of TNG where Picard admonishes people, I'm in a very happy place right now.
This is a really great presentation of laser PCB etching! I was looking at the Cetus3D because of the linear rails but had reasoned that it was of no practical use for my needs printing Ultem 9085, until now I see what can be done using it as a laser machine and only $299 plus parts that’s awesome! The download links, intelligent straight forward content that I can watch all the way through while enjoying the ever so subtle wit of the presenter is quite refreshing! Subscribed!
Hey man, I know its a bit late, but if you use a raspberry pi with octoprint on it, and connect a camera, it has an option that will tell the hotend to move out of the way after every later and it'll take a picture and store it
7:04 -- "It probably just uses the Google Translate feature." LOL! Looks like a great project. Thanks for the laugh!
Nice mod, but I wonder if there is a more direct way to do this...
Given that the photo-resist is a layer that polymerizes when exposed to light, to protect the copper layer from the etchant, and you have a 3D printer which is designed to lay down layers of polymer anyway, perhaps there is a suitable polymer that could be directly printed in a single layer on a plain copper board, avoiding the necessity for the laser, photo-resist and developer?
i waana ask a very basic question, lets say i want to have a cnc to drill pcb holes, how can get a correct orientation/alignment in order to make sure that the drill will go to the exact location where the drilling points actually are, without deviation ?
Would it be fine to use 405nm with 500mW that has TTL/PWM control? I should be able to bring down the wattage due to controlling the duty cycle, right?
easily does 0.1mm features (65mA laser current, 405nm - 750mm feedspeed, careful with accel times) - ping me if u need some data (i burned a lot of bungard to get to right values ;)
maultrommel ping :P would you mind making your findings public? While i don't own this printer, i am sure others would appreciate it. :)
Do you still have the test file you used in this? I want to run it on my new laser to see how it performs.
Hi Marco! I have a couple of questions to ask you, I'm building a multifunction 3D printer + laser/miller for PCB work, I found your video very clear and helped me already a lot with flatCam and other tricks, my setup is based on Marlin firmware, that doesn't (completely) support G0 rapid movement (G0 works but at the same federate set for G1, not rapid), how did you manage to move the laser faster in ''laser-off'' movements? other issue with Marlin is that M42 to control the laser output is not buffered, thus I need to put an M400 command every time a call the M42, are you using a different firmware or trick to sync the laser switch with the movements?
thanks in advance and my best compliments for your works!
Hi Marco, thank you so much for this brilliant video!
Could you try using the laser to make a soldering stencil in this set up.
Also, you mentioned improvements that you made, could you go into more detail about that?
I meant improvements for the other machine (EleksMaker), but yes, I'll definitely show them! Stencils, maybe by the end of the year or early 2018
I switched driver boards on my 3D printer to one of the 'quiet' ones - I presume this shapes the drive current or does micro-stepping. In any case, the vibration level went way down. I was wondering whether this would improve the quality of the traces on your setup.
Wouldn't lowering the printhead lessen all the angular deviation you are getting? As in: "less amplitude of the wobbles".
Also maybe try using the laser with a tiny masking dot right above the board?
If you manage to tune the jerk and acceleration and decrease them from the firmware side, you could stop that axis dependent vibrations propagated because the small scale. that adjustment just eliminate the resonances.
hello, what power does the laser have?
what type of pbc is ?? does he put any paint on the pbc ?, engraver directly on the copper?
How did you make the onscreen text, "large" follow your movements? Did you do it manually or did you use some clever software? And if you used some clever software, did you write it yourself?
For a really good timelapse try attaching your camera to the build plate. I did it to my printer and you can see the part grow and it is really cool. I just attached some spare aluminum cut into a strip and screwed the aluminum to an unused hole using a nut and bolt. Make sure it is pretty stiff or you will get some wobble in the timelapse. Good luck!
Wouldn't the circuit get exposed with the surrounding UV? What chemical did you use for the etching? Can u pleaaaase give out more info on your our diy PCB process pleaaaaase
I wanna make them with my own printer!
Can't te laser be focused so you could place it closer to the board to reduce angular vibration?
and at 2:50 he just lets that laser drop and hang by the wire :D freaking comedy club, love it
Does anyone know what the laser wavelength range necessary to to etch the photosensitive copper clad boards this way?
I am confused by the fact this laser has a wavelength of 405nm, but near to far UV light has a wavelength range of 100-400nm.
How did you determine the "Tool dia" value in FlatCam for a Laser?
good touches of humor, like!
because of the nature of step motor(steps generates mechanical vibration), you will not be able to get ultra-precise lines unless you use high gear ratios on each axis with some renunciation of speed,
As you know, you can use bldc motors driven by sinusoidal or FOC control (like odrive) to reduce vibrations, it may be more costly but prototyping machine are also high priced
Did you have any issue with the lack on base resistor on the NPN transistor on the Cetus main board you used to run the laser diode ?
I've only ran the laser for a single PCB and didn't see any problems in that short period
@@reps Thanks! I have since found a PDF one of the guy on the Cetus3D group posted showing all the missing base resistors ! Appalling electronic design !
A software dividing the plate in chess squares and 2 actuators moving some laser mirrors will increase the resolution a lot more, as there will be no vibrations in the frame. You could use multiple lasers as well for higher resolution - 9 smaller squares being burned at the same time, with 9 lasers, for increased productivity.
Is a 500mw 405nm laser powerful enough to do this? As that is what if offered for printers from crwality like the ender 3. Which is a 24v system and am having trouble finding a solution for this. Help please...
Hey :) you can try whit a lower Acceleration, i believe it will fix the wave /shaking/ vibration problem
you can also Test your 3D Printer vibration whit that laser, draw square in each corner, then you can see if it shake more in some of the corner ( no it was not mean as a shaking joke ;)
"hmm??? what this tiny transistor for" Haha! i love all your small lovely detail in your videos : ) thanks
Some of the squiggles will always remain due to resolution aliasing.
Hi. Do you think only having 2 screws to fasten the surface of that whole module that carries the laser module is too weak? I saw construction of the cetus 3d - and I was curious why that bracket was so small.
Erich Stein No, those two screws are overkill, by several orders of magnitude. You could have used double sided tape.
I really like your humor!
The hard part is not making small etched features - it is the drilling and vias that make a PCB useful for anything more than a blinking LED project.
Can you plz explain how laser could engrave(wash out) the copper layer on pcb. You cover the surface of pcb with a special coat right?
The board is coated with a film that, when exposed to light, will wash away. You can buy boards with the film already applied. Search for "presensitized PCB".
Did you remove the inside PCB laser and connect diode directly to constant power source?
Why you didnt show after etching?
How would I find out what all would be involved in upgrading the laser to something more high powered? 3000mW, for example?
Congratulations on the beautiful videos, I wanted to know if I can machine PCBs with a 20 watt diode laser
Thanks for your reply sir.. I didn't understand that you have exposed the board in chemical solution before laser engraving right.. After the chemical process you put the copper clad pcb under the laser engraving machine..
The PCB is made with a photosensitive layer. That layer reacts to UV light. If I point the laser beam at it I can expose areas that I want to remove later. After exposing it like that I have to remove the now exposed photosensitive layer. That is usually done in a sodium hydroxide solution which will remove only the exposed material. Then I have a board with remaining unexposed photosensitive layer and bare copper areas which can be etched away in the next step.
Marco I tried doing this with a TTL controlled laser and the pins on top of the extruder seem to only put out about + or - .3 volts??? Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Sounds like open collector outputs. Take the outputs upto your positive supply rail (5v if your driving TTL) with a 10k resistor and then feed the output/bottom of the resistor to your device.
You are using positive photoresist, right? Because this method is only possible with positive photoresist if i understand correctly. Positive photoresist - you expose the tracks; negative photoresist - you expose everything but the tracks, right?
I know this video's a bit old, but have you tried using Octoprint and Octolapse for your timelapses? That's what I use for my timelapses, and it works out alright.
What about through hole pcb, laser can't drill the hole on pcb?
know its been a while but mind posting up some example codes what power that socket on in Gcode for us cetus users?
How bright laser would exposing an uv pcb need? Could 15mW modded laser pointer do it? I have a small cnc machine that has a laser capabilities and am wondering if I could make better pcbs by swapping the engraver tool for laser
I don't have any reliable data, but if it is a real UV 405 nm diode, you could just slow down until it exposes correctly. Put box on top of the machine, than it can basically take as long as it needs?
True that, I might just try it out. If it doesn't work then I'll just order a proper one from ebay. Thank you for your answer!
I can’t wait to try this. How did you get the hot end bit to synchronise with the camera for the stop motion?
Hallo Marco,
ich wollte mir auch einen Lasergravierer zulegen. Einen mit 1 x 1 m Arbeitsfläche um Schnittmuster direkt im Stoff auszuschneiden. 15 W hat dieses Modell. Ich weiß nicht, ob das zum Schneiden von Lodenstoffen reicht. Kann ich den Stoff den gravieren? Welche Unterlage sollte ich den nehmen, wenn das mit dem Schneiden klappte?
Vielen Dank!
LG
Valentin
Ich weiß nicht, was Lodenstoffe sind, aber mit 15W lässt sich schon einiges schneiden. Textilien, die mit Poly* anfangen ohne Probleme. Als Unterlage wäre etwas Metallisches, das den Strahl nicht direkt in das Lasermodul zurück reflektiert, gut geeignet, vielleicht ein engmaschiges Metallgitter?
Danke für deinen Rat!
Lodenstoffe sind Wollstoffe, meist schwere Stoffe, aus denen meist Wintermäntel gemacht werden.
Jetzt muss ich mich nur noch trauen das Dingen aus China zu bestellen^^.
Wenn ich die Maschine einrichte, werde ich dich sicher nochmal um Rat fragen ;D
Excellent results. Perhaps bringing the laser diode closer to the bed would negate some of the wiggles. At least on the print head axis.
Great video, is your Cetus printer MkII or MkIII?
I've seen a ton of your videos. finally subscribed! great videos!
Why do you have a pic of micrometers on the front?
3:15 can't OctoPrint already do this by syncing the time lapse photo capture with changes in Z-height?
It can.
I found that the lens on my laser jiggled a little bit during movements, causing wiggles like that. perhaps its not the frame vibrations after all
How is the PCB coated? I'd like to do the same, but no idea how to make these pcb sheets...
It's a positive photoresist pre-coated board, afaik
2300 mw/2,3 watt 450nm laser with TTL. I dont know if wavelength matter to cut somethink, but the Power does.
0:24 the pause and the "huh?!" won me over 🤣
What is the PCB type you used please?
Good morning Marco. Another great video, thank you sir. Quick question: On your bench, what is the device with the red, green, and yellow knobs?
Oltronix Power Supply B703 th-cam.com/video/Tr0FfZ-A3P4/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for the quick reply Marco and have a great weekend :-)
Looking forward for the next video on this topic. Great work ! Impressive workshop/equipment you have.
Why do you raster the PCB? Following the traces will likely give you even better results.
Torsten Curdt You can use the fact that Gerber files were originally for plotters, though newer extensions may assume a rasterizer.
An x & y motion could possibly be more accurate with leads that small. Who knows what the motion control is doing, following contours and the path. If you see in the video, there is some variance when he does a close -up.
Burning it just like a laser printer would print, going with the axis in the motions would save the headache of figuring out any bounce vibrations, abrupt turns, and/or backlash. It's a laser-fine beam, not easy to calibrate the mechanics down to that precision.
Not sure what you mean by "who knows what the motion control is doing". It would be generating GCODE you can even check beforehand. With such a lightweight machine getting rid of backlash shouldn't be such a big deal - and it's something that should've already been taken care of for the 3d printing. Despite the rails I would rather be sceptical of the cantilever design.
But in the end we are just speculating here - I would just give it a try and see if it makes a difference.
By motion control - I was talking about the the g-code interpreter and step driving hardware. Backlash has nothing to do with the weight of a machine. Take a look at 5:09 on the video, and study the etched board. The pattern printed on the board, I am certain - does not match his layout. I have to assume the g-code export handle's arc's, and if not by now - Mr. Sweedish Accent Guy certainly knows how to process out his own g-code by this time.
At 7:55, the board shows a great improvement, but still with many blemishes. There are actually crisp arc's and lines - and then some portions the pattern is distorted.
Is the second board, the board with the zebra, with etching? Looks good!
Change the marlin curve divider in firmware and set jerk to a low number like 5 it will clean up the tiny round pads also belts don't use the little spring like belt tensioner it adds springy-ness to the belts make the g#-tight
What's the linear rails brand on the Cetus 3D?
What kind of PCB are you using? Positive acting photosensitive ones?
Yes, positive photoresist pre-coated board
Focus the beam to a point instead of infinite?
Are there any cheap laser engravers under 100€ that accept g-code? I can only find machines from "neje" that only work with 512 x 512 bitmaps.
How do you drill the holes?
You got any details about your 3D printer ? Looks very nice. Can you tell me the make and model so I can look it up please?.
nope, sorry. got no details about that at all
Get yourself some JST XH connectors and a crimping tool then, if you plan on doing mod stuff for electric from China it worth the money :)
Where can I find that screwdriver? 1:22
Nice! What photoresist do you use?
It's a positive photoresist pre-coated board, afaik
Can you post a link to the prepared boards you use?
Bungard boards are well known in Germany, but the very last result I've shown was on a no-brand cheapo (see those droplets of photosensitive coating?) and even that worked great. I'm sure every other presensitized product and also that blue etch resist film will work fine.
Marco, could you confirm that the boards are sensitized with a positive photoresist? At least it appears to me that way from your process. I have negative film and I can burn it off with the laser to expose the copper. But the light causes it to polymerize (as it should) and then becomes harder to remove. I want to try with positive film but have not been able to find it, it should make for an easier development step.
Marco Quezada yes, positive
I cannot understand why are you relating laser output with physical measurement. There are more factors to consider to achieve finer details, eg. microstepping, vibration, driver, optics, and the shape of the laser diode itself (which I assume is a rectangle for this kind of laser).
Vibration by X- axis, Y-axis is perfect, so diagonal lines are middle quality.
Really nice, man. Looks promising.
From a computer to a projector for light the pcb, or a diy laserprinter
Hello, Can anyone tell me in what format did he upload the Gcode to the machine ? Thank you.
Chinese.
I thought it was obvious.
@@japonicaren what a genius you zr !! -_-
you could change the resistor to 15 or 20 ohms and decrease the speed.
Friend good night! wanted to know what paint you used to make a pcb
It's a positive photoresist pre-coated board
what about Fiber Laser ?
23bit absolute servo motors could vastly imporve the print. Also spring-loaded grounded ballscrews and of course pre-loaded B class linear guideways.
There are some nice timelapses to find on youtube that use the method you discribed. They look very statisfying. Way more than the ones with jumping print heads
Couple of things to check. Looks like some of the wobbles come from change of direction, check the machines axis for backlash, huge huge quality killer is backlash.
Also, check the linear rails for adjustment, might need tweaking a bit tighter to minimise the rattle wobble effect from the balls rolling around. Looks great though!
Do you really need all that extra mass on the moving head? Maybe the heat from the laser could be dissipated into the head itself. A more extreme weight saving technique is to only move a mirror, while the laser doesn't move, at least in the X direction. Laserprinters and professional PCB factories do it that way.
I had the same version from Eleks as yours only in the 2500mw version and I finally had enough as it just could not engrave all that well and I guess it was that electrolytic you showed is probably in it as well. I would have needed some way to be able to toggle the laser on and off much faster though it wasn't very good at greyscale either. I have an eBay Chinese laser 50w (really 40w) CO2 that will be here on Thursday thanks to that blue laser from Elek's being so crappy.
Warning labels are a sign of good tools..
I'm going to use this line often :)
you should use optical stabilizer attached to a laser diode to get rid of vibrations.
Very nice video sir.. Right now I am working on convert 3d printer to a pcb laser engraving machine.. This tutorial is very helpful to me.. After pcb engraving you have dipped the board in water right.. No chemical process.. May know the software for laser engraving pcbs
The exposed boards are developed in a sodium hydroxide solution as recommended by the manufacturer. The software that creates the machine movements from PCB gerber files is called FlatCAM and the software that sends it to the machine is called LaserWeb
Repetier server pro has timelapse that you can sync with the layers
What type of pcb you use?
Only if there is a way to do vias/pth too
Also maybe look into cheap LCD based SLA printer, the resolution is super high for something like this.
no tlsmooters?
Synchronized capture is easily accomplished using the Octolapse plugin in Octoprint.
me every time I plan to do something "im going work on the heated bed and whats this random transistor for?" 12 hours later... "Ill just work on the heated bed another day" lmao
Have you seen those 25w fiber coupled laser modules on eBay?
The fiber seems the way to go, for a step - up from a laser diode. I do not know how much equipment involved. Looking at the co2 ones with the mirrors and all that stuff that needs cleaning and alignment, seems like too much. With a fibre line - just mount the end part somewhere, aim and have at it.
I search " 25w fiber coupled laser" eBay and find $2,000+ USED equipment. Not really affordable.
www.ebay.com/itm/322895867903
that diode still need lens right?
José Mauricio Zavaleta yes a lens for the diode to play with. Then the fun power supply to figure out. Make a mistake a Poor! Kiss $100 goodbye.
I think it is a cheap way vs a fiber laser machine to metal marking 3kUSD -5kUSD, I mean, is more cheap than CO2, laser+psu+lens, I allready make a 80w co2 and I want to start working with fiber laser to mark metal and pcb without etching, A 25w-40w chinese fiber laser machine can cut 1.2mm of solid cooper with 10 or 15 pases, so I think is posible to reach someting with fiber laser. I allready get very nice results with estlcam+445nm laser to make pcb's. Look to my instructable in the last step there are some pics of a pcb for k40 co2 laser conversion to arduino. www.instructables.com/id/Heatsink-for-Diy-Laser-Engraver/
Always a good watch! Thanks for uploading
Excellent. I expect this can be done with other 3d printers. I have an anet a8 just in the mail. I hope its possible with it. Ill see once its assembled.
I need to see what you will use with that other LED driver board!
One of many LT demo boards lying around. I don't have an application yet, and because it is from 2005, it's not that great by todays standards.
I, personally, would appreciate an updated video on FlatCAM. 2015 is aeons ago in software land.
Edit:I guess so is 2017 :/