FlatCAM: Free and Open-Source PCB Cam
flatcam.org
flatcam.org
I believe while both are true, there's also an important application that is not always mentioned - RF prototypes. It's still very expensive to buy a circuit board made of specialized low-loss RF laminate, such as the Rogers series. But raw boards can be purchased at a reasonable price. Having a CNC/milling machine can be extremely useful to prototype RF planar circuits in the GHz realm.
There are places in the world where even DHL Sameday needs 1 month to get.
I've heard this a lot and can never understand it. It's like saying "why use a 3D printer when you can get the same thing for $50 or $10 and a month of waiting?". Because sometimes I want a good-enough thing for cheap now, not a perfect thing for expensive later.
The only reason for doing them yourself are (if you already have all the required things):
- Getting them really quick (~hours)
- Getting them somewhat quick (saving on shipping, around 30$)
- Wanting to
With ~everyone using smd components today, soldermask is also pretty much a must-have which makes doing it yourself even more annoying.
In comparison to 15 years ago, where doing it yourself was the only option, it's really understandable that a lot of people just don't anymore.
Unless, of course, you are really good at soldering. But for me, 0.5mm pitch ICs or 0.4mm pitch connectors are way out of my motor skill league.
Of course, at that level, it's mostly down to using a pick&place robot, which could easily be shared by multiple people. So I imagine that in a few years, there'll be P&P centers where you can rent such a robot by the hour, similar to how there are 3D printing communities nowadays.
I think these PCB processes and machines are all really designed for prototypes and experiments, it's the aspect that they're great for. If you find that you need to send them to an external PCB assembly shop, you probably shouldn't make your own board to begin with. Same for externally-produced professional PCBs - I order a raw board rather than a fully-assembled prototype because my chip is an uncommon part and they don't offer this chip for prototype assembly.
> Unless, of course, you are really good at soldering. But for me, 0.5mm pitch ICs or 0.4mm pitch connectors are way out of my motor skill league.
Speaking of soldering, I have no problem with 0.5mm pitch LQFP ICs with a good stereo microscope - for me I can just use brute force. However, my own problem is 0.5mm QFN - I have to use stencil printing and reflow soldering since I'm not good enough to hand solder that. I find a high quality board with accurate solder mask between the pin (no bridging), and with ENIG surface finishing (maximum flatness) are extremely helpful. I don't think a simple DIY PCB can handle these applications (but I'd be glad to find otherwise). But again, this was a 1 Gbps+ board.
Conclusion: I still believe DIY PCBs have their places for prototypes and experiments, but if one argues it's not useful because it cannot be assembled by a PCB shop or it cannot reach 1 Gbps, it would be demanding too much and not really fair for these simple boards.
But no, this is a CAM = computer aided manufacturing software like KiCAD.
Cam != CAM
Mods, please consider editing the title to make this more clear (e.g. use "FlatCAM: free and open source PCB manufacturing software" or something). Thanks!
This could make a lot of small-scale prototyping projects that much easier - no messing around with Ferric Chloride and acetone, and no waiting for the PCB to be manufactured and sent back.
4 layers boards from China are cheaper than the equivalent 2-sided copper blanks. And, unless you still do everything with through-hole components, you have to plate the holes which takes you several days of futzing with nasty chemicals anyway.
Here's an actually disruptive idea for great hackers: rather than continuing to diddle with making PCBs that's been solved a hundred times over, come up with an open-source pick and place that can actually do 0402 and 0201 components.
It's got all the bits: gantry CNC, actuator with air, optical vision alignment via machine learning, accurate parts handling, and helps build boards. And it's a huge unsolved space.
Every time I've dealt with pick and place machines short of 7 figures, I spend more time dorking with the machine than actually populating boards.
If we'd had this thing, we could have rapidly prototyped this board, discovered the mistake and made appropriate changes within a couple of days, instead of having to take more than a month...
> come up with an open-source pick and place that can actually do 0402 and 0201 components.
Why? What do I care about 0201 components? I use 0805 and I can solder them fine. This problem "really isn't interesting".
There are copper press rivets you can buy at most PCB supply houses. No need for plating, although you do need the die set and press (although a drill press can be used). Furthermore, one can just do it the old fashioned way, with a soldered wire through connection. That's how I've done it for years.
The truth is that many of articles whose titles it tries to bona-fide "sanitize" should be flagged by the users anyway as low-effort content (Like listicles, which get the number in front of the title removed, and so on).
Did somebody compile a list of transformations HN does on titles?
With that said, I wish there were more cheap hardware to go with it. Come on Shenzen, do your thing!
Also, note that if you use glass fiber PCBs, the particles created by PCB milling are very dangerous and can give you cancer. You might want to switch to compressed paper PCBs instead (I think they are called F2 or something similar)
edit: I had one 2 layer board made locally for almost $500 and that without even a silk screen and I got a ten 6 layer boards for about $300 from China including shipping and taxes.
Long answer: no. you can't get the precision needed to correctly drill and align the 5 boards (for 6 layers) at home.
If you can, this means your boards are probably simple enough to not need 6 layers.
You can buy devices 10x cheaper from China, but there are very few dedicated to PCB milling.
Here is a very thorough writeup of doing PCB milling with this type of machine: https://forum.electricunicycle.org/topic/11205-milling-pcbs-...