PCB Making Tutorial

This is just a personal file for reference for the future me. I keep forgetting stuff, so I figured have this notes somewhere could help me in the future as well as help others.

So, these are the steps I take to produce my own homemade PCBs:

1. Design

There are serveral tools for that, but I like the idea of working on a design from anywhere. For that, I find Upverter a great tool. Their forum is almost dead, I'm not sure how much effort they are putting into improving the tool, but so far it works for me.

2. Export Gerbers

From Upverter, you can download a zip package that contains all the gerber files. Download that and extract it to any folder you want.

3. Generate Printable Image from Gerbers

Again, there are several ways to achieve that. I like to print few copies of the design on the same transparency. This is good if you want to stack transparency pieces together to make the traces darker and therefore more resistent to the UV light. To automate this, I have been working on a little project: https://github.com/brunobasto/gerber2paper

Just install it globally: npm i -g gerber2paper

And run it: gerber2paper [path to folder with gerbers]

This will generate some files:

• BottomLayer.svg
• Holes.svg
• TopLayer.svg

4. Drill Holes

Print the Holes.svg file and place it on top of your copper board. Fix it using any kind of clamp you have available. After that, just drill the holes using a dremmel or any drilling tool with the correct bit diameter for your design.

5. Expose PCB

Stack serveral transparencies together like mentioned above. Put some glue between them so that they don't slip.

6. Etch

Put some ferric cloride in a plastic container and place the board carefully into the container. Wait serveral minutes untill all the unwanted copper is removed. Remember to agitate the container softly during the process.