32 Silicon chip Australia’s electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au
Most of our projects use printed circuit boards (PCBs) because they make
assembly so much easier and dramatically reduce the possibility of
making mistakes. But PCBs are no longer available for our older designs,
which may still be valid. And besides, you might want to make your own
PCB for something you’ve designed yourself, or a modified version of one
of our designs. Here’s everything you need to know to go about doing that!Making PCBs
H
ow handy would it be to be able
to design and make your own
PCBs in a short time frame? It
could be that you need something a bit
tidier or more compact (and reliable)
than a breadboard.
Or maybe you’re even considering
commercialising your design. There’s
just something satisfying about seeing
your design made real in fibreglass
and copper.
We reviewed Altium’s free Cir-
cuitMaker software in the January
2019 issue (siliconchip.com.au/Arti-
cle/11378), which can be used to de-
sign PCBs.
We’ll refer to such EDA (electronic
design automation) software in this ar-
ticle, but our primary intention is to
explain what happens after you have
completed a PCB design.
As well as covering the commercial
manufacturing services and traditional
etching methods, there are a growing
number of alternative techniques be-
ing described to make PCBs, especially
with the rise of consumer and hobby-
ist CNC systems such as 3D printers,
laser cutters and mills.
And if you decide to take the com-
mercial option, you may be surprised
how reasonable the prices are, and the
quality of the end result.Why make a PCB?
You might still be wondering why
you need to have a PCB made. There
may be applications that you may not
have considered for a custom PCB. As
an example, take our April 2019 Flip-dot Display project (siliconchip.com.
au/Article/11520), which uses small
custom PCBs as mechanical elements.
That project also uses a PCB to form
fifteen separate air-cored inductors
from PCB tracks.
You can also use PCBs as shielding
between circuitry running at signifi-
cantly different potentials, as we did
in our Versatile Trailing Edge Dimmer
(February & March 2019; siliconchip.
com.au/Series/332). And you can use
PCBs as part or all of a case for a pro-
ject, as we have done on many occa-
sions; you can even use the copper
layers for shielding.
It’s also possible to get flexible PCBs
made. The cost to get this done pro-
fessionally is still daunting, but we’ll
cover more affordable hobbyist tech-
niques for making flexible PCBs below.by Tim Blythman