[gsi11135]

The original idea I had was to only let invited members contribute while allowing for public comment and viewing hence my asking those that desire to compile their information and contribute it to the wiki to privately contact me so I can add them as members. As some future point I did plan to open the wiki up as a public wiki.

If you'd like here is the web address not much there yet but I am working on it...slowly.

http://printerhack.netcipia.net/xwik...w/Main/WebHome

Joseph

[geomagnet]

I hope I'm not stealing your thunder. But I've already built this about 4 years ago. Took a week and $200. It worked pretty good, but was very
difficult to register the other side (for two sided circuits).

Haven't read your entire post, so forgive me it this is redundant.

As a work around I used toner powder in a salt shaker and immediately
sprinkled it onto the wet ink. I then blew off the excess with light air pressure
from a aerosol can. I then used a heat gun to fuse the toner.

I was able to produce very high resolution etching using this method.

If I were to build it again, I would use piezo bubble jet technology instead of thermobubble jet technology so better inks could be used.

I'm glad you've gotten a good deal of interest with your project.

Good Luck!!!

James Scott

[kowell]

Russell

Since you have asked this a few times, Not sure if you have figured this out,
how to set the colors in eagle here is how it is done .

To set the default colors for the layers in eagle:

Select / Options menu / set / this brings up the settings box
Select / Colors Menu / click once on the black box under the word palette
this brings up the palette color selection box .

The top row of colored boxes is for the solid colors
The second row of colored boxes is for the outline colors

From here select a color from the top row of colors blue,
bottom layer , red top layer etc.

To change the color , click the black cross-hair in the multi color box and
move to the desired color,The little square color box underneath should
change as you move the cross-hair.

There is also a little triangle slider that you can move witch will adjust
the color or if you know the RGB values for the color you want click on the
numbers for red, blue, green and type in the new ones.

When done press / set color / Ok / restart eagle

If you change the top or bottom layers to magenta , you will also have to
change the color for the pads and vias from green to magenta .

Kym

[epineh]

Cheers Kym, but it is actually the black PDF schematics that I have trouble with, I'm sure it is just a colour setting but haven't cracked it yet.

I actually print my Eagle layouts in the red (default top layer colour) and find that works best for me, the Eagle printing works every time, just the PDF's I cannot do very well.

So long as I do my board design's only I am OK, just cannot download layouts and make the boards...(chair)

Thanks for the tips though, at least I can make the red the default colour instead of changing it every time when printing

Russell.

[kowell]

Russell

I can extract the board images from a PDF, and they are ok in black but when changing the colors with Irfanview, they do not convert very well , with
extra pixels added here and there , so have not tried to print one of these yet

Could you just change the color that is displayed in abode reader, and print
from there.

kym

[epineh]

I didn't think you could change colour with Reader only, I have tried in Photoshop but printing the edited picture is not working for some reason...well the print works but when etching the ink just seems to fall off. It looks the same as printing from Eagle and I do the same stuff with the boards, pre-heat, and cure etc.

Just seems a bit strange.

Cheers.

Russell.

[kowell]

Russell

Give the reader idea a miss, it will change the color of some boards and not
others , but the pads are still black, so not much good for printing.

Thats very strange not etching right.

Have tried to print with red with mixed results , i get about a 1 mm offset
from the layers that print, yellow is printed first then magenta is printed
over the top giving red , but with an offset in the layers , prints perfect
using just one color though.

And on the etched board,the traces where the offset is , the
thickness of the traces is thinner than where it has printed
the double layer.

Kym

[scratch_6057]

I have tried in Photoshop but printing the edited picture is not working for some reason...well the print works but when etching the ink just seems to fall off.

Just seems a bit strange

Yea, STRANGE indeed !

What version of Photoshop? FYI I'm running an OLD copy of 5.0, (it still works
for what I need to do) If yours is equal or newer every thing should be about the same.


Are you saving as ‘filename’.PSD? I’ve found some quirky things with
Photoshop, If saving to GIF, JPEG (JPG) or attempting to print from memory
(as in import graphic and print, with no file save).

Also close all other apps as Photoshop LOVES to eat Memory!

Image > Mode, CMYK I assume?

IIRC Generally a PDF will import as GreyScale at 72 DPI (screen resolution).
If you’re not doing so you need to turn the DPI up to around 1200 – 1400 and
Re-Scale the image to the proper size (Print Size) if it gets changed.

If you’re using the ‘Magic Wand’ or ‘Select’ + ‘Color Range’ do you have
‘Anti-Aliased’ Turned OFF (Un Checked). Also i have 'Tolerance' set around 20

Double click the 'Select Tool' button, (dashed line circle or square on the
Tool Bar), Is 'FEATHER' set to = 0 (zero)?

Are you ‘OPENING’ the PDF in Photoshop, or selecting and copying in READER
then pasting in Photoshop?

If you haven’t already done so you might try this,
OPEN PDF file
Change ‘Mode’ to ‘CMYK’
Turn DPI (resolution) WAY UP
Turn OFF ‘Anti-Aliased’ (double click the ‘Magic Wand’ there’s a check box)
‘Select’ > ‘Color Range’ > ‘Shadow’
‘Layers’ > ‘New Layer’
Select your desired color to print in
‘Edit’ > ‘Fill’
‘Select’ > ‘Deselect’
Delete the ORIGINAL layer
SAVE as PSD

[epineh]

Well I have to admit I am no Photoshop expert I was doing something a little different, I was opening at 600DPI and CMYK.

Then selecting Image/Adjustments/Selective Colour

Changing the drop down box to black then move the sliders to replace the black areas (tracks) with what I thought looked like the right colour - I like the Eagle red top layer colour so I got close to that, though I also tried pure magenta.

I guess the way I did it didn't have the proper distribution of ink, I will try your method, but it will be in a couple of weeks, not getting much "play" time lately...

Cheers.

Russell.

[kowell]

Russell

If it prints good with eagle .
Have you tried to import this into eagle then print from there ?

First set the pixels per inch in adobe reader to 600 using preferences,
on the general and page display tabs. ( this is for the correct scale )

generate your bitmap image using Photoshop.etc.
This must be a saved as a monochrome windows bitmap image
( 2 colors black and white ) Set at 600 DPI.

Then in eagle run the import bmp.ulp and select your bitmap image.
Then tick both colors ( black and white )
Select DPI and enter 600 for DPI and 1 for layers (top layer red)
Press ok , this will now generate a script and when this comes up
Press run script.


your bitmap image is now in eagle ready to print .


Kym

[scratch_6057]

Well I have to admit I am no Photoshop expert

Well, JUST DA^^! There, it just happened AGAIN!
someone's calling me an EXPERT about something
as far as I can recall I never was a PERT so I don't see how
I could be considered an EX-PERT

No I'm no expert I just used Photoshop YEARS ago to do LOTS of
Web Graphics stuff. I PUTZ with it until it does what I want it to,
or the computer crashes 12 times (not going to push my luck on that
13th try).

[spalm]

This thread is just so cool.

Just a thought from an onlooker: It would be nice to have some pins in the flat platen so that the board could be re-inserted reliably into the board’s tooling holes. These would be drilled in the PCB blank before any printing.

This would help for backside printing, silk screen printing, and for drilling (CNC of course).

What is the melting point for the ink? Could you print solder mask between the high pitch surface mount pads after etching?

Steve

[epineh]

Glad you enjoyed the thread Steve

I have thought of doing something like alignment holes, at the moment I use the "L" shaped locating pieces of card stuck onto the main card, this works OK for most of what I need, which is one-off's that I need in a hurry, usually late on a Friday or Saturday night to get something to run.

I think that if I wanted to do larger numbers of boards I would probably shop them out, this method works well for small runs, to get a working prototype, but it is pretty hard to compete with the proffessional boards in bigger numbers for the price.

I'm a little busy for a while, but intend to crank up the printer again and try some double sided boards. I have also thought of making some kind of vacuum clamping system, the double sided tape seems to rip the card carrier to pieces after a while, though I'm not too sure how to get a vacuum system going that can fit through the printer, at least without modifying it any further...lol.

And the ink does act as a solder mask, so they say, I haven't really tried yet, got the script for Eagle but never used it.

Scratch, I think it is all relative, compared to my Photoshop skills, almost everybody is an expert, whether they were a PERT previously or not...

Kym, I hadn't thought about importing into Eagle, didn't even realize it would do that, thanks for the heads up, again it is really wierd why Eagle works sooooo well for me and printing PDF's is sooooo bad.

Has anybody tried double sided boards with this method ? I was thinking the first side would have to be "cured" before the other side was printed to stop the ink smudging and ruining the first print. Would this end up overcooking the PCB ?

Russell.

[erlyrisa]

hi .... I once designed a 'ink jet' cnc machine....

this one though was hopefully tobe used as a doule sided routing and cutting machine.

-to make it you will need 2 inkjet printers of the same model (to get double sided)

--note: that the y axis drive is left as is, and all that is done that the x axis drive which normally feeds paper is turned into a rack and pinion setup...

to make the rack, roll the gear back and forth onto the endgrain of mdf then emmers in epoxy on the result,, gaing a mdf epoxy composite rack.

[yucharles]

Need HELP Direct to PCB Inkjet print resist (My Epson C79)
--------------------------------------------------------
Need HELP!(sorry my poor english,I comes from Taiwai)
I use c84 method modified my C79,all done but I get paper jam error.
I need use CX4200 method to modified my C79,It's to diffcult for me.
I don't understand U1,and pin in/out for my C79(not same as CX4200)
I also don't have programer MSP430F123 to writer flash.
I can pay all cost of Paper Emulator for C79.
PLEASE HELP ME!
THANKS!

[epineh]

I'm not too sure what the problem is, but it sounds like you may have the paper sensor in the wrong spot, you need about 100mm of travel on the card carrier before it passes through the sensor.

I think the C79 is the same as the C84 and C87, I'm sure someone will respond here that has done a C79...

Russell.

[yucharles]

my problem is:

1.power on c79 is ok
2. after put card carrier on printer,and print it,
the printer head scan +X dirction and sensor find card carrier
so printer put it out(+Y diction) then error LED on

I think new EPSON printer will detect objects around the printing area
and to find the edge of the paper.
Tray itself can not be used like paper
since you need to feed tray before starting printing

[yucharles]

THANKS EPINEH!
NOW I USE of travel on the card carrier
IT WORKS!
Thanks again!

[epineh]

Great to hear yucharles, I had re-read through parts of this thread to try find if anybody had finished a C79, man it is a long read...

I really should put a seperate build log of my printer and encourage questions, idea's etc to stay on this thread, to make it easier for newcomers, hey Joseph, if you are still reading this thread, how is the Wiki going ?

Russell.

[epineh]

I just saw this (here on the zone of course )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a14zELKPw8M

Might interest a few people.

Credit goes to Graham S.