Print your own PCB - PROOF OF CONCEPT

thingiverse

This is a PROOF OF CONCEPT for making your own "PCB" with THT components using a 3D printer. It's just to show that it's possible to make a very crude "PCB" without having to etch your own PCBs. With some modification, you can add larger SMD components to the design. I love electronics, but I don't know how to etch my own PCBs and for my little projects I wanted to have something of my own, so that's why I wanted to see if a 3D printed variation of a PCB is applicable with a standard 3D printer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QikAQDyuIuU&feature=youtu.be Print Settings: Printer: DIY Mendel90 (Nevex) Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: 0.2 Infill: 13% Honeycomb How I Designed This Idea I love electronics, but I don't know how to etch my own PCBs and for my little projects I wanted to have something of my own. That's why I wanted to see if the idea to 3D print a variation of a PCB is applicable with a standard 3D printer. Concept To make the idea into practice, I started with a simple circuit: battery, LED, and resistor. I placed the components as in the schematic and began drawing my test "PCB" in SolidWorks. Test Circuit First Design I thought about how PCBs are made, so I decided to have all the connections on the lower side and no connection visible on the upper side. I had to design chamfered holes for the connections to be soldered to components, or they wouldn't be possible to achieve. Chamfered Holes and Cut Sections Second Design Because I didn't like the idea of soldering wires and melting the surrounding plastic (especially PLA), I thought about making wire connections just by friction. That way, I could hide the connections inside the plastic part, so I drew them in the middle section. Also, that way the connections wouldn't be available to make any shorts or be unintentionally damaged. Final Design After drawing was made, I exported and saved it as STL. Here's how it looks placed using the Simplify3D software. Modifying G-Code Because I needed my printer to pause at a certain height, so that I could insert the wire connection, I thought about using Cura software with its PauseAtZ plugin (http://wiki.ultimaker.com/CuraPlugin:_Pauseatz). Cura Layer View I sliced the STL file both in Cura and Simplify3D. Then, I compared the Simplify3D and Cura G-code as seen in the picture. G-Code Comparison When examining the G-code and much help from the Reprap wiki page (http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code) and the G-code cheat sheet (https://thingiverse-production-new.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/87/b0/2c/f5/4c/CheatSheet.pdf), I was able to modify the Simplify3D code to my needs. All of this could be also done if I would take a little bit of time to modify the original Python code of the plugin. End Result At the end, I was able to achieve what I was looking for - a printable PCB like circuit that WORKS! So, my thought of making small printable PCBs for THT components and chips in DIL packages (see my Solderless wire termination: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1381358) is very much achievable with a little bit of work and patience. Of course it needs to be perfected, but the proof of concept has been achieved and I'm so very happy. Connection Wires Inserted While printing is paused