Print your own PCB - PROOF OF CONCEPT

prusaprinters

<p>This is a PROOF OF CONCEPT how to make your own "PCB" for THT components.<br/> It's just to show that it's possible to make a very crude "PCB" with a 3D printer.<br/> With some modification it is possible to add some of the larger SMD components.</p> <p>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 of a 3D printed variation of a PCB is applicaple with a standard 3D printer.</p> <p> <figure class="media"> <oembed url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QikAQDyuIuU&amp;feature=youtu.be"></oembed> </figure> </p> <h3>Print instructions</h3><h3>Category: Electronics Summary</h3> <p>This is a PROOF OF CONCEPT how to make your own "PCB" for THT components.<br/> It's just to show that it's possible to make a very crude "PCB" with a 3D printer.<br/> With some modification it is possible to add some of the larger SMD components.</p> <p>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 of a 3D printed variation of a PCB is applicaple with a standard 3D printer.</p> <p> <figure class="media"> <oembed url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QikAQDyuIuU&amp;feature=youtu.be"></oembed> </figure> </p> <h3> Print Settings</h3> <p><strong>Printer:</strong> DIY Mendel90 (Nevex)</p> <p><strong>Rafts:</strong> No</p> <p><strong>Supports:</strong> No</p> <p><strong>Resolution:</strong> 0.2</p> <p><strong>Infill:</strong> 13% Honeycomb</p> <h3> How I Designed This</h3> <p><strong>Idea</strong></p> <p>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 applicaple with a 3D printer.</p> <p><strong>Concept</strong></p> <p>To make the idea into practice I wanted to start with a simple circuit: battery, LED and resistor.<br/> I placed the components as in the schematic and started drawing my test "PCB" in SolidWorks.</p> <p><strong>Test circuit</strong></p> <p><strong>First Design</strong></p> <p>I thought about how PCBs are made and so i thought about having all the connections on the lower side and no connection visible on the upper side.<br/> I had to design chamfered holes in order for the connections to be soldered to components, or the connections wouldn't be possible to acheive.</p> <p><strong>Chamfered holes and cut sections to make room for wires and soldered joints</strong></p> <p><strong>Second Design</strong></p> <p>Because I didn't like the idea to solder wires and melt the surrounding plastic (especially PLA), I thought about making wire connections just by friction, similarly like i did in my Solderless wire termination (<a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1381358">http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1381358</a>).</p> <p>That way I could also 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.</p> <p><strong>The holes could be a bit smaller :)</strong></p> <p><strong>Final desing: top and bottom look the same (connections are hidden inside the plastic part)</strong></p> <p><strong>Making the STL</strong></p> <p>After the drawing was made I exported and saved it as STL.</p> <p><strong>Here placed using the Simplify3D software.</strong></p> <p><strong>Modifying G-code</strong></p> <p>Because I needed my printer to pause at a certain height, so that i could be able to insert the wire connection, I thought about using Cura software with it's plugin PauseAtZ (<a href="http://wiki.ultimaker.com/CuraPlugin:_Pauseatz">http://wiki.ultimaker.com/CuraPlugin:\_Pauseatz</a>).</p> <p><strong>Cura layer view: pausing and moving extruder to position X=5cm, Y=5cm from origin</strong></p> <p>Because I don't use Cura at all, I just wanted to see what this plugin code does to the G-code to make the printer pause.<br/> I sliced the STL file, both in Cura and Siplify3D. I then compared the Simplify3D and Cura G-code as seen in the picture.</p> <p>When examining the G-code and much help from the Reprap wiki page (<a href="http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code">http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code</a>) and the G-code cheat sheet (<a href="https://thingiverse-production-new.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/87/b0/2c/f5/4c/CheatSheet.pdf">https://thingiverse-production-new.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/87/b0/2c/f5/4c/CheatSheet.pdf</a>), I was able to modify the Simplify3D code to my needs.</p> <p><strong>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</strong></p> <p><strong>End result</strong></p> <p>At the end I was able to achieve what I was looking for - a printable PCB like circuit that WORKS!<br/> So, my thought of making small printable PCBs for THT components and chips in DIL packages (see my Solderless wire termination: <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1381358">http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1381358</a>) is very much acheivable with a little bit of work and patience.</p> <p>Of course it needs to be perfected, but the proof of concept has been acheived and I'm so very happy :)</p> <p><strong>Connection wires inserted while printing is paused</strong></p>