PRIME: PCB

I am having several problems with my PCB. As the original project the lines are so small and are close each other, the corrosion process kills 2 PCB. Doing the continuity test I found several circuits interrupted. One solution is use soldering to fill the blanks, but as the lines are so close, another problem appeared… short-circuit! As I said, 2 PCB lost.

PRIME, JCN-9K and SPITFIRE

As I am conducting 3 projects in parallel, I will give names for each one as follow:

-          Project PRIME: The 6 digit clock, based on Andrea’s Instructables DIY.

-          Project JCN-9K: Single digit clock

-          Project Spitfire: Nixie kit from England

JCN-9K

In parallel I decided to develop another project, one Nixie clock single-digit. For now I will call it project JCN-9K. This clock will use a big case as a box, so space will not be a problem. So following one friend’s orientation, I will use one mobile charger to provide 5VDC in my project. Simple and cheap.

Items are arriving, and to maintain everything in order I use this kind of box. The tubes and other items like processor will spend more 30 days to arrive…

Last night I started to make the PCB. Using a laser printer (in my office has one  8) ) I printed the circuit in a normal paper. According Tips on the internet the best paper to do it is acetate or photo paper. I decided to go with normal just as a test, and for my surprise it works perfectly! I fixed the paper on the PCB using a Tamiya mask tape and using an iron (medium temperature) for around 2 minutes was enough to fix the ink on the PCB. Just put in cold water and remove the paper using a toothbrush. It’s not so easy, because the paper in fact is glued on the PCB. I tried to use boil water and I had the sensation that the work turns more easy. In the fridge with the water boiling I used the toothbrush to remove the paper (using soft movements). When finished, wash with cold/normal water and put it direct to corrode (don’t wait to dry). Just it. You can find more details here:

Pictures below: