PCB's

peterwaller · Post by **peterwaller** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:42 am

I have for some time been building my own printed circuit boards for my robots. The problem is that with home made boards you can't create plated through holes so you normally end up with resistor legs poked through the holes and soldered both sides. I have just obtained some small copper rivets from Mega Electronics designed for this job. The rivets are about 2.5p each but the tooling is expensive but I have found a ground down bit of piano wire is all you actually need. The rivits I bought are 0.8mm od and 0.6mm id. Below is my test board with a rivit fitted one lose and the tool I made. They do seem to provide a good contact through the board dry but I shall be soldering them for reliability.
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n66/ ... /rivet.jpg

Andrew_Hibberd · Post by **Andrew_Hibberd** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:08 pm

Are you just putting them in from the bottom and hitting in the piano wire? And how big is the rivot head when expanded?

I have been slowly ordering parts to make a UV light box to start making photoetched pcbs. Should have 100 LEDs arriving this week, shame i have to solder them all...

peterwaller · Post by **peterwaller** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 4:26 pm

Initially the head is 1.3mm diam and I put the board with the rivet head side on top of the vice then tap the tool into the non head end until it is spead. I then tap the spread end with the hammer to finish it off. After riveting both ends appear to be about 1.4mm diam and about 0.1 mm thick before soldering.

peterwaller · Post by **peterwaller** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 11:34 am

I have been looking for a way to improve my etching without spending the >?200 usually required for a etching bath. I have now found one which costs ?76.46 including vat and delivery. It has a built in heater and air pump for bubble agitation and I have just ordered one and will let you know what it is like when I have had the chance to test it out. It can be found at the top of the page on the link below and the company ESR seem to do quite a few other useful things.
http://www.esr.co.uk/electronics/pcb-tanks.htm