Homemade PCB Exposure Units

[beanflying]

Interesting getting back into making PCB's after a long long time away (I tend to use protoboard for one offs and have used online).

I started with Dalo Pens and a Fishbowl way back when but have decided to arrange a UV development set of bits. The idea isn't really new and there is a few YouTube videos on similar units including some home built chassis's by people with far to much time on their hands.

So I started with an Epson Scanner from the local op shop for $10 and ordered 5m of 3528 U/V Led strip off evilbay.

While waiting for the tape to arrive I started stripping out the Scanner of the non useful stuff but left the switchpad installed minus some of the extra components to drive a little Ardiuno (code to be tweaked) and added a four digit LED and a couple of tactile switches for +- of power and time.

The stock buttons were sanded back and given a coat of silver for fitting some new labels. Still have a small matching light pipe to add under the display.

[beanflying]

The U/V Strip arrived today obviously made from floor scrappings as it had nearly 20 joins in the 5M  Anyway I unrolled it trimmed it to 250mm lengths and squashed it under a few bits of glass on top of my coffee machine to straighten out (about 60 degrees  )

Spacing I wasn't to worried about but I decided to use most of the roll which gave me 19 strips due to being sent 4.9m  and 20 gaps on the non conductive foil cardboard. 6mm Nuts worked well for 10mm spacers with an occasional check with a ruler.

For wiring I ran positive one side and negative the other and supplied in the middle by some 16AWG wire as the power draw is nearly 2A. Wire links were bent around a carpenters pencil to loop around the oposite polarity pads.

Power to burn at 100%, final wiring and programming to be done over the next few days.

Tracing potential too. This is an inkjet print under a sheet of standard paper.

[beanflying]

 Not sure if it entirely needed based on some online videos but I made a Amber lamp of about 1W. 10 strings of 5 with a 100 ohm dropper on 12v gives plenty of light to work by. Clips onto the shelf above the workbench when needed.

[beanflying]

Just some programming to go. Changed the plan a little to use a Pro-Micro clone with built in USB and installed it on a hacked replacement lower board for power and usb in so programming can be done covers on. Also ran plugs to all boards for ease of assembly.

I used a cheapy evilbay fet board as I had a couple of spares along with a salvaged heatsink (not really needed)

The Lightpipe on the LED board works better than the stock EPSON one.

Back in a few days when I get some working code.

[kripton2035]

nice project ! subscribed .