What decent options exist to manufacture PCB at home for prototyping?

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matrixofdynamism

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Even though we now have 3D printers and technology has become a lot more advanced and cheaper. What options exist to manufacture PCBs at home? I am not talking about the UV and etching method. I am talking about using some sort of mechanical device. I think people call it milling machines. Are there any cost effective options available today?
 

I think you can assemble a simple cnc-router and use a software for example Mach3 software for control it.
Also some ardoino present at the net for this mater.
 
I know absolutely nothing about routers and millers, am completely blank. Where should I start from?
 

You can search for CNC PCB milling and routing on google and you will find a lot. The same machines can also do PCB drilling operations and they are usually very good for rather simple circuits. They only lack plated through hole which is a rather dirty chemical process.

These CNC machines are real marvels of engineering. Unfortunately most are not cost effective enough (for many)- a lot of chinese make devices are there in the market.
 

We used one in 1981 with a BBC B home microprocessor controlling it. You need very flat PCB blanks. It works but the glassfibre gets slightly machined as well, so it looks a bit tatty. Of course in those days track width was wider, not so sure that they would work very well with todays very fine tracks.
Frank
 

Even today they will cut the fiberglass board a bit (it is impossible to avoid; whether you use 15 deg 0.2 mm milling bit OR 45 deg 0.3 mm bit) and fine lines are still difficult if not impossible. But they are certainly very good for prototyping. I do not know whether they can do these centipedes (ICs) even today.
 

I have always made prototypes and sold the prototype for a one-off project made on a compactly layed out Veroboard (stripboard). Many projects were analog and some were very large and complicated LS-TTL and Cmos logic circuits. They all worked perfectly and lasted a long time.
 

For starting, you need to know about CNC components and how to control and use it. the most important components are axis and spindle. You can find and shopping them. Many of simple CNC actuated with stepper motors and many of high precision machine drive with Servo motors. For milling pcb stepper motors work as well.thus you need structure include base and 3 axis and one spindle, Servo or stepper motors and driver, also you need interface for connecting to PC that you can find proper ardoino for this mater.
On the other hand, you need a software to convert a schematic to code for applying to your machine.
For this you can use "CooperCAM" software for converting schematic to G-Code and "MACH3" for controlling CNC.
Sorry for my bad English!.
 

Start here regarding machines...
**broken link removed**

These days prototypes are usually a standard PCB as most designs are multilayer, also you can test other parameters such as EMC and signal integrity etc. I haven't seen wire wrap or Vero board prototypes in the professional world since about 1991... A real PCB allows many tests to be done at the prototype stage that are required these days.... Never mind the digital requirements with the ever increasing rise times of logic devcies....
 

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