
CirQuoid – PCB Prototyping Tool - trengrj
https://cirqoid.com
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fest
I have experimented with various at-home PCB production techniques: engraving,
toner transfer, UV litography. The main limitation for all of these is fine
pitch parts (less than 0.5mm) and plated holes (vias and through holes). The
fine pitch part can be solved relatively easily (have a better mask for
litography, have a finer engraving bit) but I am not aware of easy solutions
for plating holes.

I have settled on Chinese board houses- you get very good PCBs with plated
holes, soldermask and silkscreen- for 50USD and two weeks in total.

I have spent countless hours debugging copper whiskers shorting traces
together- something which I have only seen on self-made PCB.

~~~
StavrosK
> for 50USD

dirtypcbs.com charges $12 for 10 PCBs (50x50mm), and the quality is fantastic.
ENIG coating is more expensive, but HASL is fine as well. I haven't really
tried any other houses, but DirtyPCBs have been great for me.

> and two weeks in total.

The only problem for me is that they take three weeks (as with everything from
China that's shipped to Greece), which is way too long for a prototype that's
usually then iterated upon :(

Having a machine that could make prototype PCBs (which I would then probably
throw away) would be as much of a game-changer as my 3D printer is for
prototyping. I'd try etching my own, but holes will be a problem, as I don't
have one of those vertical drills.

~~~
fest
DHL shipping is another 20-25USD + VAT on import makes it closer to 50. But
very cheap, anyway.

Drilling itself is not the problem- just buy a nice set of drills with larger
diameter shank and a small vertical drilling machine (Proxxon makes solid
tools for that).

The problem is connecting both sides of the hole together- you'll have to
place vias where you can solder both sides, always think about which side do
your connectors go and spend a lot of time soldering.

On the other hand, it makes you gravitate towards SMD parts more :)

Also, my first boards had a lot of fuckups unrelated to production (mostly,
wrong connections, incorrect pinouts etc).

As I gained more experience, the boards started to work with less revisions
(usually the minimum functionality works on the first try, with some more
advanced aspects not working as good as required) . That way, I can work on
multiple designs in parallel (e. g. laying out the next board or programming
the previous one while waiting for next board to arrive).

~~~
StavrosK
> DHL shipping is another 20-25USD + VAT on import makes it closer to 50.

I pay $14 total, shipping is free and customs here doesn't bother with small
packages.

> just buy a nice set of drills with larger diameter shank and a small
> vertical drilling machine

"X is not a problem, just buy a machine that does it" can be applied to
everything. I don't want to spend that much money/don't have that much
time/space.

> The problem is connecting both sides of the hole together

Yeah, vias are going to be a royal pain. For through-hole vias where
components go, I can just apply enough solder so that it touches both sides.

> On the other hand, it makes you gravitate towards SMD parts more

SMD parts are fantastic and I use them as much as I can, but they aren't
always feasible :/ (Think DC connectors, SMT antennas, etc).

> As I gained more experience, the boards started to work with less revisions

Definitely, but my problem is that I always find something I can improve, even
if the board _works_...

~~~
fest
> shipping is free

That's why you get them in 3 weeks as opposed to 2 ;>

With free shipping from DirtyPCBs my boards arrive to Latvia in ~5 weeks since
order, so you should consider yourself luckier than you currently do :)

~~~
StavrosK
Ah, yes, that's very possible. For Europe, I hear that AISLER is competitive,
and you get ENIG coating by default and DHL shipping, so it's fast.

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StavrosK
I'm afraid that this tool is in price limbo, much, much too expensive for a
hobbyist (especially when you can etch or CNC your own) but of not good enough
quality for a company that wants to prototype PCBs (at least that's what the
boards look like to me).

~~~
smoyer
"not good enough quality"

I agree ... scanning through the images, I can't find an instance of a trace
passing between pins on through-hole parts with 0.1" centers. This is critical
on a milled board because you can only make a two-sided PCB.

~~~
IshKebab
You can make a lot of PCBs without having to route traces between 0.1" pins.

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rmhsilva
Not explicitly stated anywhere on the page, so let's be clear - this will only
do 2 layer PCBs (top/bottom copper), correct? Also, what can it do without any
"addons"? It looks like an addon is needed to do anything useful (etching,
drilling, pick&place). What am I missing?

I reckon anyone willing to spend ~€3000 on hardware will be designing
significantly more complicated PCBs than this will be capable of making.

~~~
mbell
It doesn't do plating for vias so it's less of a two layer board and more of
two 1 layer boards sharing a piece of FR4.

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bobsam
This is very useful for quick prototypes. 2k is no money for a company on a
tight deadline.

At DIY level however there are already multiple open source projects doing
this for a fraction of the price.

~~~
convolvatron
links?

i just started doing toner transfer, and while the quality is poor i really
missed being able to play around with things before buying 20 boards and
waiting a week. once a software guy..

anything that would improve that process with a modest outlay would be
fantastic

(it does seem like for 2k they should be integrating with a more general
tabletop light duty cnc setup)

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4b11b4
100mm by 75mm is too limited for my uses.

