Direct inkjet printing of PCB template. Epson t50 pcb maker printer for pcb maker

From time to time I need to make printed circuit boards for my crafts. LUT is an extremely capricious method for me - either the toner melts and spreads, then the quality of the paper will not work, then some other hemorrhoids - nerves need steel-iron. For a photoresist, specific reagents and a laminator.

“What if we build a special machine for this? To print with paint right away? ”- I thought. “Re-make the printer!”, Laziness remarked reasonably. A search on the Internet revealed that people are successfully reworking inkjet printers for printing on textolite, but this is a rather laborious process (you need to finish and raise the frame with a print head, etc.), besides, I value my inkjet printer, like Madame Gritsatsuyeva a strainer (MFP, after all). But the unnecessary laser HP lj 6L was lying around with nothing to do - in general, I was lying around. It was useful to look at the characteristics and accidentally stumbled upon (article cache, for every fireman) on altering this particular printer for textolite. But the topic in the article was never fully disclosed - in particular, it does not tell how to make the toner stick to the PCB foil, how to bake this toner later, and, most importantly, there is no video demonstration of a working sample, so I brought this matter to mind yourself. I AM strongly I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the above article, because I will not repeat what is described there in all the details - there is nothing to produce copy-paste. There are a lot of photos under the cut.

So, the alteration itself lies in the little things - make a cut in the back wall, remove the bump pad and the stove (so that the printed drawing is not smeared). The oven temperature sensor must be replaced with an 8.2 kΩ resistor. I recommend doing it like this (just short-circuit the thermal sensor with a resistor, so as not to fiddle with fixing it):

You do not need to do anything with the connector supplying the heating voltage. Disconnect the stove from it and that's it.

Next, you need to work with the bump pad - this is what was behind the paper pickup roller - it needs to be cut down, leaving only the sides. I'm sorry, but there is no photo with the uncut back part - I forgot to take a photo, and when I came to my senses and came to my senses, everything had already been sawed off. I don’t know how it happened. Nightmare.

This is how it should look like:

Yes, I almost forgot: be careful with the paper passage sensor (it, or rather, the upper shoulder of its flap, is located in that slot to the left of the paper pick-up roller) - do not accidentally cut its attachments, otherwise the printer will not be able to control the end of the sheet in the feeding path.

On the other hand, remove the flap at the paper presence sensor, and the printer will think that there is always “paper”.

Back view:

That's all I wanted to clarify about the rework. And now, no less important points - the adhesion of the toner to the foil and fixing it with heat.

And, of course, what we all gathered here for is a video demonstration of the device's operation:

That's all. This "stanochek" made my life much easier for me. I have successfully printed more than one board with his help, pah-pah. If all of this is useful to someone, I will be very glad. Thank you for the attention.

You do not need to do anything with the connector supplying the heating voltage. Disconnect the stove from it and that's it.

This is how it should look like:

On the other hand, remove the flap at the paper presence sensor, and the printer will think that there is always “paper”.

Back view:

Almost everyone who is engaged in radio engineering is faced with the fact that with an increase in the number of created boards, it takes a lot of time and effort to correctly draw the tracks. Not to mention their pickling, tinning and soldering ...

But what if some of the processes can be automated? Of course, this is not about conveyor production or about putting the printing of circuits on a professional stream.

So, for yourself. Moreover, along with the reduction in the time of transferring the circuit to the textolite, they come:

1.High precision (even with simple inkjet printers, sufficient quality can be achieved to tolerate closely spaced tracks, which are very difficult to draw by hand);

2. Elimination of errors (if the printed circuit board has already been drawn in detail in the program, its printed version will fully correspond to the intended layout, you will not accidentally draw the wrong track, do not shift the contact footprint, etc.).

Solution options

1. Of course, if you manufacture a large number of printed circuit boards, then it is time to think about buying professional equipment (for example, UV printers).

2. The printing device can be made by hand from scratch (assembled from guides, stepper motors, etc.).

3. Redesign an old and unnecessary printer.

Of all the above, the alteration sounds the most real.

As a donor it is best to consider (in descending order of priority):

1.Inkjet printers (black and white or color);

2. Laser printers.

Here it should be noted right away that many modern models are equipped with various methods of protection against external interference. Manufacturers block printing from non-original cartridges, check ink consumption for each cartridge, etc.

Therefore, for rework, it is best to take old printing devices with a simple design and without any protection.

Example based on Epson C84 inkjet printer

As an analogue, you can try to adapt the process for all devices from the C80 series.

The printer itself looks like this before the rework:

Rice. 1. Printer appearance

Instructions step by step:

1.We take out the trays;

2. Remove the casing (outer casing). It should look like this.

Rice. 2. Start disassembling the printer

3. Disconnect and unscrew the paper feed sensor.

Its appearance.

Rice. 3. Paper feed sensor

4. Remove the pressure rollers.

Rice. 4. Pinch rollers

5. We dismantle the system for cleaning the printheads.

Rice. 5. System for cleaning printheads

6. Unscrew and raise the platform with printheads. We start with this reiki.

Rice. 6. Dismantling the platform with printheads

7. Using a grinder with a small-diameter cutting disc for metal, carefully cut the platform. See photo.

Rice. 7. Platform cut

8.Now the free print bed can be raised to the required height (depending on what type of material you intend to print on). This will require jumpers (any metal plate with conveniently located holes will do).

Rice. 8. Jumpers on the printer body

9. Drill holes in the print bed and attach to the base. This is the most important stage, for the sake of which everything was started. The "lifting" (lifting) must be accurately calculated in advance. If you do not get the dimensions or position the printing platform crookedly, it will be difficult to redo (measure and re-drill everything in a new way, or select new jumpers). It is best to use a shim of the specified thickness at the stage of setting the gap.

We twist.

Rice. 9.M installation of the printing platform

10. To prevent ink from drying on the print head after using the printer, replace the nozzle cleaner. However, because the platform has been lifted, the cleaning mechanism will also have to be lifted. For example, like this.

Rice. 10. Installation of the nozzle cleaning mechanism

11. We make a platform for feeding the sheet (replacing the lower tray). The platform can be made of plywood, hardboard, etc. sheet materials that are at hand.

Rice. 11. Platform for sheet feeding

12. On the platform we attach the guides (must be strictly parallel to each other) and the sheet feed sensor.

13. We replace the paper with durable sheet material (for example, a sheet of aluminum, the A4 size is implied), however, in order for the paper feed sensor to work correctly (it also changed its location after dismantling), a cutout (90 mm) should be made in the sheet.

Rice. 13. Sheet material

14. Install the drivers, connect the printer to the PC (as usual).

15. We refill the cartridge with Mis Pro yellow ink (only they are resistant to the chemical etching reaction with ferric chloride and are suitable for Epson nozzles with a piezoelectric head).

16. We print our scheme. We attach the textolite to the aluminum sheet.

17. We poison the board (only in a solution of ferric chloride, to speed up the process, you can heat it with a hairdryer).

Rice. 14. View of the assembled printer

Date of publication: 24.01.2018

Readers' opinions

Edward / 02/18/2019 - 11:58
Class! Respect to you and uvazhuha))) for a quality guide!)))

Lately I've been looking for ways to make PCB fabrication easier. About a year ago, I came across one interesting page, which described the process of modifying an Epson inkjet printer for printing on thick materials, incl. on copper PCB. The article described the refinement of the Epson C84 printer, but I had an Epson C86 printer, but since I think that the mechanics of Epson printers are the same for everyone, so I decided to try to upgrade my printer.

In this article I will try to describe in as much detail as possible, step by step, the process of upgrading the printer for printing on copper-bonded PCB.

Necessary materials:
- well, of course, you will need the Epson C80 printer itself.
- sheet of aluminum or steel material
- staples, bolts, nuts, washers
- a small piece of plywood
- epoxy or superglue
- ink (more on that later)

Instruments:
- a grinder (Dremel, etc.) with a cut-off wheel (you can try a little monkey)
- various screwdrivers, wrenches, hexagons
- drill
- hot air gun

Step 1. Dismantle the printer

The first thing I did was remove the rear paper exit tray. After that, you need to remove the front tray, side panels and then the main body.
The photos below show the detailed disassembly process for the printer:

Step 2. Removing the inside of the printer

After removing the housing from the printer, it is necessary to remove some of the internal components of the printer. First, you need to remove the paper feed sensor. In the future, we will need it, so do not damage it when removing it.

Then, the center pinch rollers need to be removed because they can interfere with the feeding of the printed circuit board. In principle, the side rollers can also be removed.

Finally, you need to remove the printhead cleaning mechanism. The mechanism is latched and removed very easily, but when removing, be very careful, because different tubes fit to it.

Step 3. Removing the printhead platform

We begin the process of upgrading the printer. Work requires accuracy and the use of protective equipment (eyes must be protected!).
First you need to unscrew the rail, which is fastened with two bolts (see photo above). Unscrewed? We put it aside, it will still be useful to us.

Now notice the 2 bolts near the head cleaning mechanism. We also unscrew them. However, on the left side it is done a little differently, there you can cut off the fasteners.
To remove the entire platform with the head, first, carefully inspect everything and mark with a marker those places where it will be necessary to cut the metal. And then carefully cut the metal with a hand sander (Dremel, etc.)

Step 4: clean the print head

This step is optional, but since you have completely disassembled the printer, it is best to clean the printhead right away. Moreover, there is nothing difficult in this. For this purpose, I used regular ear sticks and glass cleaner.

Step 5. Installing the printhead platform. Part 1

After everything is disassembled and cleaned, it is time to assemble the printer, taking into account the necessary clearance for printing on PCB. Or as the jeepers say "lifting" (ie lifting). The amount of lift depends entirely on the material you are going to print on. In my modification of the printer, I planned to use a steel material feeder with a textolite attached to it. The thickness of the platform for feeding the material (steel) was 1.5 mm, the thickness of the foil-coated PCB, from which I usually made the boards, was also 1.5 mm. However, I decided that the head should not press hard on the material, and therefore I chose about 9 mm for the gap. Moreover, sometimes I print on double-sided PCB, which is slightly thicker than one-sided.

In order to make it easier for me to control the level of lift, I decided to use washers and nuts, the thickness of which I measured with a caliper. Also, I bought some long bolts and nuts for them. I started with a front feed system.

Step 6. Installing the printhead platform. Part 2

Before installing the printhead platform, you need to make small jumpers. I made them from the corners, which I sawed into 2 parts (see photo above). You can of course make them yourself.

After, I marked the holes for drilling in the printer. The bottom holes are easy to mark and drill. Then, immediately screwed the brackets in their place.

The next step is to mark and drill the upper holes in the platform, this is a little more difficult to do, because everything should be on the same level. To do this, I put a couple of nuts each, in the places where the platform is connected to the base of the printer. Using a level, make sure the platform is level. Mark holes, drill and bolt.

Step 7. "Lift" the printhead cleaning mechanism

When the printer finishes printing, the head "parks" in the head cleaning mechanism, where the head nozzles are cleaned to prevent them from drying out and clogging. This mechanism also needs to be raised a little.

I fixed this mechanism with two corners (see photo above).

Step 8. Feed system

At this stage, we will consider the process of manufacturing a supply system and installing a material supply sensor.

When designing the feed system, the first challenge was the installation of the material feed sensor. Without this sensor, the printer would not function, but where and how to install it? When the paper passes through the printer, this sensor tells the printer controller when the start of the paper has passed, and based on this data, the printer calculates the exact position of the paper. The feed sensor is a conventional photosensor with an emitting diode. When the paper passes (in our case, the material), the beam in the sensor is interrupted.
For the sensor and feed system, I decided to make a platform out of plywood.

As you can see in the photo above, I glued several layers of plywood together in order to make the feed flush with the printer. In the far corner of the platform, I have secured a feed sensor through which the material will flow. In the plywood, I made a small cutout to insert the sensor.

The next challenge was the need to make guides. For this I used aluminum corners, which I glued to the plywood. It is important that all corners are clearly 90 degrees and that the guides are strictly parallel to each other. As a feed material, I used an aluminum sheet, on which copper-bonded textolite will be placed and fixed for printing.

I made the feed sheet from aluminum sheet. I tried to make the size of the sheet approximately equal to the A4 format. After reading a little on the Internet on the operation of the paper feed sensor and the printer as a whole, I found out that for the printer to work correctly, it is necessary to make a small cutout in the corner of the material feed sheet so that the sensor is triggered a little later than the feed rollers start spinning. The length of the cut was about 90mm.

After everything was done, I fixed a regular sheet of paper on the feed sheet, installed all the drivers on the computer and made a test print on a regular sheet.

Step 9. Fill the ink cartridge

The last part of the printer modification is about ink. Regular ink from Epson is not resistant to the chemical processes that occur when the printed circuit board is etched. Therefore, special ink is needed, they are called Mis Pro yellow ink. However, this ink may not work with other non-Epson printers. other types of printheads may be used there (Epson uses a piezoelectric printhead). The online store inksupply.com has delivery to Russia.

In addition to ink, I bought new cartridges, although of course you can use old ones if you wash them well. Naturally, you will need an ordinary syringe to refill the cartridges. Also, I bought a special device for zeroing printer cartridges (blue in the photo).

Step 10. Tests

Now let's move on to the printing tests. In the Eagle design software, I made several printable blanks with different track thicknesses.

You can estimate the print quality from the photos above. And below is a video of the print:

Step 11. Etching

For etching boards made by this method, only ferric chloride solution is suitable. Other etching methods (copper sulfate, hydrochloric acid, etc.) can corrode Mis Pro yellow ink. When etching with ferric chloride, it is better to heat the printed circuit board with a heat gun, this speeds up the etching process, etc. less ink layer is "eaten away".

Heating temperature, proportions and duration of etching are selected empirically.

Original article in English (translation by A.V. Koltykov for cxem.net)

“What if a special machine is built for this? To print with paint right away? ”- I thought. “Re-make the printer!”, Laziness remarked reasonably. A search on the Internet revealed that people are successfully reworking inkjet printers for printing on textolite, but this is a rather laborious process (you need to finish and raise the frame with the print head, etc.), besides, I value my inkjet printer, like Madame Gritsatsuyeva a strainer (MFP, after all). But I had an unnecessary laser HP lj 6L lying around - in general, I was lying around. It was useful to look at the characteristics and accidentally stumbled upon (article cache, for every fireman) on altering this particular printer for textolite. But the topic in the article was never fully disclosed - in particular, it does not tell how to make the toner stick to the PCB foil, how to bake this toner later, and, most importantly, there is no video demonstration of a working sample, so I brought this matter to mind yourself. I strongly recommend that you read the above article, because I will not repeat what is described there in all the details - there is nothing to produce copy-paste. There are a lot of photos under the cut.

You do not need to do anything with the connector supplying the heating voltage. Disconnect the stove from it and that's it.

This is how it should look like: