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Pseudonymous maker “wolfy-j” has proven off a instrument designed to make constructing customized printed circuit boards for prototypes faster and simpler: an ultraviolet lithography machine, dubbed Medusa, for transferring designs to handled blanks.
“I’ve a whole lot of clean PCBs with ready UV resistant coating (photoresist),” wolfy-j explains. “I can add [a] Gerber file (KiCad, DipTrace or EasyEDA, others ought to work too) to the Medusa and it’ll robotically convert it into constructive or destructive template. Then you definately put PCB into it and it’ll draw (50µm pixel) [the] template on PCB. Then you definately wash all uncured photoresist in soda and etch in any etchant yow will discover.”
This PCB was printed utilizing a customized UV lithography machine, the Medusa, powered by a Raspberry Pi. (📷: wolfy-j)
The system, which is housed in a 3D-printed chassis, is powered by a Raspberry Pi 4 Mannequin B single-board laptop related to a monochrome 2k-resolution show panel initially designed to be used in stereolithographic (SLA) 3D printers. There is a 5V step-down module, a 10W ultraviolet LED with driver, a 3W pink LED, temperature sensor, and addressable RGB LEDs to supply a progress bar for suggestions.
On the software program facet, Medusa runs the 64-bit construct of Raspberry Pi OS Linux with the open-source tracespace Node.js toolchain for changing Gerber information into layers which might be displayed on the LCD panel as masks, plus Go-based {hardware} bindings and the Spiral framework for the web-based person interface.
The electronics are housed inside a customized 3D-printed chassis. (📷: wolfy-j)
“It takes round 20 minutes to make a single sided PCB with masks,” wolfy-j explains. “Round 7 of those minutes are for etching. No exhausting chemical substances. Thus far I’ve round 98 p.c yield and [a] minimal hint width of 100µm.”
Extra particulars on the undertaking might be discovered on wolfy-j’s Reddit thread.
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