New PCB CNC Machine comes to the rescue for prototyping electrical circuit boards!
I just got my new cnc machine up and engraving out copper clad fiberglass boards for prototyping electrical circuits. The first few circuits have been simple IC chips with a few external components.
The first boards I have made are for a two by six watt stereo amplifier with I/O and power leads. The next one out was for stereo ten led per channel VU meters configured for a two by six watt amplifier. Both of those boards are in the field being used as you read this.
I am currently working on designing a project/programmer board for the PIC16F8A 40 pin chip that my microcontroller class uses. My final project is going to be a four channel microphone preamp/mixer with individual gain controls. I have not had time to experiment with end milling but I would like to get into it and also make my own cases/front panels for projects.
The Machine:
XYZ machine with Working area 6"x9"
The base came from an old automotive scope/analyzer machine donated by one friend. Another friend and I took the old guts out and then stuffed the power supply and logic controls for the cnc machine in their place. I attached the keyboard tray to the base and hung a 15" flat-panel off of the old "Snap-On" tool arm so it can swing out of the way if needed.
The Computer:Pentium 4 HT @ 2.8GHz with 1GB of ram
Got this from the state surplus warehouse in Tumwater, WA.
The Software: "CNC Ubuntu 8.04" for an operating system
"EMC2" for machine control (comes with above OS)
"Eagle" for PCB layout (free for personal use)
"PCB to Gcode" for exporting directly to EMC2 GCode from Eagle
All free and legitimate software used.
The Tools:
two sided 60 degree engraver bit with a .03" flat purchased from ebay in the ten pack
1/64" Jobber drill bit
1/32" Jobber drill bit
3/64" Jobber drill bit from Amazon.com for very cheap...