Transferring Circuit Images on the Cheap

Your pre sensitized positive acting PCB failed, its a little past midnight and most shops selling it are closed. Unless online shops deliver like your local favorite fastfood chain, youre stuck with waiting till early morning.

Your design is due tomorrow... what do you do?

(What the hell were you thinking doing the prototype in the last minute anyway?)

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Lets face it, sometimes the pre-sen (pre sensitized positive acting PCB) is a hit or miss.

What could be more irritating than a double sided pre-sen with one side perfectly made and one side a complete failure?

When the permanent marker isn't enough for the job, your best friends are the laser printer and the humble flat iron!

Actually it can also be done with ordinary blank PCBs, this method is cheaper than using a pre-sen.

How to do it

Step 1: Eliminate all evidence

Remove the prints on the failed side, Im sure you already know how, but for those who dont:

Acetone/Nail polish remover and a bit of cotton, rub rub rub be careful not to eliminate the successful side

Step 2: Print out your circuit

This step requires a laser printer, I havent tried powder photocopy so lets stick with laser to be safe. Ink jet and ribbon printers cant participate in this trick, their print out does not "react" to heat.

Step 3: Align the targets

Make sure that the circuit is of the right orientation and position, you cant use tape on this one because it will surely melt. The printout should be directly facing the surface of the PCB it will be transferred to!

Step 4: Deploy the shields

Place two more sheets of paper over the printout

Step 5: Release the Kraken!

Or heat the flat iron, max settings should do it. Once its at the set temp (indicator lamp goes out) its time to get to work. Iron the stack you just made in multiple swipes for 8-10 seconds then inspect if the paper containing the print sticks to the PCB. CAUTION: HOT!

repeat once for 5 seconds if it doesnt stick.

If the print doesnt stick, allow the PCB to cool then repeat step 5

Step 6: Unmasking!

Allow the PCB to cool for a bit and start peeling while its warm (or at least bearable to touch)

Stagnation

My goodness I coundn't believe it was that long. I ts about time I spiffed up this blog once more. Just in time with my impending design project. More Arduino experiments to show soon. Wish me luck

No Major progress at the moment

I havent made much progress these past few days, Hopefully by friday I will have built a motor control circuit and its corresponding sketch.

Ive been working on the sample sketch that will generate a PWM-like output on the digital pins since yesterday but the lack of materials are crimping my style.

Connecting the [im]duino to an IR kit

Here are clearer pictures of my Arduino, (I call it A.L.I.C.E.) and an IR proximity sensor kit from e-gizmo [more info here] 300 Php per unit.

Note for fellow novices, the IR kit shown above already outputs digital signal, also it is made and sold in the Philippines, so if you need to order one from outside Philippines, ask them (site link above).
Ill probably post a how to make an IR sensor next time

If in case you have the same kit, take note that the kit outputs a "low" when an object is in its detection range (usually 25cm), testing it with an arduino platform is a walk in the park.

Here's what you do:
1. Connect your Arduino to your PC (USB/Serial/etc.)
2. Run the Arduino software
3. Click File>Sketchbook>Example>Digital>Button
4. This opens the Button sketch for the program that allows the Arduino to interact with button.
5. Replace parts of the code inside the void loop() function with what you see here, leave the rest as is.

void loop(){
val = digitalRead(inputPin); // read input value
if (val == LOW) { // check if the input is LOW
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); // turn LED ON
} else {
digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); // turn LED OFF
}
}

6. The kit shown uses 5V, connect the wires with respect to proper polarity, in this case pink to +5V, and gray to ground, and most important is the output (White wire). Connect the IR kit's output wire to pin 2, remember this is where the switch was connected to if you performed the beginner experiments. Then connect a LED (any color) positive lead into Pin 13, negative lead to ground, this will serve as your output to check if the setup (hardware connections and program) is working.

7. The changes made in the program basically changes how the Arduino behaves to input. A "low" input will cause the LED connected to Pin 13 to light up instead(remember, the IR kit outputs a "low" when an object is detected). So when the IR sensor kit is connected, whenever an object gets in the detection range, the LED in pin 13 will turn on.


And there you have it, connecting an IR kit to an Arduino. If you have a different type of IR sensor kit , youll have to identify what its output is (when an object is detected), if your kit outputs a "high" then youll have to change the condition inside the if statement to HIGH.

If your IR sensor has an analog output, you will have to set up a circuit for it, or learn how to program your arduino to accept analog sensor input. Im not yet at that level however... However Ill probably make a post on how to make one's own digital output IR sensor. Till then, Goodnight

The First post

First post for the first timer blogger who also happens to be a first timer in the Arduino world... well not quite.

Ive been interested in Arduino since the first time I encountered it somewhere in the world wide web, described as an electronics prototyping platform, it is programmable using C language using the Arduino software. Basically its free, its open source so practically anyone with the know how could build a board by hand. And then to program it all you need is logic and knowledge in programming C language.

Well yes its open source, but I was so lazy I preferred to buy an assembled one. Normally you could buy one for about 30 dollars in US (1300+ in Philippine pesos not including wuzzat? postage and handling thingy) Assembling it would be a lot of fun, but that probably comes later on when my Hyperspeed school gives us a lengthy vacation.

Kidding aside, I bought mine from a different source and unlike the mainstream ones out there from NG, Diecmila, Duemilanove, Bluetooth (gosh look at those variations), my Arduino is made in the Pilippines, yes it is.

Named [im]duino, this arduino variant is from [im] Imaginatech inc [site here]
Priced at 800 Philippine Pesos, its actually very affordable to the "common Juan" I got mine just last week wednesday January 21, 2009, I have yet to find any difficulties in using it. Any problems regarding the unit can be easily handled by the company's support.

So far I've worked how to connect it to an Infrared Collision Sensor kit as pictured below

Ill be posting more details on it in later posts, Ill include high def pics using a good friend's DSLR and probably a few videos of it at work.