pcb-manufacture

Homebrew PCB manufacturing solution using laser etching on painted raw copper-plated PCB

It uses FlatCAM for generating pre-GCode and Klipper for CNC control

The process is simple in steps:

1. Create PCB manufacture files (.gcode, .drl) in any PCB software (KiCad for example)
2. Convert .gcode and .drl to pre-GCode files using custom preprocessors
3. Convert pre-GCode to GCode using convert.py
4. Apply your GCode to CNC and raw PCB material
5. Etch PCB
6. Remove paint using any solvent (we use IPA and COSMO CL-300.130 for this)
7. Use your PCB!

FlatCAM

For generating pre-GCode files, you need:

• For geometry creation use Paint tool with V-shaped tool (diameter 0.10, overlap 50%, offset 0.020)
• Add flatcam/bksp_drill.py and flatcam/bksp_engrave.py to lib/preprocessors directory in your FlatCAM installation
• Use them to create drill and engraving pre-GCode files

Converting to GCode

Use convert.py to convert resuling files to GCode

For our CNC installation use this command line parameters:

python3 convert.py \
    --laser-power 255 \
    --spindle-power 255 \
    --default-speed 2400 \
    --laser-z 50.0 \
    --laser-feedrate 300 \
    --spindle-z-home 115 \
    --spindle-z-pre-drill 92 \
    --spindle-z-drill 88.5 \
    --spindle-feedrate 60 \
    -l engrave.nc -d drill.nc -o output.gcode