Post #1636645

2026-04-22 12:49 UTC

When I was at school they taught us how to make circuit boards using Letraset, ultraviolet light and an acid bath. (It was completely weird and mysterious to me at the time, I had no concept of why anyone would want to do it). Making a single circuit board or a couple of copies. I&#39;m assuming nowerdays there&#39;s a way to do this more easily - either with some element of digital fabrication at home or sending off to a fab lab of some sort. I wouldn&#39;t know what to even search for - is this a thing? #electronics

Replies (10)

@fnrd@toots.nu 2026-04-22 13:24

@grahamdunning yep, printing single and doublesided PCBs has gotten easier, and you can get just a few printed too. My recommendation is to look at some videos on it, see what software they use. Like here: https://app.media.ccc.de/v/cosin2025-56360-pcb-ci-printed-circuit-b But uh, it's in German. Which software is used can be handy, and he shows where he prints his PCBs too.

Open ##1829756
@seekraft@mastodon.pwei.at 2026-04-22 13:30

@grahamdunning Not my practice, but as far as I understand, people tend to just order PCBs at specialized labs. Some labs even populate the board for you, i.e. no need for hunting down parts or difficult soldering anymore. Also, the labs will have more choices of PCB material (think RF, or USB-C compatible stuff with a defined thickness), will do multi-layer boards and vias, print silk screen and solder resist, produce solder masks ... A web search for "order pcb" brings up a few brand names.

Open ##1829761
@drfootleg@fosstodon.org 2026-04-22 13:36

@grahamdunning See https://jlcpcb.com/ for the high quality, low cost services available now. I've had a number of project designs made by them.

Open ##1829763
@rayk@techhub.social 2026-04-22 13:45

@grahamdunning for home use, KiCAD is popular for schematic capture and PCB layout. For fabrication, there are many vendors that will make PCBs and even populate them. JLBPCB and PCBWAY are two. You can also make two layer boards at home using a desktop CNC such as Carvera Air. And the old acid etch technique is still a low cost option.

Open ##1829771
@Firesledge@piaille.fr 2026-04-22 16:50

@grahamdunning If you’re in the EU, there’s also @aislerhq https://aisler.net/

Open ##1829773
@diver300@mastodon.social 2026-04-22 16:51

@grahamdunning It's now so cheap and fast to get boards made to ridiculously high standards that few people make their own. JLCPCB is one popular supplier It is possible to etch boards with ferric chloride. Blank boards are available with photo resist, and the mask can be printed on a laser printer. It's also possible to mill the copper from a circuit board using a CNC machine tool, which can be quite small if it's only got to take a sliver of copper from a fibreglass board.

Open ##1829775
@sbszine@dice.camp 2026-04-22 20:27

@grahamdunning We did the acid bath thing too my hazy recollection is that instead of letraset we had some kind of special paint pen to mask out the tracks.

Open ##1829777
@c_reider@sonomu.club 2026-04-22 20:28

@grahamdunning i've definitely seen people order custom circuit boards in ones / twos, so i know it's out there.

Open ##1829779
@yhancik@thereisno.computer 2026-04-22 20:40

@grahamdunning gotta tag @xaxalxe as she makes her own (beautiful) custom PCBs, I'm sure she has a few things to add ;) (btw Lucía, cyber.nymph.garden seems to be down!)

Open ##1829780
@nescivi@post.lurk.org 2026-04-23 21:47

@grahamdunning in Europe, I've used eurocitcuits.com mostly. And I design in KiCad, which is a fantastic open source software package. By now you can even upload the KiCad files to Eurocircuits, without the need of exporting to Gerber files.

Open ##1829785