Thanks. My teenage students love your channel and you convinced them they don’t need internet board makers for their final project. These kids are doing 20 to life for murder. The vocational shops may well be all they have in their heads about the world for a while. Your work matters.
I should add that making prototypes from scratch and then getting the files right for manufacture is all part of the game. Glad I'm helping inspire your students.
Here is a drilling tip, well I like to do it this way. I put the board on a surface that is solid but easy to drill in to (I use a scrap of EPS foam) and hang the rotary tool from a hook on the shelf above my workbench on a bungee cord so that the tip of the drill is about a cm above the board. I hold the dremel with just two fingers of my right hand, almost like a pen, all the weight is supported by the bungee, but it takes no effort to pull it down that last cm. I slide the board with my left hand to get the holes roughly under the drill. All the holes in a 5 cm or so area around where the drill naturally hangs can be drilled without moving the board. It's a lot to describe, but easy to do, fast, does not tire out your arms or hands at all, and I (almost) never break a bit. Think of it like a super cheap drill press, but the wiggle room makes it so fast and easy to align the holes. Clear as mud?
I've built a 2-axis stand using rods and linear bearing spares from 3-D printing. The drill support's printed, and if you are into 3-D printing, there's a whole heap of .STL files on the Net for this sort of design (along with the editing software to give them any slight adjustments need to suit your drill)
You can actually buy the drill motors (they come with one or more bits) and build a press yourself. There are plans on Thingiverse if you want to print one. I drilled PCB holes freehand for many years but a nice drill-press makes a world of difference.
This is my opinion, of course, but I prefer the hanging rotary tool, I also had an appropriate drill press. The bungee method is faster and easier because you do the fine adjustment with the hand holding the tool, and can drill all the holes in a small area of the board without moving the board. With a drill press you must re-position the board for every hole, and line it up perfectly.
I use my Dremel 4000 in a Dremel Workstation, which turns it into a drill press (albeit one without much vertical height to play with, but that's fine for PCBs). I then use that to drill the holes, and then I switch to a PCB routing bit that I bought from Mega Electronics (for around £5 per bit! The regular reground drill bits from them were £15 for 10, and the non-reground ones were £3 each...) to route out the board edge, because I don't have a PCB guillotine (I use a standard office paper guillotine to cut my pre-sensitised boards roughly to size before exposing & etching, but that leaves a pretty nasty edge - it's just barely good enough for what I use it for...) and I often want my boards to have odd shapes to them as well. It's definitely more time-consuming to drill the holes with a drill press than by hand, but I suffer from RSI in my hands & wrists (thanks to now-16-years of spending 24/7 sat at a PC causing those nerves to be a bit shot...) so my hands shake a lot and I literally cannot aim a drill accurately enough for Clive's method (sometimes I'm able to solder, sometimes I'm not, and given that I tend to favour surface-mount components, that can be a bit problematic!). A drill press lets me spend time carefully aligning the bit before holding the board in place while pulling the handle to lower the Dremel.
Watching this at breakfast time (7 a.m. Aussie EST). Great breakfast entertainment and a big thank you for a nice LONG video too! Makes our Aussie winter mornings a little more bearable!
Two remarks for aspiring PCB makers of things that i found out a long time ago. First off: if you put the iron (or other heating element) below the PCB it is a lot more easy to do the thermical transfer. Just place it on the hotplate :-) Second: you can use a laserprinter to print the schematics on a sheet of vynil (overhead projector sheets as they where known back then) and *directly* heat-transfer that onto the bare copper if you heat the PCB to exactly the right temperature. Throw it into the ferric chloride and done. Just be sure to test the sheet if it is actually the heat resistant stuff, you dont want it to go all melty-gooey.
Insted of vinyl you could use regular printer/copier paper, use an iron or laminator (modified? Mr Carlson's Lab made a nice video about that) for transferring the layout. 8-)
I applaud your one handed solder application and PCB holding at around 35:30 I can never solder without my helping hands stand. You made it look so easy
Did you have "Dalo" pens there ? You could draw your on traces on the board with an acid resist pen, called a Dalo pen. You could also use lettraset rub down letters - a thin plastic sheet covered in letters, and ic pads, you would use a biro pen to rub them off direct onto the PCB - and same, we have a semi pro pcb one in an hour, and cost less than a dollar! ahh the good old 1980's :)
I have a pretty good one of a steel conveyor belt bearing burst into flames through friction once. The friction was caused by paper falling under the belt, and pushing up into the lower side of it. That paper almost went up, too....
You solder beautifully Clive. It is interesting to hear about LED suppliers and getting good LEDs . I have to say I have never had any really bad ones , fortunately. I occasionally buy LEDs on e-bay , but , for past 10 years or so I get most of my LEDs from a component store in Japan when I'm there . (I buy big quantities at a time , several thousand) They are incredibly cheap and they only have very good quality branded ones. I also like "vintage" LEDs and will snap them up / stockpile them when I can find them. The company I work for used to do a lot of the moving message signs in the late 80s early 90s and we used to replace individual LEDs . I still have a good stockpile from those days , (so they are all 25 years+ old). I have several bags of very old "Bulgin" branded reds from early 80s. They are lovely , indestructible and everlasting. Also a load of various old Kingbrights which are very good and robust . Some of the new ones are pretty decent though , although they don't make them like those very early vintage ones anymore. Would love to know your favorites and your thoughts on the best ones ?
Up to the point that cheap gallium nitride LEDs became available on eBay I used to only use Kingbright sourced from a UK supplier called Rapid Electronics. I'm jealous of your Japanese source. It's good to know that you change individual LEDs in the big signs. I used to maintain an old tungsten RGB video wall in Glasgow before LED walls became affordable.
I hope you are coping ok after the tragic loss of your mum Clive, my mum passed 2 years ago and it’s still very painful. Please remember you are not alone in your grief. X
Great video, thanks. A couple of years ago Thomas Sandlander posted a video on his channel Made with Layers that showed how to make circuit boards using a resin 3D printer. The video is titled "The fastest way to make crisp PCBs at home!" Instead of printing a mask using a regular printer like Clive has done, the masking ability of the 3D printer is used when the 3D printers UV light exposes the gel on the copper. Then the process to continues with the chemical washes.
It's on a solid ledge. And when you record some of the stuff I do, you have to consider the phone as a consumable tool that gets replaced when you end up destroying it. This one has a slight crack on the screen from filming an explosive stunt.
Yet another brilliant video from BigClive Productions. Such a fluid delivery too. Very enjoyable as well as being good to watch a few times. I hope Clive does some videos on 3D printing. They will be so much better than the young Americans' videos. We need the voice of experience. This is the only channel to which I donate.
I am rather enjoying this video. I have to admit I order most of my PCBs, since it is so easy now. I just bought a bunch of those drills. My suppliers sold me 20 boxes really cheap because many are broken. They have trouble shipping them. The non-broken ones work very well.
Any left over solder bits here, and all dribbles / spatter from desoldering, go into the lead alloy pot and are used to cast things (I use a lot of Lead/Tin alloy so solder's ideal to add to that, extra Tin helps the alloy fill out the mold nicely.) I get rid of any acid core solder I get that same way, just have to neutralize the Acid flux!
Infomative humerous and enabling. So glad your doing this. Love it. I've got back to dabbling as a result. Etching technique very interesting and encouraging. Thanks keep it up please.
Good job Clive. . Just a note,,, breathing fiberglass dust made me cough blood for a year. Not good,, thought I was going to die, then I thought I wouldn't be able to, then I was sorry I didn't. Up side,,, I never smoked again. Keep up the good work.
Decided to take a break from my lava lamp tinkering to finally build one of these. Used some kind of empty glass tall sauce bottle I had around, and 3D printed a stand and cap for it. Thanks Clive!
PCB making videos are always welcome! I've been getting excellent results with poundworld photo paper & toner transfer. No soaking, peels off leaving a perfect image. I struggle to solder these raw copper boards without any solder mask though :-(
You might want to try chemically tinning them (see MG Chemicals #421), and/or use a really good flux. Even a little surface oxidation makes soldering difficult.
Intriguing process having the UV resist film but for homemade boards you can’t beat heat transferring a laser printer printout onto the board, soaking off the paper and use it as the resist. Saves a ton of time and fiddle.
I've got a bunch of old lava lamps here (not vintage), and I reckon I'll convert them - but I think I'll tear-down some 'smart' rgbw bulb and slap them in instead of starting from scratch. Thanks for the inspiration
37:16 High wattage carbon film resistors in a heater application? Metal film would be a lot safer especially in a line voltage application. I've had 1/4 watt carbon films burst into flames before I was shocked something that small could produce a flame that big they're like match heads. Granted I was just starting out and grossly exceeded it's wattage but as a rule since then anything over 1/2 watt I use metal film I'd rather have smoke than fire :-).
That's actually where carbon composition resistors are a better choice than film resistors. They distribute the voltage fairly evenly over the composition filler rod, and aren't prone to arcing over the edges of the spiral like film resistors are. If you short a carbon comp resistor it generally just explodes without any flame.
Ooh, that’s really clever! Great update on an old classic. I’d say crystals with a metallic element of some kind would probably create a more empathised effect, either rhinestone style reflective backing or an iridescent coating. I’d love to see someone try this with those multi-coloured ‘quick flash then rainbow fade’ types of LEDs, it would look like rainbow-flames! :D
bigclivedotcom - ooh, the possibilities are endless! You could try mostly all white LEDs with let’s say six quick-fade rainbow RGB ones spaced equally for a subtle colourful twinkle, or all UV LEDs with a few big flat shapes made of UV reactive plastic that will self-glow and cross paths and mix colours, and maybe some of those big orbeez squishy balls that turn invisible in water and are weight-neutral so you get ‘mysterious’ gaps moving amongst the visible shapes, or... You know, I hope anyone who has a go at making one at home posts a video, do you fancy judging a DIY sparkle-lamp version of Eurovision, Clive? “Live from the Isle Of Man, the bear centre of the Northern Irish Sea, it’s... Twinklevision!” (Cue cheesy ‘70s game show music) I’d watch it! ;)
I wonder if you'd throw in 1 or 2 rgb slow changing leds… would it just have a nice tinting effect? Also, for cords with no real room for strain, I tend to use a little tiny 4in zip tie.
Two more applications of polystyrene: 1. Analog panel meter covers, though static can be problematic. 2. Low-range (pF) capacitors, which are VERY stable over time.
Washing salts aren’t so commonly available in the US but they’re easy to make, by spreading sodium bicarbonate out on a baking sheet and heating it in an oven to 350F or so for a couple hours, which releases the excess carbon atoms and reduces the sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate. I do recommend wearing eye protection when working with it though as it becomes a very fine powder which has a very high pH when it gets slightly wet.
Have you ever considered investing in a small desktop cnc for pcb machining? Less supplies and chemicals, plus you can get the traces and pads made, drilled, and final board cut all in one process.
I have considered isolation milling, but it can have issues with even the slightest bit of warp in the PCB causing excessive cutting depth or skipping.
For 120V mains, a more elegant solution may be to whack 6.8K straight across live and neutral to dissipate a little over 2W and drive the LEDs with a capacitive dropper. Overall power factor should still be high since most of the power is dissipated by the heater resistor.
I was always taught to solder first and clip after, because the long lead acted as a heat sink, helping to protect the component. This was in the early days of silicon circuits (early 70s if you're asking, but as you're all proper gents, you won't be asking!), are components more robust these days?
Modern components do handle higher temperatures. I prefer to pre-trim leads to allow better soldering iron access. Theoretically the shorter lead will heat faster and store less heat. I'm not sure which has the advantage.
Seems you have skipped a step. The PCB traces went from covered in purple at 26:44 to copper colored at 27:15. Clearly, you removed the rest of the gel covering, but seems you didn't show us this step? Did I miss it?
Could you design a version to run a proper Mathmos style lava lamp? The proper tungsten spotlight bulbs are getting very difficult and expensive to find. You would need 20 to 30 W of heat though! Perhaps two circuit, one for an adjustable heater the other for a ring of LEDs.
More research and I find that Mathmos actually marketed an LED plus thermostatically controlled heater version, but it seems to have been unreliable and it has disappeared off the market. I might have a go at it.
Don't know if it's the same version, but in my wax lava lamp I use appliance bulbs as replacements.... The little 40w bulbs intended for ovens and dryers.
Another thought for using 5V supply, there are LEDs sold with integrated resistors rated for 5V. Each would be in parallel, or if you want them dimmer pairs (or depending on experimentation triples) could be in series. Also, you kept mentioning "layer 50" in your description of designing the board. Just out of curiosity what software are you using?
Have you considered making a "zapper" to blow out those occasional pesky PCB shorts that sometimes are left after etching a PC board? I usually use Toner Transfer but have tried other ways, most of them (if you don't almost overdo etching) can have slight issues leaving some tiny traces between PCB lands, especially on more complex boards.
Would it be at all feasible to devise a mounting solution for putting the (roughly) circular PCB on a drill, and using that as sort of a lathe, and just applying the file to the edge as the PCB spins around on its own? I'm currently thinking two strategically drilled holes on the PCB that are only there for the mounting itself (and to keep the PCB centered, of course), which in my mind wouldn't require too fancy of a fastening solution and would make the finishing up much quicker -- and potentially scalable depending on the positioning of the mounting holes. I do hope I am wording this in a reasonably clear manner. :)
I'd like to see this something like this done with some cheap violet lasers and some florescent dye added to the liquid. The effect of the beams hitting the crystals and bouncing around could be very neat looking. It would probably need quartz or maybe some type of plastic to allow the UV through, though.
I recommend you discover a product called "Shoo-goo". It is remarkable stuff and seals well to plastics and neoprene which might otherwise dissolve in other plastic glues. You can run a bead of it on the underside of plastic trash can handles which are tearing free and on the bottom of plastic muck or garden buckets to reinforce them to a remarkable degree. The repair abilities of this stuff is considerable due to its strength and lack of tendancy to crack. Just remember to allow it extra time to cure beyond normal drying time.
I would really REALLY love to see a build of one of those glitter lamps too, mainly the bottle. I know you made videos in the past talking about how theyre made but I thought it'd be a nice idea to put one together on film just like this video.
Sweet, another PCB making video. I was wondering if the exposed dry-film could also be developed using one of those cheap ultrasonic cleaners. Meaning like, chuck the weak caustic solution in the ultrasonic cleaner (maybe in a glass jar, those waves seem to propagate through glass) together with the copper clad plate and let it run for 3 minutes, this seems to be more reproducible than rubbing the developer into the copper board. Or would this procedure be too aggressive?
A Neopixel ring might look great. You can set any number of colour combinations using a small script on an arduino. I know its another PCB and mains supply change, but if I can get hold of some “gems” I will give it a go.
That's my thought too. I've used Neopixels to create a flame effect already (3D printed Hallowe'en pumpkin) so I think this would work really well. It'll have to wait its turn in my "project queue" for a while though
Very nice BigClive. I wonder the result if using 1 or 3 (or higher) Watt RGB LED chips in the base providing both the heat factor and ability to mix or have only one color active from select switches in the base.
Thanks for the video Mr Clive, 1 question though, can you give the diode code or specs? Because I would like to try building my own "lava lamp" and don't want to mess it all up with weak diodes. Thank you.
Clive, I've noticed you often use LEDs with legs where SMT devices would make more sense to me. Is there any special reason for that or just what you're used to?
I'm wondering Clive. I want to try this but I don't want to buy a full roll and never use it gain. MG Chemicals make fr4 copper clad sheets with photo resist already on it and a bottle of ferric chloride for under 30cad. I have a laser printer. I just want to make a simple pcb to see if it's something I'm interested in doing more. Would that be a good cheap way to try it out?
These days it's extremely cheap to get PCBs made to order in China. But it's definitely a good idea to play with etching your own PCBs. It's got a harsh learning curve, but is very gratifying.
@@bigclivedotcom thanks Clive. When I was new to tinkering I had 500 smd led breakout boards made and submitted the wrong Gerber by mistake and ended up with 500 poker chips. What kind of smd leds are on your wearable super computer. I need them for a personal project and have a contact in China that says they can get anything but language barriers keep them from understanding what I want. I appreciate the fact you take the time to answer my questions all the time Clive so I'm going to join your patreon right now.
I've tried the copper chloride etchant method aswell. the problem seems to be the source of hydrochloric acid, most have additives for cleaning applications that take the resist off. TheHomeScientist has a video on purifying HCl if you can't find a more pure source.
I've been researching it and it does look like there may be some sort of solvent thing going on. I'll be trying again later, but will stick to the ferric chloride at the moment.
bigclivedotcom It may be different in the UK, but around here 1l bottles of pure basic chemicals like HCl and NaOH are readily available in supermarkets and building supply stores. Except Ethanol of cause.
Very interesting process on how you make your own circuit boards! Now make a 5 hour long video of the ending so a person can just sit there and relax and watch the diamonds float about.
Any thoughts on how tall a version you could make? I remember the old lava lamps and discovered that pulling the gold coloured cap off to expose the black metal underneath increased the rate of lava movement. Presumably as it cooled the top slightly more effectively and increased the thermal difference between top and bottom.
putting a knot in the wire just off the circuit board would protect the leads being torn off say if someone tripped over the cord, or just from general wear and tear.
I am going to have to give this project a try I liked the first one you built - like this one even better just need to study up to get it correct as I live in the U S and self taught -I sort of got lost at the end lol Thanks Clive for posting!!!
Wonderful build, as always Clive. Could I ask, what was the ambient audio track at the end? The movement and audio effect had me entranced. Looking forward to building my own custom LED lamps. Thanks so much for being the person to inspire me to build again.
If you used ws2812 LEDs you could have a way simpler PCB layout, use a 5v PSU and have an infinite range of colour and animation possibilities. Control by Arduino or just use one of the really cheap WS2812 remote controllers. And/or try using PTC heater to get more constant great without risk of thermal runaway or burning resistors.
Is there a cutter which uses water,like what tile guys use to trim ceramic and glass pieces,small enough to shape circuit boards? A bit of freewheel thinking while enjoying you make another great project...
@@bigclivedotcom Thank you for your reply that now makes sense I am going to make three 5 volt versions so do you have any boards for sale please if so a price plus post I am in Bournemouth Dorset and three boards would be good All the best Bob
Nice relaxing build there as I de-china a deskfan I've bought for someone as a present, sharp edges, lack of lubricants, questionable construction, not thinking this is worth the £24.99 ebuyer sold it for........
Interesting , good to hear there are others out there "de-china-ing" stuff. I do quite a lot of this myself . I do it for my work , not just for myself. Mostly it is Chinese LED lamps . At work (I repair / maintain signs , but the work extends to other lighting too such as outside lighting at hotels , etc where we maintain the signs) I use LOADS of the LED "corn " bulbs , (the type with plastic cover), in various sizes and different caps , some screw , some bayonet) These are the type of lamps Clive did a breakdown of where he did a 12 volt , a 24 volt and a 240 volt version. Many people dislike these lamps on the grounds that they fail and have short lives . BUT THEY DON'T NEED TO . THEY ARE EXCELLENT LITTLE LAMPS! With a couple of simple modifications they can be made almost ever lasting and super-reliable. I simply fit them with a much lower capacitor , usually a 0.22uF , and a series resistor , (a parallel pair of 600ohm 1/4 watt) . This makes them bullet proof , super long lasting and runs the LEDs so they are hardly even warm . The resistors prevent inrush current blowing a LED. The overall brightness is only slightly reduced. Clive actually did this hack pretty much to one of these lamps in a vid of it's own. I wish the Chinese manufacturers would do this already and not push the components and LEDs so hard in an effort to just get a bit more brightness. If they did the lamps would gain a good reputation for being reliable and long life and THEY'D SELL MORE OF THEM!
So that's what it's called. Have been doing that kind of thing for 15 or so years. Great way to get some good stuff if you don't mind putting the finishing touches on what would have been a high quality product if the factory didn't partake in extreme penny pinching.
Love this video too xoxo schematics doodles circuit boards ...full build is a fun watch...so much thought behind your pretty art. Gaaaah I love these lamps : 0 D thank you for this video! Ì wish I could return the joy you give me from this! Tiny yay to my day!
Sometimes when i solder leds they turn on very very little ...how is that possible ,there is like no ground conection at all...something with body Capacity?...and sorry for the long Text but can i use and led as an voltage indictor ? Like its turning off at 7volts and lighting full bright at 8.4volts ?
thats is brilliant to watch hey clive i got a suggestion for u. diy infinity mirror led coffee table using led tape. im working on one and would love to see your version of it.
I did the muriatic acid (concrete cleaner) method, but you need to mix a percentage of hydrogen peroxide into it for good results (can't remember % - need to find the video) . It works well, very fast, to the point you may want to dilute it slightly to slow it down.
call me crazy but wouldn't the tungsten lamp design be more efficient? it makes more sense to have the light source and the heater combined together rather than have a separate heating element and set of leds because that would create more losses.
I'm stuck at an airport waiting for a very delayed flight so a 50 minute bigclive video is just what I needed!
Fly safe!
Thanks. My teenage students love your channel and you convinced them they don’t need internet board makers for their final project.
These kids are doing 20 to life for murder. The vocational shops may well be all they have in their heads about the world for a while.
Your work matters.
It's quite gratifying making a circuit board from scratch. Especially after the experimental process to get it right.
I should add that making prototypes from scratch and then getting the files right for manufacture is all part of the game. Glad I'm helping inspire your students.
Here is a drilling tip, well I like to do it this way. I put the board on a surface that is solid but easy to drill in to (I use a scrap of EPS foam) and hang the rotary tool from a hook on the shelf above my workbench on a bungee cord so that the tip of the drill is about a cm above the board.
I hold the dremel with just two fingers of my right hand, almost like a pen, all the weight is supported by the bungee, but it takes no effort to pull it down that last cm. I slide the board with my left hand to get the holes roughly under the drill. All the holes in a 5 cm or so area around where the drill naturally hangs can be drilled without moving the board.
It's a lot to describe, but easy to do, fast, does not tire out your arms or hands at all, and I (almost) never break a bit. Think of it like a super cheap drill press, but the wiggle room makes it so fast and easy to align the holes. Clear as mud?
I've built a 2-axis stand using rods and linear bearing spares from 3-D printing. The drill support's printed, and if you are into 3-D printing, there's a whole heap of .STL files on the Net for this sort of design (along with the editing software to give them any slight adjustments need to suit your drill)
You can actually buy the drill motors (they come with one or more bits) and build a press yourself. There are plans on Thingiverse if you want to print one. I drilled PCB holes freehand for many years but a nice drill-press makes a world of difference.
This is my opinion, of course, but I prefer the hanging rotary tool, I also had an appropriate drill press. The bungee method is faster and easier because you do the fine adjustment with the hand holding the tool, and can drill all the holes in a small area of the board without moving the board. With a drill press you must re-position the board for every hole, and line it up perfectly.
I use my Dremel 4000 in a Dremel Workstation, which turns it into a drill press (albeit one without much vertical height to play with, but that's fine for PCBs). I then use that to drill the holes, and then I switch to a PCB routing bit that I bought from Mega Electronics (for around £5 per bit! The regular reground drill bits from them were £15 for 10, and the non-reground ones were £3 each...) to route out the board edge, because I don't have a PCB guillotine (I use a standard office paper guillotine to cut my pre-sensitised boards roughly to size before exposing & etching, but that leaves a pretty nasty edge - it's just barely good enough for what I use it for...) and I often want my boards to have odd shapes to them as well.
It's definitely more time-consuming to drill the holes with a drill press than by hand, but I suffer from RSI in my hands & wrists (thanks to now-16-years of spending 24/7 sat at a PC causing those nerves to be a bit shot...) so my hands shake a lot and I literally cannot aim a drill accurately enough for Clive's method (sometimes I'm able to solder, sometimes I'm not, and given that I tend to favour surface-mount components, that can be a bit problematic!). A drill press lets me spend time carefully aligning the bit before holding the board in place while pulling the handle to lower the Dremel.
FIFTY MINUTES OF CLIVE!!!
I love these longer videos.
And would not have minded seeing this project in it's entirety. :)
Yet again, the step where the resist is removed is omitted.
Watching this at breakfast time (7 a.m. Aussie EST). Great breakfast entertainment and a big thank you for a nice LONG video too! Makes our Aussie winter mornings a little more bearable!
Two remarks for aspiring PCB makers of things that i found out a long time ago.
First off: if you put the iron (or other heating element) below the PCB it is a lot more easy to do the thermical transfer. Just place it on the hotplate :-)
Second: you can use a laserprinter to print the schematics on a sheet of vynil (overhead projector sheets as they where known back then) and *directly* heat-transfer that onto the bare copper if you heat the PCB to exactly the right temperature. Throw it into the ferric chloride and done. Just be sure to test the sheet if it is actually the heat resistant stuff, you dont want it to go all melty-gooey.
Insted of vinyl you could use regular printer/copier paper, use an iron or laminator (modified? Mr Carlson's Lab made a nice video about that) for transferring the layout. 8-)
I applaud your one handed solder application and PCB holding at around 35:30 I can never solder without my helping hands stand. You made it look so easy
Did you have "Dalo" pens there ? You could draw your on traces on the board with an acid resist pen, called a Dalo pen. You could also use lettraset rub down letters - a thin plastic sheet covered in letters, and ic pads, you would use a biro pen to rub them off direct onto the PCB - and same, we have a semi pro pcb one in an hour, and cost less than a dollar! ahh the good old 1980's :)
I clearly want to hear the story when you fell asleep in a live electrical panel. Also more industrial stories in general they're always so fun !
I have a pretty good one of a steel conveyor belt bearing burst into flames through friction once.
The friction was caused by paper falling under the belt, and pushing up into the lower side of it. That paper almost went up, too....
Big Clive and his neverending spiral bound pad of paper ;)
Paperatzi
Clive. Just got back from a friend's 18th. We crawled the town for 10 hours. Excellent to come home to this before bed.
I quite like the longer videos and seeing all the little details of a build.
You solder beautifully Clive. It is interesting to hear about LED suppliers and getting good LEDs . I have to say I have never had any really bad ones , fortunately. I occasionally buy LEDs on e-bay , but , for past 10 years or so I get most of my LEDs from a component store in Japan when I'm there . (I buy big quantities at a time , several thousand) They are incredibly cheap and they only have very good quality branded ones.
I also like "vintage" LEDs and will snap them up / stockpile them when I can find them. The company I work for used to do a lot of the moving message signs in the late 80s early 90s and we used to replace individual LEDs . I still have a good stockpile from those days , (so they are all 25 years+ old). I have several bags of very old "Bulgin" branded reds from early 80s. They are lovely , indestructible and everlasting. Also a load of various old Kingbrights which are very good and robust .
Some of the new ones are pretty decent though , although they don't make them like those very early vintage ones anymore.
Would love to know your favorites and your thoughts on the best ones ?
Up to the point that cheap gallium nitride LEDs became available on eBay I used to only use Kingbright sourced from a UK supplier called Rapid Electronics. I'm jealous of your Japanese source. It's good to know that you change individual LEDs in the big signs. I used to maintain an old tungsten RGB video wall in Glasgow before LED walls became affordable.
I am fascinated to hear about the tungsten video wall Clive? How big / what type were the lamps and how much power did the whole thing consume?
Bathroom silicon is a nice thermal conductor and a good electrical insulator. Very nice pcb!
I hope you are coping ok after the tragic loss of your mum Clive, my mum passed 2 years ago and it’s still very painful.
Please remember you are not alone in your grief. X
Love these longer videos. It's almost like a podcast with some building as the overarching subject matter.
Wonderful long video, thanks for letting us sit by and watch!
Great video, thanks. A couple of years ago Thomas Sandlander posted a video on his channel Made with Layers that showed how to make circuit boards using a resin 3D printer. The video is titled "The fastest way to make crisp PCBs at home!" Instead of printing a mask using a regular printer like Clive has done, the masking ability of the 3D printer is used when the 3D printers UV light exposes the gel on the copper. Then the process to continues with the chemical washes.
The last minute needs to be converted into an eight hour video. ;-)
Yeah definitely... i was just thinking the same and was going to make a comment but thought i would check if it had been mentioned first lol
Peace
Anyone know what music track that is??
@@freeranger1677, soundhound can not find it.
Seeing the reflection of your phone right over the etchant gave me a bit of the chills!
It's on a solid ledge. And when you record some of the stuff I do, you have to consider the phone as a consumable tool that gets replaced when you end up destroying it. This one has a slight crack on the screen from filming an explosive stunt.
Great project. My understanding of electrical circuits is quite limited, but watching you do the stuff you do is just so interesting.
Yet another brilliant video from BigClive Productions. Such a fluid delivery too. Very enjoyable as well as being good to watch a few times. I hope Clive does some videos on 3D printing. They will be so much better than the young Americans' videos. We need the voice of experience. This is the only channel to which I donate.
I am rather enjoying this video. I have to admit I order most of my PCBs, since it is so easy now. I just bought a bunch of those drills. My suppliers sold me 20 boxes really cheap because many are broken. They have trouble shipping them. The non-broken ones work very well.
Great vid Clive, love the longer ones and your DIY builds
Any left over solder bits here, and all dribbles / spatter from desoldering, go into the lead alloy pot and are used to cast things (I use a lot of Lead/Tin alloy so solder's ideal to add to that, extra Tin helps the alloy fill out the mold nicely.) I get rid of any acid core solder I get that same way, just have to neutralize the Acid flux!
Infomative humerous and enabling. So glad your doing this. Love it. I've got back to dabbling as a result. Etching technique very interesting and encouraging. Thanks keep it up please.
How about color changing LED'S?
Good job Clive. .
Just a note,,, breathing fiberglass dust made me cough blood for a year. Not good,, thought I was going to die, then I thought I wouldn't be able to, then I was sorry I didn't.
Up side,,, I never smoked again.
Keep up the good work.
Decided to take a break from my lava lamp tinkering to finally build one of these. Used some kind of empty glass tall sauce bottle I had around, and 3D printed a stand and cap for it. Thanks Clive!
Sounds good. It would be interesting to make 3D print models to suit common supermarket product bottles.
Put a small cable tie on the flex inside the cup, that should stop it being pulled out too far.
PCB making videos are always welcome!
I've been getting excellent results with poundworld photo paper & toner transfer. No soaking, peels off leaving a perfect image. I struggle to solder these raw copper boards without any solder mask though :-(
You might want to try chemically tinning them (see MG Chemicals #421), and/or use a really good flux. Even a little surface oxidation makes soldering difficult.
Scotchbrite?
SigEpBlue Another option is photo sensitive solder mask.
Intriguing process having the UV resist film but for homemade boards you can’t beat heat transferring a laser printer printout onto the board, soaking off the paper and use it as the resist. Saves a ton of time and fiddle.
I love these long videos - thank you for uploading!
I like how (almost?) every time you use a circuit board in something in a video, you show the whole process of making it.
I work on the basis that someone might not have seen the process before and anyone who has can skip forward a bit.
For half the mains voltage, split the load into halves and run them in parallel. E.g. on resistor per side, both resistors on the rectified side.
No problem with the MPEG4 or SPDIF data,2x 660R green wire wounds they should give you the heat to make that lamp work.
I've got a bunch of old lava lamps here (not vintage), and I reckon I'll convert them - but I think I'll tear-down some 'smart' rgbw bulb and slap them in instead of starting from scratch.
Thanks for the inspiration
Very inspiring, as usual. Glad you're using gloves, Clive. Your hands are back to their old selves...
37:16 High wattage carbon film resistors in a heater application? Metal film would be a lot safer especially in a line voltage application.
I've had 1/4 watt carbon films burst into flames before I was shocked something that small could produce a flame that big they're like match heads. Granted I was just starting out and grossly exceeded it's wattage but as a rule since then anything over 1/2 watt I use metal film I'd rather have smoke than fire :-).
That's actually where carbon composition resistors are a better choice than film resistors. They distribute the voltage fairly evenly over the composition filler rod, and aren't prone to arcing over the edges of the spiral like film resistors are. If you short a carbon comp resistor it generally just explodes without any flame.
Ooh, that’s really clever! Great update on an old classic. I’d say crystals with a metallic element of some kind would probably create a more empathised effect, either rhinestone style reflective backing or an iridescent coating. I’d love to see someone try this with those multi-coloured ‘quick flash then rainbow fade’ types of LEDs, it would look like rainbow-flames! :D
Both the iridescent coated crystals and the ones with a chrome back do float OK.
bigclivedotcom - ooh, the possibilities are endless! You could try mostly all white LEDs with let’s say six quick-fade rainbow RGB ones spaced equally for a subtle colourful twinkle, or all UV LEDs with a few big flat shapes made of UV reactive plastic that will self-glow and cross paths and mix colours, and maybe some of those big orbeez squishy balls that turn invisible in water and are weight-neutral so you get ‘mysterious’ gaps moving amongst the visible shapes, or...
You know, I hope anyone who has a go at making one at home posts a video, do you fancy judging a DIY sparkle-lamp version of Eurovision, Clive? “Live from the Isle Of Man, the bear centre of the Northern Irish Sea, it’s... Twinklevision!” (Cue cheesy ‘70s game show music)
I’d watch it! ;)
That device you are using to bend leads, with some precision. When I was soldering on PCB's in ~1985, we used those!! :)
I wonder if you'd throw in 1 or 2 rgb slow changing leds… would it just have a nice tinting effect? Also, for cords with no real room for strain, I tend to use a little tiny 4in zip tie.
Two more applications of polystyrene:
1. Analog panel meter covers, though static can be problematic.
2. Low-range (pF) capacitors, which are VERY stable over time.
not as stable as C0G.
SigEpBlue Also CD "jewel" cases. Solid PS was introduced years before bubble PS (EPS).
Another obvious application - all those Airfix / Revell Polystyrene Model Kits!
@2:30 I clicked on the ' - + ' in the top right corner, and it didn't adjust the zoom level of your workbench. You may want to repair that.
Washing salts aren’t so commonly available in the US but they’re easy to make, by spreading sodium bicarbonate out on a baking sheet and heating it in an oven to 350F or so for a couple hours, which releases the excess carbon atoms and reduces the sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate. I do recommend wearing eye protection when working with it though as it becomes a very fine powder which has a very high pH when it gets slightly wet.
A very interesting concept Clive and looks great ,maybe colour changing LEDs and a Resident Evil Helix might add to the mix.
Have you ever considered investing in a small desktop cnc for pcb machining? Less supplies and chemicals, plus you can get the traces and pads made, drilled, and final board cut all in one process.
I have considered isolation milling, but it can have issues with even the slightest bit of warp in the PCB causing excessive cutting depth or skipping.
For 120V mains, a more elegant solution may be to whack 6.8K straight across live and neutral to dissipate a little over 2W and drive the LEDs with a capacitive dropper. Overall power factor should still be high since most of the power is dissipated by the heater resistor.
Clive, that is a beautiful PCB layout.
I was always taught to solder first and clip after, because the long lead acted as a heat sink, helping to protect the component. This was in the early days of silicon circuits (early 70s if you're asking, but as you're all proper gents, you won't be asking!), are components more robust these days?
Modern components do handle higher temperatures. I prefer to pre-trim leads to allow better soldering iron access. Theoretically the shorter lead will heat faster and store less heat. I'm not sure which has the advantage.
Seems you have skipped a step. The PCB traces went from covered in purple at 26:44 to copper colored at 27:15. Clearly, you removed the rest of the gel covering, but seems you didn't show us this step? Did I miss it?
I wonder how it would look like if you use those slow color changing RGB LEDs?
Big Clive's Notepad of knowledge
If you have a solder pot, you can also throw little leftover bits in there.
Could you design a version to run a proper Mathmos style lava lamp? The proper tungsten spotlight bulbs are getting very difficult and expensive to find. You would need 20 to 30 W of heat though! Perhaps two circuit, one for an adjustable heater the other for a ring of LEDs.
The Mathmos lamps require a lot of heat and it has to be within a fairly tight range for proper operation. Quite tricky to do with resistors.
More research and I find that Mathmos actually marketed an LED plus thermostatically controlled heater version, but it seems to have been unreliable and it has disappeared off the market. I might have a go at it.
Don't know if it's the same version, but in my wax lava lamp I use appliance bulbs as replacements.... The little 40w bulbs intended for ovens and dryers.
Another thought for using 5V supply, there are LEDs sold with integrated resistors rated for 5V. Each would be in parallel, or if you want them dimmer pairs (or depending on experimentation triples) could be in series.
Also, you kept mentioning "layer 50" in your description of designing the board. Just out of curiosity what software are you using?
Have you considered making a "zapper" to blow out those occasional pesky PCB shorts that sometimes are left after etching a PC board? I usually use Toner Transfer but have tried other ways, most of them (if you don't almost overdo etching) can have slight issues leaving some tiny traces between PCB lands, especially on more complex boards.
I usually just examine the board with a bright backlight and use the PCB drill to gently abrade bridges away.
Would it be at all feasible to devise a mounting solution for putting the (roughly) circular PCB on a drill, and using that as sort of a lathe, and just applying the file to the edge as the PCB spins around on its own? I'm currently thinking two strategically drilled holes on the PCB that are only there for the mounting itself (and to keep the PCB centered, of course), which in my mind wouldn't require too fancy of a fastening solution and would make the finishing up much quicker -- and potentially scalable depending on the positioning of the mounting holes. I do hope I am wording this in a reasonably clear manner. :)
I'd like to see this something like this done with some cheap violet lasers and some florescent dye added to the liquid. The effect of the beams hitting the crystals and bouncing around could be very neat looking. It would probably need quartz or maybe some type of plastic to allow the UV through, though.
I recommend you discover a product called "Shoo-goo". It is remarkable stuff and seals well to plastics and neoprene which might otherwise dissolve in other plastic glues. You can run a bead of it on the underside of plastic trash can handles which are tearing free and on the bottom of plastic muck or garden buckets to reinforce them to a remarkable degree. The repair abilities of this stuff is considerable due to its strength and lack of tendancy to crack. Just remember to allow it extra time to cure beyond normal drying time.
I would really REALLY love to see a build of one of those glitter lamps too, mainly the bottle. I know you made videos in the past talking about how theyre made but I thought it'd be a nice idea to put one together on film just like this video.
Hey Clive, can you do a written version of this to go with the video? I'm a newbie and it helps to have both.
Sweet, another PCB making video.
I was wondering if the exposed dry-film could also be developed using one of those cheap ultrasonic cleaners. Meaning like, chuck the weak caustic solution in the ultrasonic cleaner (maybe in a glass jar, those waves seem to propagate through glass) together with the copper clad plate and let it run for 3 minutes, this seems to be more reproducible than rubbing the developer into the copper board. Or would this procedure be too aggressive?
A Neopixel ring might look great. You can set any number of colour combinations using a small script on an arduino. I know its another PCB and mains supply change, but if I can get hold of some “gems”
I will give it a go.
Great Idea! Basic Rainbow, Gradient and Solid Color Animation should Look nice.
That's my thought too. I've used Neopixels to create a flame effect already (3D printed Hallowe'en pumpkin) so I think this would work really well. It'll have to wait its turn in my "project queue" for a while though
Wow R.M.E. I'd almost forgotten that that place had existed. I expect you will remember Marshalls too.
Yes indeed, and Regent Electronics.
Very nice BigClive. I wonder the result if using 1 or 3 (or higher) Watt RGB LED chips in the base providing both the heat factor and ability to mix or have only one color active from select switches in the base.
Thanks for the video Mr Clive, 1 question though, can you give the diode code or specs? Because I would like to try building my own "lava lamp" and don't want to mess it all up with weak diodes. Thank you.
New video coming soon for safe USB version.
I like the longer video even tho it takes longer to upload:(
Clive, I've noticed you often use LEDs with legs where SMT devices would make more sense to me. Is there any special reason for that or just what you're used to?
In this case I wanted the focussed beams. I've never really done a surface mount LED project that I can think of.
I'm wondering Clive. I want to try this but I don't want to buy a full roll and never use it gain. MG Chemicals make fr4 copper clad sheets with photo resist already on it and a bottle of ferric chloride for under 30cad. I have a laser printer. I just want to make a simple pcb to see if it's something I'm interested in doing more. Would that be a good cheap way to try it out?
These days it's extremely cheap to get PCBs made to order in China. But it's definitely a good idea to play with etching your own PCBs. It's got a harsh learning curve, but is very gratifying.
@@bigclivedotcom thanks Clive. When I was new to tinkering I had 500 smd led breakout boards made and submitted the wrong Gerber by mistake and ended up with 500 poker chips. What kind of smd leds are on your wearable super computer. I need them for a personal project and have a contact in China that says they can get anything but language barriers keep them from understanding what I want. I appreciate the fact you take the time to answer my questions all the time Clive so I'm going to join your patreon right now.
@@jstro-hobbytech Companies like JLCPCB will make a batch of just 5 PCBs cheaply.
I've tried the copper chloride etchant method aswell. the problem seems to be the source of hydrochloric acid, most have additives for cleaning applications that take the resist off.
TheHomeScientist has a video on purifying HCl if you can't find a more pure source.
I've been researching it and it does look like there may be some sort of solvent thing going on. I'll be trying again later, but will stick to the ferric chloride at the moment.
bigclivedotcom It may be different in the UK, but around here 1l bottles of pure basic chemicals like HCl and NaOH are readily available in supermarkets and building supply stores. Except Ethanol of cause.
You're likely aware, and there may not be many swimming pools in the IOM, but HCl (aka muriatic acid) is used as an oxidizer in pools.
That’s a nice lamp, I’d like to mount to a wall with a few others. It reminds me of a glass fuse.
Love the channel. One question. After etching you went to drilling but didn't show how to remove the blue residential?
To remove the residual resist I use acetone or stronger developer solution.
That ending song reminded me of stellardrones red giant. [Off topic] what temperature do you think is comfortable. I usually like it around 25
Around 15C is most comfortable. I only really feel it when it hits about 7C.
A really wonderful video so far, thankyou so much for posting stuff like this.
Very interesting process on how you make your own circuit boards! Now make a 5 hour long video of the ending so a person can just sit there and relax and watch the diamonds float about.
Any thoughts on how tall a version you could make? I remember the old lava lamps and discovered that pulling the gold coloured cap off to expose the black metal underneath increased the rate of lava movement. Presumably as it cooled the top slightly more effectively and increased the thermal difference between top and bottom.
This design is very scalable.
bigclivedotcom I might try a 1 metre version using 50mm perspex tubing. Not sure about USB power, will that generate enough heat?
Hello from chicago here.
Question.
the video change but how did you get the blue color layer off right before you started putting the components
I used a more concentrated mix of the developer. Acetone may work too.
Pretty cool, also interesting on how to make one of these.
putting a knot in the wire just off the circuit board would protect the leads being torn off say if someone tripped over the cord, or just from general wear and tear.
Clive, you don't have RTV over there... Or were you saying you didn't have any on hand?
I was thinking more of the neutral curing silicone used for fishtanks, mirrors and other acid sensitive environments.
I am going to have to give this project a try I liked the first one you built - like this one even better just need to study up to get it correct as I live in the U S and self taught -I sort of got lost at the end lol Thanks Clive for posting!!!
I'll probably do a 5V USB version too. Safer and compatible all around the world.
Really looking forward to that video Clive. You have a Great channel & I have learned a lot from watching you .
Wonderful build, as always Clive. Could I ask, what was the ambient audio track at the end? The movement and audio effect had me entranced. Looking forward to building my own custom LED lamps. Thanks so much for being the person to inspire me to build again.
It's an odd one... ua-cam.com/video/cDI4Vm9tAys/v-deo.html
If you used ws2812 LEDs you could have a way simpler PCB layout, use a 5v PSU and have an infinite range of colour and animation possibilities. Control by Arduino or just use one of the really cheap WS2812 remote controllers.
And/or try using PTC heater to get more constant great without risk of thermal runaway or burning resistors.
Is there a cutter which uses water,like what tile guys use to trim ceramic and glass pieces,small enough to shape circuit boards?
A bit of freewheel thinking while enjoying you make another great project...
If you use tungsten carbide drills, they snap far less frequently at slow speeds.
For rounding up the circuit board, my first impulse would be to use a bench grinder. Am I missing some reason why that would be a bad idea?
A bench sanding disk would be fine. They often use them to clean up PCBs in factories.
Hi, Clive if its brine or saltwater will it turn green algae after a short time? and please can you tell me where you get the diamonds, please
Search eBay for wedding scatter diamonds. I added some boric acid to the water.
@@bigclivedotcom Thank you for your reply that now makes sense I am going to make three 5 volt versions so do you have any boards for sale please if so a price plus post I am in Bournemouth Dorset and three boards would be good
All the best Bob
@@MrBobWareham I don't currently sell PCBs for these.
Can you possibly provide a link to that blue component bending frame thingy? Looks like it might make a decent gift.
Quite hard to find on eBay. This was from a UK listing.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311520524893
Special request to show the fancy, expensive lead bender in action!
Your left hand's dexterity still amazes me... I'm no stranger to soldering, but fuck that mess.
Awesome video. I have enjoy your stories while you work. I can imagine most of them. Keep it up!'
Nice relaxing build there as I de-china a deskfan I've bought for someone as a present, sharp edges, lack of lubricants, questionable construction, not thinking this is worth the £24.99 ebuyer sold it for........
ahahha de-china that's a fun hobby I share
I am literally doing that at the moment :D Adding a resistor into a cheap chinese torch, "de-china"-ing
I didn't know more people did that... I do that too.
Interesting , good to hear there are others out there "de-china-ing" stuff. I do quite a lot of this myself . I do it for my work , not just for myself. Mostly it is Chinese LED lamps .
At work (I repair / maintain signs , but the work extends to other lighting too such as outside lighting at hotels , etc where we maintain the signs)
I use LOADS of the LED "corn " bulbs , (the type with plastic cover), in various sizes and different caps , some screw , some bayonet) These are the type of lamps Clive did a breakdown of where he did a 12 volt , a 24 volt and a 240 volt version.
Many people dislike these lamps on the grounds that they fail and have short lives . BUT THEY DON'T NEED TO . THEY ARE EXCELLENT LITTLE LAMPS! With a couple of simple modifications they can be made almost ever lasting and super-reliable.
I simply fit them with a much lower capacitor , usually a 0.22uF , and a series resistor , (a parallel pair of 600ohm 1/4 watt) . This makes them bullet proof , super long lasting and runs the LEDs so they are hardly even warm . The resistors prevent inrush current blowing a LED. The overall brightness is only slightly reduced.
Clive actually did this hack pretty much to one of these lamps in a vid of it's own.
I wish the Chinese manufacturers would do this already and not push the components and LEDs so hard in an effort to just get a bit more brightness. If they did the lamps would gain a good reputation for being reliable and long life and THEY'D SELL MORE OF THEM!
So that's what it's called. Have been doing that kind of thing for 15 or so years. Great way to get some good stuff if you don't mind putting the finishing touches on what would have been a high quality product if the factory didn't partake in extreme penny pinching.
Love this video too xoxo schematics doodles circuit boards ...full build is a fun watch...so much thought behind your pretty art. Gaaaah I love these lamps : 0 D thank you for this video! Ì wish I could return the joy you give me from this! Tiny yay to my day!
Sometimes when i solder leds they turn on very very little ...how is that possible ,there is like no ground conection at all...something with body Capacity?...and sorry for the long Text but can i use and led as an voltage indictor ? Like its turning off at 7volts and lighting full bright at 8.4volts ?
It sounds like leakage from an ungrounded iron.
bigclivedotcom its a pretty cheap one yes it has a normal plug without earth
thats is brilliant to watch hey clive i got a suggestion for u. diy infinity mirror led coffee table using led tape. im working on one and would love to see your version of it.
I need to have a go at your PCB method - I've been using vero board my whole life and its a mess every time :p
I did the muriatic acid (concrete cleaner) method, but you need to mix a percentage of hydrogen peroxide into it for good results (can't remember % - need to find the video) . It works well, very fast, to the point you may want to dilute it slightly to slow it down.
call me crazy but wouldn't the tungsten lamp design be more efficient? it makes more sense to have the light source and the heater combined together rather than have a separate heating element and set of leds because that would create more losses.
I want to see what the larger sections of color look like!