I really don't want to be negative, but I also really don't see the point.<p>Cheaply and quickly producing basic single-sided PCBs really isn't hard. Photochemical etching can be done with $100 worth of equipment, a couple of feet of bench space and a little practice. Using a $3500 machine to produce poorer quality boards doesn't make much sense to me. Likewise, the pick & place functionality just isn't very useful in producing prototypes - the setup time will be equal to or greater than placing the components by hand with tweezers.<p>There are a swathe of recent projects based on conductive ink, but I don't think that they are solving a real problem. I use PCB fabrication services because I need soldermask and through-hole plating, not because photoetch is particularly inconvenient. Someone downthread discusses the problem of printing resolution and fine-pitch parts, but that's really a secondary issue. Without soldermask, it is very difficult to get good joints without bridging on fine-pitch ICs; Without plated vias, it is extremely difficult to route traces for even a relatively simple SMD IC, let alone a BGA.<p>The boards shown in their publicity materials are trivial and would be easily prototyped using veroboard. I believe that represents the limit of their technology. I can just about see a niche for their product in education, but even that is quite tenuous; The throughput of this machine is likely to be a major bottleneck in a classroom setting versus etching 30 boards on the same panel. I learned to etch PCBs in secondary school, and the process is now much cleaner and safer thanks to modern etchants. Three bubble tanks and a UV box cost considerably less than $3500 and are far more reliable than any CNC machine.<p>If photochemical etching isn't an option for some reason, you can buy a basic CNC router for far less than $3500, which can produce good basic PCBs while also taking on a vast range of other tasks.<p>Frankly, the whole effort smacks of "3D printing" hype. There seems to be a generation of designers who have a nozzle-shaped hammer and see everything as an additively-manufactured nail. There are some compelling applications for additive manufacturing, but it is by no means a silver bullet.
<i>"The circuit board is designed through a web-based portal usable only with Squink plugged in."</i><p>Whoa there, cowboy. Its a kickstarter that not only may or may not produce a working machine, but even if it does, I have to depend on their perpetual existence just to use said machine? I... have trust issues.
Home-printed (not etched) PCBs? This is awesome. Sure, the traces look thick as hell and you're obviously limited to 1-2 layers, but it's what progress looks like.<p>Just as the barrier for entry has come down for software -- in the form of better tools, frameworks, and languages -- so too is it coming down for hardware in the form of easier, more accessible and better-quality prototyping. The specialist in me worries (occasionally), but what a wonderful moment of innovation we live in..
This is way more interesting than the title makes it sound. From the title, I expected something that just made a PCB, and then you would have to place the components on it and attach them.<p>What they are proposing will make the PCB, then put conductive glue at the places where the component leads are supposed to attach, and then pick the components from a tray, rotate and aline them, and place them on the glue.
There was a Kickstarter that did exactly this a while back:<p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1597902824/agic-print-printing-circuit-boards-with-home-print" rel="nofollow">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1597902824/agic-print-p...</a><p>I guess they're supposed to start shipping in a couple weeks (Aug 1).
This isn't just a PCB printer it also does pick and place and solders component with conductive glue! It's essentially an entire SMT assembly line on your desktop. Wow, this is cool.
Lots of issues will need to be worked out for this to be viable. 4 layers minimum (ground, power, 2 routing planes). High pitch TSOP and BGA need tight pitches and traces. The width of traces and spacing and dielectric material need tight tolerances for impedance control for signal integrity.<p>But they are not asking for much of an investment so it may be worthwhile to try it out.
Squink is on Kickstarter:<p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/botfactory/squink-the-personal-electronic-circuit-factory" rel="nofollow">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/botfactory/squink-the-p...</a>
Something to think about is a miniboard (a possibly trademarked cheap small board supplier of great reliability, fast speed, and excellent reputation) sells boards for $17 each shipped the next business day, so printing 250 boards yourself costs 3500 + 250*2= $4000 vs $4250 for professionally made boards. Hmm I donno.<p>250 boards is a lot of work. I don't think "most" hobbyists are into the hobby that long. For the sake of argument, we'll assume I've ordered that many PCBs as a hobbyist since 1980. How many computers from 1980 are still supported with software updates etc? I could eventually make 250 PCBs in a couple decades, but whats the realistic "clock time" lifespan of this thing?<p>Note that if you're going into serious production rather than the prototype market, you can get a hundred small boards much cheaper than $17 a piece.<p>Another interesting thing to think about is this is a printer... you need a substrate. First thing I thought of it using polished flat marble tiles from home depot. So there are other costs.<p>Also its an ink emitter. Much like ink jet printers which could theoretically print at 5 cents per page IF you use the ink up within 3 months of opening, reality is you try to print a report, realize your cartridge is dead / dried out, install a new $50 cartridge, print your report, and repeat six months later. So ink jets actually cost like $10 per page as a real world on the ground cost.<p>Given the above, its quite possible you could pay $50 for a cartridge and a board every six months in a couple hours, plus $3500 capital cost, or pay maybe $40 for a pro shop to overnight airmail a prototype PCB to you every six months.<p>The TLDR is the financials only work over an extremely narrow range of production rates under very peculiar requirements.<p>Its interesting in the marketplace there are no serious efforts at a full kit for traditional hands on mfgr. There are numerous partial kits that don't quite contain everything.<p>You need a B/W laser printer that is stably calibrated to precise dimensions thats really good at transparencies, a box of transparencies, whatever gear you use to verify calibration (A machinists $5 class 1-2-3 block and some software?). A UV box (basically a giant eprom eraser). Some photo trays and etchants and other chemicals.<p>Some "maker" cultural groups have an intense aversion to hands on, however weird that sounds, and will pay anything or put up with anything, to avoid using their hands, and that's probably the ideal customer for this product given that you can get better results cheaper and faster if you use a traditional PCB process.<p>There is probably a market for someone to sell a complete, vetted, verified photosensitive PCB etching kit.
I'm not sure the price of a cup of coffee is a good indication of something being inexpensive nowadays:
Sexagintuple Vanilla Bean Mocha Frappuccino, $55 [1].<p>[1] <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2641608/Is-worlds-expensive-Starbucks-coffee-Sexagintuple-Vanilla-Bean-Mocha-Frappuccino-set-55.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2641608/Is-worlds-ex...</a>