When they first said they made a PCB printer I though about a different kind of device - "Desktop Board House" - a small device with size from that of a desktop laser printer up to a big office copier that can manufacture small or medium size (paper size for reference) high quality boards in small quantities using the same mechanical and photochemical processes that a regular board house uses to manufacture PCBs in huge quantities.
Imagine this: you click "Print" button in your EDA, it sends GERBER files to the printer, after few hours your PCB is ready! Real FR4, 2+ layers, not a paper or whatever.
That's exactly what we're working towards! Well, not the idea of using the same chemical process as board houses, but it being as easy as pressing print and getting your board-house-level circuit. Not sure if you missed it, but the printer can print on FR4, paper is just a bonus.
Was it really all controlled by an Arduino board? That part seemed to be too quick and not a real clear shot.
Yep, really a shield on an arduino mega. I'll get some nice photos of it later.
Having used the LPKF for years, the main problem is to get proper double layer boards and then get connectors soldered on both sides. The way LPKF implements through hole plating is cumbersome... Still neat for prototyping, but what happens when Cartesian go bust, will the ink cartridge be possible to refill?
Haha, well we're hoping not to go bust. Either way, we'll be making a complete tutorial on how to refill your own cartridges, so there won't be any danger anyway. The actual point of the video is to let people refill them with different things to experiment with resistive and insulative inks, and other wonderful things.
This was a very interesting video, I really liked the interviews!
Dave should invite startups to his lab. Tearing into a gadget while the original designer comments on the design desicions, compromises, prototypes, manufacturing headaches etc. How cool would that be?
Agreed!