Sometimes, when i need a little serie, i use that blue foil that you have to "laser print" and thermally transfer (i don't know how you exactly call it, here is called press-n-peel) ..... not exceptional, but for middle sized tracks, it works ..... for thin tracks, i was using photoresist (the negative paint type, that need that you use these orange films for made negatives), but at the moment my bromograph is broken, and i don't have time to build a new one .....
What do you use, for your incision system ? ..... HCl and hydrogen peroxyde ?
I just use Avery labels, peel labels away (and discard them) and print with laser onto the label backing (which can't be touched, but has to be scratched with a card for the toner to stick)...
Then i use a clothes iron to transfer the toner onto copper, fix traces with precision markers, and etch in Sodiumpersulphate... :yh:
Works like a charm, regardless of trace width. But i do make multiple prints and discard the ones with flaws...
After the thermal transfer i have to let it cool, then i peel the label backing off carefully, if i'm lucky, there is not much left to repair with a marker..
I'm still experimenting with boost ones, need to find something decent as circuit and layout, before try to reduce it in "aixiz-size" (actually, i'm having some decent results, also if not exceptionals, with MAX8715 ..... also if it have the usual 5V Vin limit, can go til 12V as Vout ..... decent conversion, some stability problems, and i still need to find a workaround for made it working correctly in current-limiter configuration, cause it's not designed to work in this way, but if i reach, it may be a good solution for those BR that need more than 5,5 / 6V FV.
I'm lucky when it comes to this.. My driver can already go to 10V, or if i change two capacitors, 25V... :angel:
I talked to Maxim engineers a while ago, presenting them my requirements, and they said they had nothing of the kind i need, but i guess they didn't think of converting a voltage source to a current source. They must have been thinking of a single chip solution... :thinking:
You'll probably be using an op-amp or a current sensing IC in combination with the booster, to avoid wasting too much efficiency on the high reference voltage, right?
There are chips, made to do it all in one go and at a high efficiency, but are usually made for LED flashlights, where stability of the current doesn't really matter, and a +/-5% drift is considered "stable"... :undecided:
I guess i'm just spoiled by the chip i'm using now... :thinking:
BTW, what's wrong with "capacitor sculpture" ?
..... electronic sculptures are good, you know ?
..... some of my prototypes looks like "components packages", more that pcb ..... like
this one, as example
(
Also if i have to admit that some others, instead, looks like a designer nightmare :crackup
Well, i didn't say there is something wrong with capacitor sculptures... I find them useful, when i'm out of space, and can only build upwards.. :yabbem:
For example, when i was testing my BR driver on a scope, i had to reduce the output noise....
No matter what capacitor i used, some noise would always remain, until i put another, smaller value capacitor
on top of the main diode protection capacitor... :crackup:
That's when the capacitor sculptures started - and then they grew to the side too (in the end i had a 10uF on diode, a 47uF ON TOP of the 10uf and a 1uF ON THE SIDE of the 47uF)! :crackup:
Problem was, i had to remove this entire sculpture, to get to the diode at all....
Until i redesigned the whole board, that is... Now the diode is completelly free, but just as protected..
EDIT: What's wrong with capacitor sculptures you ask? Nothing, if the one making the sculptures is the only one handling them....
But imagine what would happen if someone with my laser but a burnt out diode would try to replace the diode temselves, but would find such a triple-capacitor sculpture on top of the diode's pins? :yabbem:
That's why i HAD to redesign the driver, to get rid of the sculptures, before using the drivers in lasers... :angel: