Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Everything Else => Topic started by: SavannahLion on January 10, 2013, 03:30:18 am
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As soon as I can figure out where my wife hid my blank plates, I'll be etching.... as soon as I get the printer working again.... and figure out where wifie put my new ink. :banghead:
To save most people the trouble, if you don't know what a conformal coating is, you can stop reading and move on. I'm not trying to be insulting, I'm just trying to save you five minutes of your life for a more interesting topic.
I wanted to see if I could get the protecting finishes you see a lot of PCB fab houses do and figured the closest a hobbyist myself would have access to is the conformal coating sprays from places like Mouser. Not quite in the same vein as a solder mask but well you work with what you can get I guess. :dunno
In fact, Mouser is the only place I've found that has the spray cans (cheapest running little over $15 a pop). The rest of my searches turn up Alibaba or related industrial sites, useless when the minimum purchase is higher than my mortgage (I'm lying but it is quite a bit for a hobbyist).
Does any of the EE guys (& gals if one should exist) here actually use conformal coatings and, if so, where do you get it from?
On a same note, I found a couple of places where some kind of straight foward paint is used. For example:
PEBEO is suggested (Look in the comments section) (http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Your-Own-Multi-Colour-PCB/)
Clearcoat (http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=93880.0)
Krylon at this place (http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?33194-Painting-nonconductive-side-of-PCB-s-to-hide-ugly-PCB-color) though that has less to do with protecting the copper and more to do with matching his auto.
I just have to wonder if it makes sense to shell out $15 for conformal coatings at the hobbyist level when a $5 can of clear acrylic does a decent job of it. In fact, IIRC, TESTERS used to sell a line of transparent enamels in some really neat colors. I think I have an unused can of transparent metallic blue and transparent gray. Their website only shows six transparent colors (http://www.testors.com/category/573515/Spray_Paints). I suppose I can break out my old hobby spray gun for the Acrylics (http://www.testors.com/category/558571/Airbrushable_Acrylics). Don't know how much it is for their cans but I can't imagine much savings over the Mouser offering. Or I suppose I can steal my wife/daughter's nail polish and use those. Old modeling trick because :censored: have way more color choices for their stinking nails.
Point is, I'm just looking to prevent my traces from tarnishing.
I also looked into other ideas such as:
Using my soldering iron and solder to coat the traces in solder. I tried it on a junk board and the results were... uneven. It works but it's just kind of ugly.
Nickel plating. Either from a kit (expensive) or as DIY (Apparently some key chemicals are now DEA I listed).
Solder pot. I have little kids that like to watch me solder. A solder pot is a nightmare waiting to happen. Maybe in a few years when they're a little older :\
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Solder pot... I didn't even know that existed until I read this thread. May be useful to me, but I too have a little one that likes to "help" me solder...
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MCM Electronics sells conformal coatings:
http://electronics.mcmelectronics.com/search?w=conformal%20coating (http://electronics.mcmelectronics.com/search?w=conformal%20coating)
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i would just go ahead and buy conformal coating, if you have a small amout of boards to do it'll last you forever.
i also just insulate my boards with hot glue too. :dunno
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Thanks guys...
i also just insulate my boards with hot glue too. :dunno
Um... this isn't really about insulating my PCB, it's more about protecting it from general moisture and what not. Where my PCB is going to be mounted I don't really want to have to take it apart again for maintenance (catastrophic repair is another matter). I figure if I can do what I can to give the board a longer life, I figure it might be worth looking into.
But yeah, I've done that before too. I did that when I transplanted part of the power supply into the laptop. Seems to work OK, but if I recall correctly the inventor of the stuff specifically stated that's not what he intended the glue to be used for. :cheers: