Trying to push myself to do something at least somewhat constructive today. I've been making a PCB for the active tone circuit on my guitar a Westone Rainbow replica but with a little twist. I have a real Westone guitar, the Thunder 1A. I've decided to "make" a version of the Rainbow that doesn't exist. So like my real Westone this will be a 1A version, the "A" stands for Active Tone. My friend made a version of the circuit on strip board but for some reason it isn't working, so I decided to rebuild it on a PCB.
I etched it myself and used the laser printer toner transfer method where you print the circuit outline on a piece of magazine paper and use a hot clothes iron to make it bond with the blank copper PCB material. You then use warm water to dissolve the paper leaving you with a masked off region that resembles the circuit you want.
Then you put it into an acid bath and this dissolves the exposed copper leaving you with the circuit traces. Then you drill holes to pass the components through and solder them in place. It took a couple of attempts to get a board I could etch but it's working out pretty good so far!
This is what the original factory PCB looks like...
This is mine so far...
Not super neat yet but once it's done I will tidy it up and reinforce the traces with a layer of solder. I had to fudge together a 2M2 resistor because I didn't have any in stock.
I etched it myself and used the laser printer toner transfer method where you print the circuit outline on a piece of magazine paper and use a hot clothes iron to make it bond with the blank copper PCB material. You then use warm water to dissolve the paper leaving you with a masked off region that resembles the circuit you want.
Then you put it into an acid bath and this dissolves the exposed copper leaving you with the circuit traces. Then you drill holes to pass the components through and solder them in place. It took a couple of attempts to get a board I could etch but it's working out pretty good so far!
This is what the original factory PCB looks like...
This is mine so far...
Not super neat yet but once it's done I will tidy it up and reinforce the traces with a layer of solder. I had to fudge together a 2M2 resistor because I didn't have any in stock.