Etching the PCB board.

Etching is the process to cut the unprotected part in our PCB board. In the previous post, I have mention the use of permanent marker to highlight the printed part of the PCB board. The ink from this permanent marker will protect the circuit area. For those who have no experience doing this activity, now its the right time to learn. First we need to have the ferric chloride, hot water and a bucket. 

Ferric chloride powder

Why we need hot water? Etching at ambient temperature might take over an hour, so its better to heat up the etching solvent to about 35-45 degrees Celcius. Then we need a bucket to dissolved it (ferric chloride) in a clear liquid (hot water) and put the PCB board in it. 

Dissolved the ferric chloride with hot water

The etching takes about 15-30 minutes to be done. But remember at higher temperatures the etching performance decreases. The etching process is an exothermic reaction, it generates heat. Take care, cool your etching tray when necessary! You should minimize the amount of copper to etch by creating copper area in your PCB layout as much as possible. When starting the etching process and little to etch it is difficult to keep the etching solution at 35-45 degrees Celcius.

Shake the bucket

At the end of this procedure we have to make sure all the unprotected part have been removed from the PCB board. After etching, we have to drill the PCB board according to its PCB layout and then we can put all the components through the PCB board. 

Soldering the components on PCB board

Finally we need to solder all the components in the PCB board. Soldering is a process in which two metal items are joined together by melting procedure. Thoroughly coat the soldering tip in solder. It is very important to cover the entire tip. You will use a considerable amount of solder during this process and it will drip, so be ready. If you leave any part of the tip uncovered it will tend to collect flux residue and will not conduct heat very well, so run the solder up and down the tip and completely around it to totally cover it in molten solder. After you are certain that the tip is totally coated in solder, wipe the tip off on the wet sponge to remove all the flux residue. Do this immediately so there is no time for the flux to dry out and solidify.