Hi there,
When pulling the board statistics , you get the area mm2 of the board. But no info on how much of the
board area is e.g. filled by the fill zone function.
It’s usefull to keep track of PCB cu etching solution as bybknowing the to etched surface, keeping track of this, you can predict when to replace/renew the solution .
Anybody knows how to get this parameter, or can it be added to the board statistics?
Grtz
Alez
I’d say this is a job for the PCB manufacturer, not for KiCAD.
The manufacturer will simply use the black/blank areas of the Gerbers to calculate copper removal (and solder mask use as well).
I assume this is for etching at home…
I do not really see how that would work. It would be quite difficult to make an accurate prediction how long your enchant will last from a calculation. Have you looked into more direct approaches of checking the quality of your enchant? Simply measuring the time it takes to etch a PCB may work. It’s common etching goes slower when the acid wears out, but it also depends a lot on temperature, so always starting with the same temperature may help in making a more accurate prediction.
Yes it is, i use sodium per sulfphate, each time very small volumes 12gr in 50ml d-water.
It can fast-convert 1.12 gr of Cu into CuSO4 , it is actually a rather sharp edged reaction balance when running it at 40’C and a high flow rate. (it is a very small setup for mini pcb’s), and use de mineralised water.
So e.g with a pcb cu thickness of 35um you can do 9 etches of a SS pcb of 40mmx30mm and the masked area is 70%. But only 4 when the masked area is 30%.
When it gets depleated, the isotropic influence is getting too big when making narrow tracks (<0.2mm).and you get undercuts. This is why i want to predict the tipping point of the solution.
It can also be done by color or time but then it is already one step too late.
I know it is just peanuts. I thought area mm2 info would be available from PCB area, track surface and masking zone etc.
@xpsion if you’re into etching and mixing chem’s, you might find this useful…
I posted it several years ago after watching a video (there’s a link in my link above) to the video that inspired me to make my own Tinning Solution after continually spending money on little bottles of it… I’m still using the first batch I made!
You explanation sounds quite reasonable. (more then I would have thought).
What is your process from getting from a PCB design to a printed mask for etching? Do you use KiCad for printing / plotting or some other program?
If you convert the copper layer output to some pixel based format, then you can count pixels with a simple program, and this would get you quite close (also depending on resolution of course).
You can make a feature request on gitlab for this, but KiCad programmers are mostly interested in “more professional” features, and I don’t know if they want to spend time on this. If you can do some programming yourself, or know someone who does, then you could add it to KiCad via this way. But before you start writing software and merge requests, start with a feature request or discussion on Gitlab. They do not like it if merge requests come out of the blue from unknown persons.
Hi Paul,
Indeed!, i did not think of that, I already made a simple java program in the past to convert png into data points, simply counting the black pixels and its done!.
yes, i use Kicadfor printing.
I make some small proto type pcb when freq becomes an issue for breadboard.
Its just in initial stage, mostly SS or sometimes DS. When for real i use PCB service.
Printing it on Mag paper with laser wax based toner and cold transfer with some eth/act mixture.
I keep paper on the pcb, the etching is in a small setup with US vibration.
then due to water like solution of per sulfate and the very small molecules it goes perfect.
So no damage on mask at all and a bit anisotropic effect.
I imagine there’s a Plugin out there for calculating Area of Tracks, Pads and Zones.
Over a cup of BlackCoffee, I made a plugin to calculate the Area of selected Tracks. I presently don’t have time to look for Zones (most likely polyline related) or Pads, but you get the idea (iterate through them, calc the area and sum them…)
Of course, creating Plugins, while not difficult, may be a headache for some users…
How does it handle overlapping tracks? (End points on top of each other, parallel, crossing, etc)
Good Question…
Setting aside ‘whether-to’, or ‘whether-not-to’ do any calculations and tweaking (such as to subtract areas of one from the other…etc)… just as-is, below shows results:
Single Track
Two Tracks Overlaied (one selected) Outline-mode for clarity
After ‘Tools>Cleanup_Tracks_Vias’ (it Merged the Two Overlaid Tracks)
Perpendicular Tracks
And, for Fun… current project with Calculator Confirmation for 0.8128 width tracks
Track Length for Confirmation Calc
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