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Messages - jesuscf

16
Tools of the trade / Re: Cutting mylar stencils with a silohuette cameo
Hi Gil (aka teletypeguy),

I asked about the suction cup because it looks as it is made with silicone.  I built my pickup tool with an aquarium air pump, a solenoid air valve, a pedal switch, an air needle (the kind used to inflate toys with hand pumps), and a Pilot Fineliner pen.  It turns out that the body of the Pilot Fineliner pen fits perfectly both the air needle and the air line from the pump.  I bought a hand pickup tool (just for the suction cups) from ebay but it hasn't arrived yet, so I made a few suction cups using oogoo (http://http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Sugru-Substitute/), a mix of type 1 silicone and corn starch.  They work extremely well, but they don't look that good:

[attachment=0]

I you need to remove lots of ICs from a PCB, the best option is to place the whole thing in your griddle, wait for it to reflow, and then remove the ICs.  Beware, some suction cups may not be able to take the heat, for example if they are made with oogoo! If you want to remove everything, just pick the whole PCB with pliers and tap it against the table!
18
Tools of the trade / Editing with Inkscape before sending to silohuette cameo
Wow, there have been a lot of useful posts on this topic lately.  Too bad I missed them.  (By the way  teletypeguy , I use the same type of paint scaper as a solder paste spatula!)

Just want to mention that it is possible to 'edit' what is sent to the Silhouette Cameo cutter.  This is useful when some components are not populated or you wish to change some of the hole sizes in your stencil.  First, in addition to all the programs needed to run Gerber2Graphtec mentioned in previous messages, you'll need Inkscape.  Download it from here:

http://inkscape.org/

The idea is to create a pdf from a Gerber file, edit the pdf with Inkscape, convert the pdf to Graphtec using a modified python script, and finally send to the Silhouette Cameo.

1) To create a pdf file from a Gerber paste mask type in a command window:

"C:Program Files (x86)gerbv-2.6.0bingerbv" --export=pdf --output=myfile.pdf --border=0 myfile.gtp

Or if you prefer, create a 'createpdf.bat' file and add this single line:

"C:Program Files (x86)gerbv-2.6.0bingerbv" --export=pdf --output=%~dpn1.pdf  --border=0 %1

and type

createpdf myfile.gtp

A file named 'myfile.pdf' should be created.

2) Run Inkscape.  Open the newly created pdf file and modify as you wish.  Save it.

3) Copy gerber2graphtec.py to cutpdf.py.  You can do this from a command window also:

copy gerber2graphtec.py cutpdf.py

Then edit cutpdf.py and modify these four lines from:

temp_pdf = "_tmp_gerber.pdf"
temp_pic = "_tmp_gerber.pic"

os.system(""C:/Program Files (x86)/gerbv-2.6.0/bin/gerbv" --export=pdf --output=%s --border=0 %s" % (temp_pdf,input_filename))
os.system(""C:/Program Files/pstoedit/pstoedit" -q -f pic %s %s" % (temp_pdf,temp_pic))

to these two lines:

temp_pic = "_tmp_gerber.pic"

os.system(""C:/Program Files/pstoedit/pstoedit" -q -f pic %s %s" % (input_filename,temp_pic))

4) Run the newly created script.  It needs the pdf file you created/modified as input:

cutpdf myfile.pdf > result.txt

5) Send 'result.txt' to the Cameo as outlined in previous messages.
19
Tools of the trade / Re: Cutting mylar stencils with a silohuette cameo
Here are three more tests with different transparencies:

[attachment=2]
[attachment=1]
[attachment=0]

Both the Staedtler 995AV and Avery 5277 are good but not great: some distortion can be seen in the horizontal lines.  Surprisingly, the 3M PP2200 transparency worked very well, almost as good as the Apollo write-on transparency.

Jesus
20
Tools of the trade / Re: Cutting mylar stencils with a silohuette cameo
Quote
Post by christof » Sun Apr 07, 2013 12:32 am
So, I have to calibrate my SP using the matrice option ;
I need to extend Y axis up to 0.25%. X axis seem's to be ok.
Please let me know how to convert it into a matrice option, how do you proceed to calibrate yours ?

My Silhouette Cameo is spot on, at least for the small PCBs I am testing (max is 3000 mil by 2000 mil) so I didn't have to do any calibration.  What I would suggest is to cut a test stencil with two long components (maybe connectors) in the X and Y axis.  Measure the result and adjust using the --matrix option in Gerber2Graphtec.

You can use --matrix 1,0,0,1.0025 to compensate for the 0.25% error in the Y axis.  I ran a couple of tests using the same Gerber file to see how this option works:

[attachment=1]
[attachment=0]

Jesus
21
Tools of the trade / Re: Cutting mylar stencils with a silohuette cameo
Gil,

I used a blade setting of 1 for both tests above.  I also experimented with 2 and 3 blade settings with no damage to the cutter, but since the blade is kind of conical, the fine cuts came out a bit stretched out.

The two transparencies types I tested have the same thickness, about 4 mil.  The Canon transparency is way tougher than the Apollo one.  The Apollo transparency is way easier to cut when using an X-acto knife.

Lens?  Whatever the Samsung Galaxy S3 built in camera has.

Jesus
22
Tools of the trade / Re: Cutting mylar stencils with a silohuette cameo
As I suspected, the type of transparency matters when cutting stencils with the Silhouette Cameo.  For the two stencils below, I used one of the example Gerber files included with gerber2graphtec: test_0.5mm_0402.gbr.

For the first test I used a Canon type E transparency:

[attachment=3]

The results are a bit disappointing as some of the small holes didn't clear out.  You can see in the picture below:

[attachment=2]

For the second test I used Apollo Overhead Transparency Film.  These transparencies are kind of "forbidden" at work because people put them in laser printers/copiers and they melt, ruining the equipment.  Thankfully I managed to find a misplaced half box with this information inside:

[attachment=1]

These ones are not as rugged as the Canon transparencies, but the resulting stencils are excellent!  All the holes cleared out without trouble and the cuts are cleaner.

[attachment=0]

As you can see from the pictures above the results using the Apollo transparency are much better than results with the Canon type E transparency.

Jesus
25
Tools of the trade / Re: Cutting mylar stencils with a silohuette cameo
After a few small hacks I got gerber2graphtec working on Windows 7.  First, I had to install Python (version 2.7.3, version 3.x.x may not work), gerbv (version 2.6.0), pstoedit (version 3.61), and ghostscript (version 9.07).  I download these programs from:

http://http://www.python.org/
http://http://sourceforge.net/projects/gerbv/files/gerbv/gerbv-2.6.0/
http://http://www.pstoedit.net/
http://http://www.ghostscript.com/download/gsdnld.html

I downloaded gerber2graphtec from

http://https://github.com/pmonta/gerber2graphtec

by clicking the 'Download this repository as a zip file' button.  I unzipped the downloaded file to a folder, say 'C:gerber2graphtec-master'.

After that, I renamed gerber2graphtec to gerber2graphtec.py to run the program directly from a command window.  Then I edited the two lines that convert the Gerber file to pic format in gerber2graphtec.py from:

Code: [Select]
os.system("gerbv --export=pdf --output=%s --border=0 %s" % (temp_pdf,input_filename))
os.system("pstoedit -f pic %s %s 2>/dev/null" % (temp_pdf,temp_pic))

to:

Code: [Select]
os.system(""C:/Program Files (x86)/gerbv-2.6.0/bin/gerbv" --export=pdf --output=%s --border=0 %s" % (temp_pdf,input_filename))
os.system(""C:/Program Files/pstoedit/pstoedit" -q -f pic %s %s" % (temp_pdf,temp_pic))

since neither the installation programs for gerbv nor pstoedit added their executable folders to the path.  Finally, I shared the Silhouette Cameo 'printer' by right clicking on its icon in the 'Control PanelHardware and SoundDevices and Printers' folder, selecting the 'Sharing' tab, clicking 'Share this printer' and setting its sharing name to 'Cameo'.  To run the program and cut I typed in a command prompt:

Code: [Select]
C:gerber2graphtec-master>gerber2graphtec.py test.gbr > result.txt
C:gerber2graphtec-master>copy /B result.txt \JCF-PCCameo

where JCF-PC is the name of my computer as it appears on 'Control PanelSystem and SecuritySystem'.  (Of course, you'll have to put the name of YOUR computer, not mine!)  Half a noisy hour later I had a perfect stencil!

Also, typing

Code: [Select]
C:gerber2graphtec-master>gerber2graphtec.py test.gbr > \[YOUR COMPUTER NAME]Cameo

should work as well, but I hadn't tried it.
26
Tools of the trade / Re: Cutting mylar stencils with a silohuette cameo
Quote
teletypeguy » Fri Mar 29, 2013 2:57 am

I just got a cameo for making stencils as well, and fired it up today with a sheet of mylar overhead transparency film. I used the eagle ULP file linked from Cathy's site, which very nicely extracted a dxf file for the cameo to open. Sadly, I was quite disappointed in the resulting stencil, and think perhaps I got a bum machine. I used the same settings Cathy used (blade depth 1, speed 1 = slowest, thickness 33 = max-force). Tweaking these didn't change my two fundamental problems: 1) a square shape is actually a right-leaning parollelogram, and 2) the straight sides are actually bowed out.

I also got a Silhouette Cameo a couple of days ago with similar distorted results for my first tests.  The problem is that the Silhouette Cameo is not very precise when cutting traces at 90 degrees.  If you draw your solder paste holes using only individual trace lines the results are considerably better.  For instance, instead of using trace rectangles to cut the pads use four trace lines.  Cathy  mentioned in her page that she used a custom dxf exporter for Eagle.  I think that the converter is using only lines and no rectangles.  I don't used Eagle, so I used a PNG file exported from gerbv which I loaded in Silhouette Studio.  When I used the auto-trace with the Silhouette Studio, the program put a bunch of rectangles.  After cutting, the holes looked exactly like your pictures.  Then I drew the rectangles using only lines and the results are very good, very similar to what Cathy reported.

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