Method that employs a Anycubic Photon DLP printer for the creation of printed circuit boards (PCB)
I used KiCad to design the desired PCB.
I exported the svg file of the design selecting the NEGATIVE and MIRRORED option. The result follows:
I used InkScape to obtain o compatible PNG file from the PCB svg design.
File -> Document Property: According to Photonster the print area is 68.04(W)mm x 120.96(H)mm, thus I should create a new document that has the same size. Plus, I should set the background of the page to be black. Remember to set the alpha channel to 100% as well.
File -> Import: Select the .svg file that was the output of your PCB design software. Then, adjust the position of your PCB on the page.
File -> Export as PNG image: Export the entire page and define the resolution of the resultant PNG image to be compliant with Photon's resolution: 1440x2560 pixels.
I have now the PNG image of your PCB with the correct resolution.
In this step I will exploit a slightly modified version of PhotonCpp [https://github.com/0x3f00/PhotonCpp]. Quick and dirty utility "0x3f00" have made to convert PNG files to Anycubic Photon 3d printer file format. Source code was ported to C++ from Photon File Validator project.
I build the software according to my environment (MSVC project for Windows and Makefile for Linux and MacOS X).
The usage of the software is the following:
Usage: PngToPhoton <input-1440x2560.png> <output.photon> <exposure_time_in_seconds>
Example: ./PngToPhoton exported_pcb.png pcb_to_be_exposed.photon 900
(The previous command will generate a photon file with 1 bottom layer that has an exposure time of 900 seconds.)
"0x3f00" insists on checking output with Photon File Validator after conversion, and I reinforce the suggestion. Use output at your own risk.
Now the photon file is ready to be transfered to an USB key and executed in my Photon printer.
(I removed the bed and the resin tank)
