LPKF Laser & Electronics; 28220 SW Boberg Rd.; Wilsonville, OR 97070, USA (503) 643-0604 CircuitCAM 2.0 and BoardMaster 2.0

QuickStart - Tutorial and Application Notes December 2, 1996

This is a quick description of how to get the LPKF tutor board made on the ProtoMat. It starts with Gerber Files as if this were any circuit board produced by a CAD program. Rather than begin with a list of definitions and lengthy explanations of the program's features, I will simply list the steps in 'cookbook' fashion. All the files needed to make the Tutor circuit board are on the CCAM disk and load into the /LPKF/DATA subdirectory. The tutor board is small (1.3 inches by 2 inches) and was primarily designed to demonstrate the Protomat's characteristics. Following the basic tutorial is a collection of application notes on specialized situations and commonly encountered difficulties. Before starting the instructions, ensure that the CCAM and BoardMaster programs are loaded onto your hard disk as described in the main manual. The software key should be in the parallel (printer) port. Enter the enabling and serial number of your software in the Help | User Info menu section. Check that the first character of the enabling number is ‘#’. After entering the key and enabling numbers, save them by clicking on OK to exit the User Info window and then clicking on File | Save Script. Now leave the CCAM program and re-enter CCAM. The title bar should read Circuit CAM BASIS. If not, then turn off any parallel port extensions: select the most basic form of parallel port available on your system. In other words, try to get as close to the 1981 original IBM-PC slow single-direction parallel port as possible. The driver disk contains a program to run the Protomat from MSDOS and is not needed for BoardMaster or CircuitCAM.

If your computer does not have a floating point processor (for instance, an Intel 486SX or Cyrix 486DLC CPU), you will need to add a floating point emulator driver. We provide the file WEMU387.386 for this purpose. To your Windows ‘SYSTEM.INI’ file, add the following line under the section 386Enh: [386Enh] {Restart Windows to initiate the FPU driver} device=c:\lpkf\ccam\wemu387.386

Overview There are two general steps in making a board with the LPKF Protomat. First the tracks that the milling bit will cut around the traces must be defined, then the board is actually fabricated. The first step uses the Circuit CAM program to prepare the board. The operation of the Protomat machine is controlled by the BoardMaster program. Preparing the board with Circuit CAM consists of four processes: - The input files are loaded and formatted. The aperture sizes are entered. This allows a correct image of the board to be displayed on the screen. - The board image is modified to place different components of the board onto separate EDIF layers. New layers are created for the board outline, the text, and for large mounting holes too big to drill. - The milling tracks around the circuit board traces are created and defined as new EDIF layers. - Output files are generated from the milling track layers. BoardMaster uses these files to run the Protomat. The term layer has two separate meanings in PCB CAD documentation. The first and most common is to refer to the top and bottom of PCBs and the second is for groupings of traces, pads and holes that are displayed on the graphics screen. The second usage comes from the EDIF definition for electronic CAD images. All the similar graphic elements on the side of a board are in a single EDIF layer and these individual EDIF layers that make up the entire side are themselves combined into an EDIF layer. We refer to layers often in this document and will usually mean the EDIF type of layer. When there could be a misunderstanding about which type of layer that we are referring to, we will use the term physical layer for an entire side of the PCB board and logical layer for an EDIF set of graphics elements. Loading the Gerber files

{ a primer on Gerber files can be found on the web at~ http://www.gerbersystemscorp.com/gerber_format/p1-c10.html } 1. Load the CCAM program. Select File and Data Input. Select New from the JOB menu in the upper left corner. Type ‘newtutor’ for the New Data Input Job Name and click OK. Click on ‘-All’ in the ‘Files to be Converted’ box. Any listed file names in the box will disappear. 2. Click on Add to choose the files used by the Tutor board. From \CCAM directory, load the following files: CCAM-TUT.CMP the component side (top) Gerber file WiringComp layer name R90 CCAM-TUT.SLD the solder side (bottom) Gerber file WiringSold layer name R90 CCAM-TUT.BOC the board outline Gerber file Board layer name R90 CCAM-TUT.DRL the drill hole Excellon file Drill layer name R90

1

3. As each file is added to the list, the program opens the file and checks if it is in one of the standard forms used for circuit board design (Gerber, Excellon, or HPGL). Place the cursor highlight on CCAM-TUT.CMP. Select the Layer Name combo box, located below the data format window, and select ‘WiringComp’ from the list of layers. To the right, click on Accept. This removes &1 from the layer name and replaces it with the name that you selected from the list. If you wish to use a name that is not on the list, enter it in the combo box. Select R90 (rotate 90°) in the Orientation combo box. Enter the names and orientations for the other layers as listed above. 4. Move the highlight cursor back to CCAM-TUT.CMP. Click on CREATE in the data format box that is to the right of the file input box. A dialog box opens for the name of a new data format. This data format will be the list of apertures needed to draw the tutor demo board. Enter the name ‘tutGBR’ and click on OK. If the program recognizes the inputted file’s type, it will scan the file for apertures that are used by the file and

make a list. CCAM refers to this list by the name you entered. A list of the apertures found in this file is in the Log + Error window. Select Window from the main menu bar and click on 1. Log + Error to see this list.

5. The size of each aperture is not stored in the Gerber file and must be entered separately from the aperture list generated by the PCB layout program. From the Data Input window, select OK. This returns you to the main level of CCAM. Select File | Data Format and the opened window displays the apertures found in CCAM-TUT.CMP. The entered name (tutGBR) refers to the list displayed in the ‘Aperture/Tools’ box. The type of file associated with this data format (Gerber) is listed along with the measurement unit for this list. Change the units value from 0.0001 inch to 0.01mm. a. Under file type, click on More.... In the Coordinate Characteristic box, make the following selections: units: mm resolution (m.n Digits): 3.2 zeros: Leading zeros suppressed values: absolute All the other features in the other boxes should be turned off. Select OK to return to the data format window. b. With the highlight cursor on the top aperture (D10), click on the a.x - size box in the lower right corner. Enter

the value 10 and click Accept . The highlight cursor advances to the next aperture (D12). Enter the following sizes for each aperture and click Accept after entry:

D12 30 D13 110 D14 150 D15 130 D16 160 These values are in units of .01 mm, so 160 units = 1.6mm (.064”) Click OK to return to CCAM’s top level, and then enter the Data Input window using File | Data Input. 6. Highlight the filename “CCAM-TUT.SLD” in the Files-to-be-converted box and select ‘tutGBR’ as the Ref: selection in the Data Format box. In the upper right corner of the Data Format box, click on ‘Append’. This command will open the highlighted file and add any apertures to ‘tutGBR’ that were not previously on the aperture list. Exit Data Input window (click OK) and enter Data Format window. Highlight D11 and enter ‘100’ for its size. Change the ’type:’ of D18 to ‘Finger’ and enter the a.x value of 60 and the y value of 250. Click on Accept. D19 is ‘type: Rectangle’ and has a.x size of 60 and a.y size of 250. Click accept and OK. 7. Enter the Data Input window and highlight filename ‘CCAM-TUT.BOC’. Select ‘tutGBR’ as the Ref: selection in the Data Format box. Click on Append... Click OK to exit the Data Input window and enter the Data Format window. Select D17 and enter the value of 5. Click Accept and OK. 8. Enter Data Input and select filename ‘CCAM-TUT.DRL’. The Data Format box shows EXCELLON format. Click on Create. Enter the name ‘tutEXL’ for the new data format identifier. Exit Data Input and enter Data Format. Select measurement units of 0.01mm. Click on the ‘More’ selector and enter the following values: unit: mm resolution: 3.2 values: Absolute zeros: Leading zeros suppressed Click OK and enter the values for the drill sizes (T number): 1 50 2 70 3 90 All the necessary aperture size information is now entered and the tutor board can be correctly displayed on the screen. Click OK to exit the Data Format window and select File | Save Script. All the format information is now saved to the ‘USER.SCR’ file. Enter the Data Input window.

2

9. Select Run in the lower right corner. In a few seconds, the image of the tutor board will display. If you receive an error message, check the results in Window | 1. Log & Error . If you have a ‘divide by zero’ error, you are using a video card with more than 256 colors. Change the video driver in Windows set-up to a mode that uses only 256 colors. If the traces are too fat and overlap without spaces, the most likely problem is that the value of the units in data format was set for .0001 inch instead of .01 mm. If there is no display at all (a completely black graphics window), then your machine does not have a Floating Point Coprocessor in its CPU. Enable the FPU emulator driver (‘wemu387.386’) through your Windows SYSTEM.INI file (located in the C:\WINDOWS directory and editable with a text editor like NOTEPAD). If you cannot see the drill holes, select View | Top Color from the main menu bar. Select the top color to be the same as the drill layer’s color. If the holes appear to be not centered on the pads, try View | Zoom In to enlarge the image of a group of pads. Often what appears to be a misalignment is simply a graphics artifact of Windows. If the misalignment remains, use the Offset parameter of the Data Input section to align the layer created by each Gerber file. Preparing the board for insulation The tutor board display at this point has four layers: top (component), bottom (solder), board outline, and drill. The text on the top and bottom should be moved to different layers in order to have the text engraved on the board instead of having it outlined. 1. Select Edit from the main menu bar and the submenu Layer. Select ‘WiringSold(Layer)’ with the highlight cursor and click on the ‘visible’ button. Click on Accept. Advance the highlight cursor to the end of the list and click on the last entry of the list (most likely ‘Drill(Layer)’). Click on new and from the dialog box that appears, select ‘TextComp’. Click OK in the New Layer box, Accept in the ‘Edit-Layer’ window and OK to return to the board image. Only the component side elements are visible because the solder side was turned off. Move the crosshair cursor to the upper left corner of the text on the top of the displayed board. Hold down the left mouse button and make a rectangle enclosing the entire text. Release the left button and the text will flash. Re-enter Edit | Layer and move the highlight cursor to ‘TextComp’ at the end of the list. Click Accept and the flashing elements from the display will be transferred to their previous layer to the highlight-selected layer. Exit Edit | Layer and press Escape to deselect the flashing elements. 2. Re-enable the display of the Solder layer by clicking on the ‘WiringSold(Layer)’ selection. Both the Visible and the Select option are unchecked. Click on the Select option. Both options become active and the layer’s color name is restored to the list. Click Accept. Move to the ‘WiringComp(Layer)’ and highlight it. Click on the visible option to deselect the layer. Click Accept. Also deselect the ‘TextComp’ layer. Move to the bottom of the list of layers and click on the last selection. Click on new and select the layer name ‘TextSold’ and OK. Click on OK in the Edit-Layer dialog box and the display will return with the Solder layer visible. Move to the upper left corner of the text, hold down the left mouse button and enclose the text. The backwards text will flash. Re-enter Edit | Layer and move the highlight cursor to the bottom of the layer list and click on ‘TextSold’. Click on Accept. The text on both the component and solder layers have been transferred to new layers. This process can be used to transfer any display elements to new layers. 3. Enter Edit | Layer and reactivate all the layers. The text color can be changed to any color on the list. Click on Accept after a change to any layer and OK to view the changes. 4. Save this work by selecting File | Save. This saves all the layer information into an EDIF file with the extension.EDI. This does not save set-up information, which is stored in the file USER.SCR and is saved with ‘Save Script’. Insulating the Boards The insulation process is the heart of the CCAM program. While CCAM resembles a rudimentary CAD PCB layout system, no other CAD system has this feature. This process reads the graphics data for the circuit board traces and board outlines and creates another track around each graphic element. Here the term ‘graphics element’ refers to any trace, mounting hole, or board outline that uses apertures to make shapes on the screen that are not part of the black background. Generally the new track is the path for the milling tool around the traces, but this new outline can be used for any other purpose as needed. The insulation function starts at a point on a graphics element and draws a track around the element until it reaches the point at which it began. These tracks provide the path for the milling tool that isolates the traces from the background copper on the final PCB. The ProtoMat machine does not use the trace information from any of the Gerber files, only the insulation tracks. (An aside; the programmers in Germany insist that we use the English word ‘insulate’ for this process, although the word ‘isolate’ seems to be a closer metaphor.) Each layer selected for insulation (the source layer) gets a corresponding new layer (the destination layer) that holds the data for the tracks drawn around the graphic elements in the source layer.

3

1. From the main menu, select File | Insulate. In the top center of the window, select New. Enter the name ‘tutorINS’ and click OK. In the top right of the window, in the box Source Layer click on the arrow for the combo box labeled ‘Wiring: ’. Select the layer ‘WiringComp(Layer)’ from the list. 2. In the mid left of the window, highlight the name of the output layer located in the box labeled ‘Tools: Destination Layer’. Enter the name ‘CompISO’ for source layer ‘WiringComp(Layer)’. The diameter should be 0.25mm (10 mils) and the overlap 0.03mm. The second destination layer should be blank. Inner insulation should be switched ON. Independent Oversize should be ON also. Select Clockwise direction and serpentine OFF. The diameter in the ‘Tools: Destination Layer’ box refers to the width of the channel that will be cut by the milling tool around the graphics element (such as the trace or the board outline). On the ProtoMat, the diameter of the cut can be adjusted between 8 and 12 mils with the UniMill tool bit by adjusting how deep the tool goes into the copper. Inner insulation means that both sides of a graphics element will get an insulation track drawn around it. For instance, the letter ‘O’ needs to have an inner insulation track in order to have it not be represented by a circle. Independent Oversize means that an insulation track will always draw between two graphic elements even if the distance between them is less than the diameter of the cutting tool. For instance, if two PCB traces have places that are less than 10 mils apart and the diameter is set at 10 mils, then having Independent Oversize OFF will leave the copper uncut and the traces connected at the points where they are separated by less than 10 mils. With Independent Oversize ON, the insulation track will be cut (the milling tool will pass between the two traces) even if the traces are shaved or even cut away completely. If you know that there are no places on the board where the traces that are closer than the diameter of the cutting tool, then you can turn Independent Oversize OFF and speed up the Insulation process. 3. The other parameters in the window should be: Direction: Serpentine --off- Clockwise direction Insulation Grid: 0.01mm Smooth Radius 0mm Click on Add (do not click on Accept: Accept is for changing the parameters for the task that is currently highlighted in the task list). All the insulation set-up information for this layer is stored as a task. Each task is displayed in the upper left box. 4. The solder insulation layer is set up with the same parameters as the component layer. Select ‘WiringSold(Layer) from the Source Layer combo box. Use ‘SoldISO’ as the destination layer. Select Counter-clockwise under Direction. All the other parameters will remain unchanged. Click Add. 5. The final layer to be insulated is the board outline. Select ‘Board(Layer)’ from the Source Layer combo box. Use ‘BoardISO’ as the destination layer. Set the tool diameter at 2mm and turn ‘Inner Isolation’ OFF. Click on Add. Be sure not to insulate the Drill layer or the text layers. 6. Click on run. The insulation process generates and deletes temporary files for each layer. The process for a board of this size takes about 30-40 seconds on a 486DX2-66. When finished, the board display reappears with the insulations Creating the Output Files The final step involving the CCAM program is generating the files that are used by BoardMaster to drill and mill the circuit board. Only the insulation layers, the text layers, and the drill layer are used. There are two ways to get the data from CCAM to BoardMaster. The new easy way is to use the LMD format which will transfer all the setup info and milling paths as a single file. The older and more cumbersome way is to create an HPGL file for each layer and enter the setup for each HPGL file into BoardMaster. The HPGL files are easier to debug because they are in ASCII and there is a direct link between the setup parameters and the BoardMaster display and operation. The following section describes how to make HPGL files for the tutor board. Making an LMD file for this board is described in a later section of this document. 1. From the main menu, select Data Output. In the lower left of the window, select New. Enter the name ‘tutorOUT’ and click OK. Click on -All to remove the previous tasks from the list. These steps create a new ‘job’ that is a listing of all the information needed to create the HPGL output files from the EDIF layers. While each board will create a collection of files (each file from a different layer), there will be only one job per board. This allows operators to recreate or edit a board at a later time without having to reenter all the information for each task.

4

2. On the right side of the window, select the parameters needed for each layer’s output file. Here’s a list of the other options to use for setting up the output task: Layer : CompISO SoldISO BoardISO TextComp Text Sold Drill(Layer) File: *.inc *.ins *.boi *.tci *.tsi *.dri Format Type: HPGL HPGL HPGL HPGL HPGL HPGL Format Ref: ----------------------------TutorLpkfMillTool-------------------------------------- TutorLpkfDrillTool Phase: The phase function is used for creating files in LMD format only. See LMD apnote in later section AutoOrg: ---------------------------------------------------Off----------------------------------------------------------- y: --------------------------------------------------0 mm--------------------------------------------------------- Orientation: R0 MX MX R0 MX R0 x: --------------------------------------------------0 mm--------------------------------------------------------- AutoScale: ---------------------------------------------------Off----------------------------------------------------------- mag: -------------------------------------------------- 1 ----------------------------------------------------------- After entering the data for each layer, click Add to place the data on the output task list. Clicking on Accept will assign the new information to the task currently highlighted and overwrite the information previously assigned to that task. When all the information from the above table is entered, create the HPGL output files by clicking Run. After the files have been created, save all the set-up information for the entire board by using File | Save Script. More on Format References Since HPGL files were designed to use with paper plotter machines, all references in HPGL files are to a set of ink pens that would be used to draw on the paper. On plotters, each pen number has a different width for its tip. Instead of moving pens, the HPGL files created by CCAM will position drills and drive milling tools. In order to use the original terminology and structure of HPGL with our application, we developed the format reference to define how the graphic elements on the screen will be represented in the output file. The format reference refers to how the lines and circles in the CCAM display would be mapped to a plotter’s set of pens. Every graphic element is based on a Gerber ‘D’ code from an input file and its drill size or isolation path has a corresponding HPGL pen number in an output file. Format references are not generated each time that HPGL files are created from the EDIF graphics display. Instead the Data Output procedure uses the selected format reference to create an HPGL file from each layer on the task list. A format reference is a table of size ranges stored in the HPGL section of the Data Format window. Each graphic element that falls within a specific range is assigned an HPGL pen number by the format reference that applies to the element type. We provide four format references with CCAM: a metric drill, a metric mill (for tools that move in the X-Y plane), and drill/mill references for inches. The two format references used by the tutor board are the metric drill and mill and can be used for any board based in millimeters. For boards based in inches or mils, use the HPGLDrillInch and HPGLMillInch references. Boards based in inches that use metric format references will display (and be cut) in BoardMaster with a 2.54:1 scaling error. Our format references for drills assign pen numbers to corresponding metric drill sizes because the tools that we carry are referenced in metric. For example, a 0.032 inch hole would be roughly equivalent to a 0.9mm drill and would be assigned to pen number 9. A 0.024 inch hole would use a 0.6mm drill and be assigned pen number 6. This system assumes that the users have a wide range of tool sizes available. For fewer tools, adjust the format reference ranges but be sure not to leave any gaps. Graphic elements that do not have a pen number assigned by a format ref will not be drilled or milled when the board is made. Generally you will not need to change the format references. However if you have a limited range of drill sizes and want to make sure that the program will not call for tool sizes that you do not have, you can adjust the range of each tool listed in the format reference to match the sizes in your inventory. For example, if you want every drill hole to map to the drills supplied in the LPKF starter kit, and you were using metric units (0.01mm), you would set up a format reference as: no[SP] size min max mode type 8 80 10 129 flash circle (0.8mm drill / 0.01mm units = 80 units size) 15 150 130 189 flash circle 20 200 190 289 flash circle 30 300 290 999 flash circle (Give this format reference a new name, such as NewMetricHPGL, to differentiate it from the original format references.) Here all drill holes between 0.1mm (10 units) and 1.29mm will be assigned to HPGL pen number 8 by the Data Output procedure of CCAM. In BoardMaster during the Drill phase, you assign HPGL pen number 8 to the drill tool named 2Drill08, which is 0.8mm in diameter. Assume that you add the drill 1.0mm to your inventory. In this case, adjust the reference by adding the line: { no[SP] size min max mode type (units: 0.01mm) } 10 100 90 129 flash circle Now, adjust the range for the previous tool size in the format reference: 8 80 10 89 flash circle With this new tool added to the list, any drill hole between 0.1mm and 0.89mm will be assigned HPGL pen 8 and drill holes between 0.9mm and 1.29mm are assigned HPGL pen number 10. With this system, there is always a correspondence between the HPGL pen number and the drill size.

5

The format references used for boards laid out in inches are constructed the same way. However the units value is 0.001 inch and all the values in size, min, and max are in units of mils. The previous example of a metric format reference based on the sample kit’s drills would look like this for an inch-based reference: { name: NewInchHPGL } no[SP] size (mils) min max mode type { units: 0.001 inch } 8 32 1 50 flash circle 15 59 51 73 flash circle 20 79 74 112 flash circle 30 118 113 999 flash circle The format reference uses the pathwidth of each logical layer to determine which HPGL pen number is assigned to the screen elements. After doing an isolation, each resulting isolation layer has a pathwidth of zero mils by default. Pen number 1 maps to this zero value because the first entry in the format reference for milling tools has a minimum value of 0. If you make your own format reference the first entry should have zero as its minimum. The value used for size, however, should be the width of the tool that you will be using to make the cut. If the pathwidth of the isolation layer is zero and the format reference does not extend down to zero, you will get the error ‘No appropriate tool defined’. Using the BoardMaster program to create the tutor board Before using the ProtoMat to create new circuit boards, please take the time to look over the ProtoMat and BoardMaster manuals for a basic introduction to the machine and its operating software. Make sure that the FIFO is off. Check that the pins in the red plastic strips are secure and not loose. The holes in the strips are from the factory tests (and our checkout confirmation tests) and are usually 280 mm apart for 91S/92S machines and (sometimes) 380 mm apart for 93S. If the pins are excessively loose (if the board moves more than a mil or so), then drill new pilot holes for the pins in the red plastic strips and the board material. The LPKF 91S/92S manual covers the procedure for doing this in sections 3.5 through 3.8. There is also a more detailed guide to this procedure at the end of this document. Check the depth of cut by making short (.05 - .1 inch) cuts with the Universal Milling tool. The correct setting for the width of the cut is 8-10 mils (0.2 - 0.25mm) at the substrate. We set the cutting depth here at the American distribution center as part of our quality control procedure before shipping, so the actual depth will be optimal when you receive your machine. If the depth is too deep, perhaps the UniMill tool is not fully pushed up into the chuck (a.k.a. collet). Hint: if the thumbwheel is difficult to turn, try pulling the small vacuum hose towards the front of the machine to loosen the bind between the vacuum hood and the black thumbwheel. In order for the Protomat to work correctly, the FIFO (First In, First Out) buffer on the serial port chip must be disabled. Otherwise the Protomat will move erratically and break tools. Disable the FIFO in Win 3.1 by adding the line COMxFIFO=0 to the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file found in the C:\WINDOWS subdirectory. The x in the command refers to the COM port number. Windows 95 users need to crawl through a series of screen prompts:

*START | Settings | Control Panel | System | Device Manager | Ports (Select the COM port #) | Port Settings * Advanced * Disable [Use FIFO buffers] switch {restart Win95}

93S users: Take care to release the motor brake (pop it up) before turning on the motor in order to avoid trying to force too much current through the motor’s windings. On the 93S model, allow the motor to run for about five minutes after periods of inactivity (such as overnight shutdown) in order to balance the motor bearings. 1. The tutor board uses metric unit measurements, but the default measurement set in BoardMaster is inches. Change the measurement units by clicking on Machine | Settings on the main menu bar and selecting ‘mm’ in the units box. Click on OK to return to the main BoardMaster window. Click on Phases. Highlight select DrillingPlated and switch OFF the Reversed side box (if it is on). Switch ON the save settings to default switch and click OK. This will ensure that the display of the drilling pattern will be on the top side of the board. 2. The first thing to do with BoardMaster is to define a project for the board that will be created. Then bring in the HPGL files created by CCAM and assign correct tools and phases to each of the HPGL files. Select Project and click on New in the upper right corner of the Project Edit window. Enter the name of ‘tutor’ and click OK. Click on the Add files button. Select C:\LPKF\Data from the directory selector box. It is likely that this is the default directory. Scroll down to the files named ‘newtutor.(ext)’. Click on ‘newtutor.dri’: the HPGL drill file created in the last stage of CCAM. Click OK and accept the change of the directory to CCAM. Click on the Phase combo box and select ‘DrillingPlated’. Click on the Pen combo box and highlight the first selection: 5. Click on the Tool combo box and select 2Drill05. This will link the 0.5mm drill size with the first HPGL pen size associated with the file ‘newtutor.dri’. Reselect the Pen combo box and select the second entry: 7. Select 2Drill07 in the Tool combo box. Reenter the Pen combo box, select the last pen (9) and link the 2Drill09 tool to this pen. The ‘y => -y’ switch should be off. This switch means that this phase will be active when the board material has been flipped over onto the solder side.

6

The first number of the tool refers to the type: 1 is the universal milling tool (blue caps), 2 is a drill, 3 is a router.

Note: When you load a new project into BoardMaster that was created by CCAM in inches, it is necessary to change the units in the Project Edit window from 0.0003937 inches to 0.001 inches. The tutor board was created in metric, therefore the units value in Project Edit should read 0.01mm.

3. Click on Add file in the Project Edit box. Select the file ‘newtutor.inc’. This is the HPGL file that contains the instructions for moving the cutting tool around the traces on the component side. In the Phase combo box, select MillingCompSide. In the Tool box, select UniMill. The ‘y => -y’ switch should be off. This switch reverses the image [by changing the sign of the Y coordinate in the file] and is used whenever the file refers to work that is done on the bottom side of the circuit board. Each of the remaining HPGL files for the tutor board should be assigned phases in this manner. Here is a list of the parameters used for each file.

- HPGL file - - Phase name - y => -y - pen to tool association - newtutor.dri DrillingPlated Off 5 - 2Drill05; 7 - 2Drill07; 9 - 2Drill09 newtutor.inc MillingCompSide Off 1 - UniMill newtutor.ins MillingSoldSide On 1 - UniMill newtutor.boi Cutting On 1 - 3Contour20L

The phase names TextCompSide and TextSoldSide are not on the factory phase list, add their names to the list of phases by entering Phase on the main menu bar and insert. The TextSoldSide phase should have the Reversed Side switch set on. newtutor.tci TextCompSide Off 1 - UniMill newtutor.tsi TextSoldSide On 1 - UniMill 4. After inputting and configuring all the HPGL files, the image of the board is ready to be positioned on the table display. From the main menu, select Placement | Add. Click on ‘tutor’ in the ‘Select Project’ and click OK to leave the subwindow. Click on OK in the Placement window and the component side of the tutor board appears in the center left of the gray screen. Use View | Zoom Area or the magnifying glass icon to enlarge the board display. 5. The combo box directly beneath the menu item Phases determines which part of the board will be worked, for instance drilling the holes or milling the trace outlines. Make sure that the Manual/Auto icon is set to Auto mode. This is the icon under and to the left of the menu word ‘view’. The machine is in Auto mode when there is no white bar through the icon. Select the DrillingPlated phase and hit the All+ switch. The drill holes on the display become highlighted. Pressing start begins the drilling process. The program prompts for each drill size. The starter kit does include the exact drill sizes that this tutor board calls for, however the 0.8mm drill in the starter kit will make acceptable holes. 6. When the drilling finishes, select the MillingCompSide phase. Having previously verified that the depth of cut is correct, hit All+ and Start. Run the milling with the vacuum on to absorb the dust and cool the motor. After milling the traces, select the phase TextCompSide. Hit All+ and Start to engrave the text ‘component side’. 7. When the component side is finished, pry the board material off the pins with a blade or screwdriver tip while holding the pins down from the top. Try to keep the pins from coming out of their holes as each time the pins are removed, the looser they become when reinserted. Flip the board and replace it onto the table with the pins aligned into the board’s holes. Press the board flush with the backing material on the pins. Select the phase MillingSoldSide. The position of the display will move around the center X axis indicating that the reverse side of the board is being worked. If the displayed board did not flip around the X axis then the most likely problem is that the ‘Y => -Y’ switch was not set for this phase. Check the set-up for the HPGL file for this phase (tutor.ins) in the Placement | Edit section. Checking and Setting the Registration Before milling the traces on the solder side, check that the drill holes and the milling pattern line up exactly. We call this ‘setting the registration.' Switch to manual control, click on Machine | Exchange, and insert a drill tool that is the same size as one of the holes already drilled through the board. Use Zoom | Area to display a section of the solder side with unconnected pads. Select a hole that is the same size as the drill tool currently in the collet. Zoom in on the hole until it fills the display. Place the crosshair cursor in the precise center of the hole and click on the compass icon. This will position the head directly over the drilled hole. Gently push the head down so that the drill slides into the hole. If the drill does not move easily into the hole or is nowhere near the hole, then there is a registration error and must be corrected before milling the solder side of the board. See also the section on creating alignment holes in the Hints and Suggestions section of this document.

7

The entire pattern can be shifted using Placement in the menu. Adjust the values in the origin box, not the displacement box. The Y position of the drawing is referenced with the board’s component side facing up. When the registration is set, the solder side is up and Y direction is reversed. When shifting the drawing towards the tool exchange position, enter a Y value that is greater than the current value. Note also that most of the hand microscopes used to check the positioning will have a reversed image due to its optics (the LPKF hand-held microscope inverts the image). The drawing probably will not need to shift more than a few mils to center the pads around the drill holes. 1. Remove any drill bit and insert a Unimill cutting tool. Adjust the cut to be about 10 mils wide. Select the Partial-Area-Unconnected icon (located beneath the words Tools... and Machine in the menu and next to the magnifier) and click-drag a rectangle around an unconnected round pad. The selected pad paths will appear in white. Press the ‘+’ button and the pad paths will become highlighted while the rest of the milling path remains dark. Press start and the highlighted section only will be milled.

2. Move the head away from the milled pad using either the compass icon or by selecting Machine | Pause from the menu. Check that the milled path is centered on the drilled hole. If the results are acceptable, continue with the next instruction and complete the solder milling.. 3. When the registration appears OK, select and mill the Solder side and then engrave the Solder text. The final stage of the tutor board is routing along the board outline. Select the ‘Cutting’ phase and insert the 2mm router tool into the collet. Make sure that the router tool is securely tightened in the collet. If the router is loose, it will work its way through the board and the backing material and cut a groove in the steel tabletop before breaking. The router can easily break if its linear speed is greater than 0.1 inch per second. Select ‘Tools...’ from the main menu. In the ‘Name’ combo box, select 3Contour20L. In the Optimal Speed box, enter 0.1 for Milling[inch/s]. Adjust the speed for the 1mm router tool (3Contour10L), also. Hit the start button and the finished tutor board outline will be cut out. This is the entire process for making prototype circuit boards with the LPKF ProtoMat. Creating a new board from your own design When inputting the Gerber files from your PCB layout program verify that the Data Format used by CCAM has the same units value for aperture sizes as the layout program. The tutor files use units of 0.01mm and most Gerber apertures use 0.001 inch units. Possibly the layout program is using a different m.n resolution, also. Using the wrong resolution can make different board layers appear to be orders of magnitude out of proportion. See section 5.5 in the CCAM manual (and the section further in this document) for more discussion of the m.n resolution format. The most common resolutions are 2.3 and 2.4 for inches and 3.2 for metric. Another problem is that the Drill layer may not line up with the Component and Solder layers, or the Drill layer may be vastly smaller or larger than the Gerber layers. Misalignment can be adjusted by adding an offset to a layer in the Data Input window. Size problems are probably due to the Excellon file using a different m.n resolution from the Gerber files. Note that Gerber files usually have trailing zeros suppressed and Excellon files usually use leading zeros suppressed or decimal point for the coordinate characteristic in Data Format - More. Click on the board outline and then select Edit | Make Zero Point. This will ensure that the board will be on the Protomat table when the circuit job is loaded into BoardMaster. If you forget this, the board will use the offset from your CAD system and it may be way far off the screen when you place the circuit. Keep zooming out until you see the board or use View | All Projects in BoardMaster. When using inch measurements, select the EDIF unit in Data Input to be 0.001 inch. The EDIF unit combo box appears to have only two entries but click on the bottom arrow to reach the inch selections. Creating single sided boards for surface mount devices There are three places where parameters must be set up for single sided boards: the Data Output function of CCAM, and the Project-Edit and Phases functions of BoardMaster. In Data Output, make sure that all the HPGL files created have the orientation of R0. There will not be any drill file or any solder side files created for a single sided board, so the only file that will need to have the orientation changed is the Board outline or Cutting file. When these files are assembled into a BoardMaster project, make sure that when you add each file to the project the switch box for Y => -Y is not selected. This will ensure that the files are not reversed around the Y axis by the program. The third switch is in the Phases function. Each phase of the project must have the Reversed Side switch turned off. The phase function affects the display only of the board on the BoardMaster screen. It does not affect how the board will be cut. If most of the boards that you will be making are single-sided, then turn on the Save Settings As Default switch in order to avoid reentering the changes for the Phases function with each board.

8

HPGL files Inputting HPGL files into CCAM requires that the pen numbers in the file correspond to the pads and track sizes of the board. Some PCB layout programs will assign a size of one or two mils to a pen number and create a trace or pad by first drawing an outline of the shape. Then the program will fill the trace or pad by painting it in with the small pen size. This results in huge files for small boards. It is impossible to make drill files from HPGL in this manner because there is no way of determining the exact position of the hole’s center. Set up your HPGL files so that each trace width and pen size corresponds to a separate pen number. When bringing these files in CCAM, create an HPGL data format that assigns the correct width to each pen number and the image will appear correctly on the EDIF display. HPGL files from any source may be used to run the Protomat machine with BoardMaster. Be aware of a scaling error when converting from metric to inches. The original HPGL spec assigned the value of 25 millimeters to one inch instead of the more precise 25.4 mm per inch. This results in a 1.6% scaling error in the size of boards created from HPGL files. You can compensate for this error by setting the input unit to be 0.984 mil for HPGL files under Data Format | HPGL | More. This change will affect all boards that use this Data Format. To change one board only, alter the scale value when creating HPGL files in CCAM’s Data Output process. Stopping and restarting a board If you have stopped cutting and wish to restart at a later time or if there is a section of a board that needs to be redone, use the bracket button on BoardMaster. First select All- to turn off every segment on the entire board. Then enter the number of the segment to start in the vector index combo box (page 35 BM manual). Click on the bracket icon to the left. Now enter the number 99999 in the vector index combo box. All but the beginning segments will highlight in white. Select all these segments by hitting the + icon. Press the start key to mill these segments. Using End mill Tools End Mills are tools that have sides that are straight and make cuts that are completely vertical. In contrast, the standard and fine-line UniMill tools have a triangular tip and the milling channel that is cut will be wider at the surface of the copper board than at the substrate-copper boundary. End Mills are primarily used for very high frequency RF circuit boards. End Mills have significantly less tool life than drills or tip mill tools due to the geometry of their cutting surfaces. UniMill tools will last about 2000 inches while end mills last about 300 inches. Create new tool listings for these tools in BoardMaster using Tools | New. For single motor speed machines (91S and 92S Protomats) drive these tools at 0.02 inches per second.. Thin End Mills are easily broken and should extend past the metalization into the substrate at an absolute minimum. Set the step in BoardMaster Machine | Settings to be 0.1 inch and make a series of test cuts. Set the End Mill tool to be higher than the copper and for each step lower the tool until it cuts through the copper (make sure that the motor is on). Often the End Mill will not remove all the copper of a channel and sections of the board must be repeated with the tool slightly deeper. This is due to minor board warpage or tool wear. Reversing Solder Side Text Characters on the bottom side of a board may come out reversed when the board is cut. Move the solder side text to a separate layer: TextSold. When creating the output files, have a separate file (or section if using LMD format) for TextSold. For this file, use MY orientation and an X positive offset. Check the resulting text positioning in the BoardMaster display and readjust the X offset (regenerate the output files) until the text is adequately positioned.

9

Application Notes: Hints, Suggestions, and other Related topics Rubouts This refers to the removal of the background copper from around the traces in a manner similar to a mass-produced PCB. Most prototype PCBs will have rubout only within an enclosed area, however the entire board can have excess copper areas removed if desired. Removing large copper flows will use up milling tool life. There are two steps necessary to allocate an area of the board for background copper removal: 1. Define the area of the board that will have the background copper removed. This can either be several small

areas around critical chips or all of the background copper on the board. For an area, draw a polygon around the rubout zone. For the whole board, use the board outline layer to define the rubout. If you wish to rubout both sides of a board in the same limited area, you can use the same layer for both sides.

2. Create two insulation layers for the rubout area. One layer will hold the insulation tracks around the traces and the other layer will hold the tracks for removing the background copper around the traces. When the insulation process is run, the program will subtract the areas used for traces from the area defined for background copper removal. This prevents the traces from being removed along with the background copper.

Define the rubout area Create a rubout area in CCAM after running data input and having the board visible on the EDIF image screen (the main display with the black background). Ensure that the board has the correct size dimensions and that all of the elements (pads & traces) are present. Enter ‘Edit-Layer’ and create a new layer that will hold the boundaries of the rubout area. To create a new layer, move the highlight cursor to the last name on the list of layers. Select ‘new’ and select the name of the side that will have the rubout from the list. Click OK to exit the new layer box, click on Accept and OK to return to the board display. Ignore the pathwidth size for this layer. Select ‘Polygon’ from the ‘New’ main menu selection. Move the arrow cursor to the beginning corner of the rubout area and left click. This begins the polygon and each additional left click defines a polygon corner. Click twice or press ESC to close the polygon. Pressing ESC will also transfer the polygon area to the new layer that previously created. The entire rubout area is marked white. Select View on the menu and make the top color the same as the displayed traces. Create the rubout insulation Go to File | Insulate and set-up the other layers as described in the tutor board section earlier. The task containing the rubout will have two source layers and two should have the layer that defines the rubout listed in ‘Rubout: ’ combo box under ‘Source Layer’. For instance, a polygon on the solder layer around a surface mount IC will have the polygon defined around the IC in the layer ‘RuboutSold’. The File- Insulate window will have the ‘WiringSold’ task highlighted on the left. The source layer box on the right will have ‘WiringSold(Layer)’ selected in the combo box for ‘Wiring:’ and will have ‘RuboutSold’ in the combo box for ‘Rubout:’. The destination layer will have ‘SoldISO’ for the first layer and ‘RubSoldISO’ for the second layer. Diameter is 0.2mm Overlap 0.03mm; Inner Isolation ON; Independent Oversize ON. Always have the Serpentine function switched ON when making a rubout. See Problems and Unusual situations for a discussion of this function. The WiringSold(Layer) data will be subtracted from the RuboutSold polygon and the traces will not be milled away. Create an HPGL file for the Rubout layer in the Data Output step. We use *.rci for the component-layer rubout’s HPGL file extension and *.rsi for the solder rubout. Create a separate phase in BoardMaster for each rubout layer. Big Holes Mounting holes and thermal drafts will usually be larger than any drill size that you have in stock. The way to make these holes or custom cutout shapes is to rout them from the inside with the contour router tools. The format reference HPGLDrillInch has for its last entry (pen number 31) a draw circle that will map all holes larger than 118 mils to a 79 mil (2mm) contour router tool. These holes appear on the BoardMaster screen display as a circle with a line from the radius to 180° and will be routed out from the inside. Assign the 2mm contour router tool (included with the starter kit) to pen number 31 (M/D) when loading the HPGL drill file in Project | Edit. There is a second and more complex way to create inside holes and specialized cutout shapes. Start by moving all the router holes to a separate layer. Enter ‘Edit | Layer’ and highlight the last selection on the Layer list. Click on ‘New’ and enter “BigHole” and the new layer’s name. Click on OK to return to the layer window. Make sure that the highlight cursor is on the new layer’s name at the end of the layer list. Click on Accept and OK to return the display. Click on a large hole and get the D code for the aperture used to flash it. This will be on the bottom line of the display next to the words ‘cell ref’. Select View | Display Scope from the menu bar. Select the D code for the big holes from the cell: combo box. Click OK. The entire screen is a big dot. Click on the dot to make it blink and re-enter ‘Edit Layer’. Move the highlight cursor to ‘BigHole’ at the end of the layer list and select a new color for the big holes. Then click on Accept and OK. The display returns to the dot, flashing in the selected color. Hit ESC to unselect this cell reference and stop the flashing. Select View | Display Scope and select C-Main in the Cell: combo box. All the big holes referenced by the selected D code will be on their own new layer and will have a new color. (This technique can be used to remove all the holes of a certain size. When the large dot is blinking, hit the delete key and all the holes of the selected size will be removed from the board.)

10

We need to have some way to run the routing tool around the inside of the mounting hole; creating a cutout. Since the big holes are represented by aperture flashes, an insulation track will only be created around the outside of the flash. We need to create a circular path around the flash and then insulate this path with inner insulation ON. The way to create this circle around the flash is to run the insulation process twice on the big hole flash data. The first insulation uses the BigHole layer that contains only the cutout data as its source layer and will create a circle around the flash apertures as its destination layer. By setting the tool diameter of the destination layer (containing the circular paths around the big hole flashes) to 1 mil, the circular paths created by the first insulation will be nearly exactly the size of the flashes for the big holes. These circles will be in a new layer created by the insulation process. The second step is to insulate these circles around the flashes. Since the inner insulation switch is on for the second insulation, we will end up with two insulation tracks around the circular path around the hole: one inside the circle and one outside. The destination layer of the second insulation will have a tool diameter equal to the routing tool that is making the cutout. We use only the inner track of the second insulation; the circle around the outside of the flash (the first insulation) and the router path outside the flash (from the second insulation) are deleted. This is an instance where the insulate function is not used for creating milling tool tracks that separate the traces from the background copper. It is helpful to perceive the various functions of CCAM as creating new structures of data rather than performing a specific task. For instance, the only way to create a circle around the flash aperture representing the large hole is to use the insulation function. We will not be milling away a path of copper around the mounting holes, but we do use the insulate function to create a data layer consisting of circles around the each of the mounting holes. Enter the insulate set up screen using File | Insulate. Click on new, and enter the name of ‘temp’ for this (the first) insulation set-up job. For the source: wiring layer, use the layer containing the mounting holes to be cut out: (‘BigHole’). The destination layer will be HoleEdge. Set the diameter for this output layer to be 1 mil. Set both Inner Insulation and Independent Oversize off. Click run. This will quickly create HoleEdge as the destination layer. Go back to File | Insulate and this time use HoleEdge as the source: wiring layer. Use HoleCutOut as the destination layer and set the destination diameter to 1mm. Click run again. There will be three circles around the mounting holes. Delete the two outer circles for each hole that is being cutout. The inner white circle is the inner insulation created by the second insulation and is the path that the router tool will use to make the cutout. Create an HPGL file for this layer (HoleCutOut) during the Data Output process. This phase will be done after the board has been flipped over so select the ‘MX’ orientation for this output file. We use the extension ‘*.bhi’ for the file and the phase name ‘Big Hole’. In BoardMaster, new phases are added with the ‘Phase’ main menu selection. This technique can also be used to create a single outline around a board when the current board border consists of many line segments. Make an isolation around the outline that is 1 mil away from the line segments. Transfer this isolation to the new board outline layer and delete the previous board outlines from both sides of EDIF display. Creating Registration Alignment Holes Registration holes are pads added to areas outside of the circuit board. They are used to set up the alignment between the component side and solder side without affecting any of the traces or pads on the board. They consist of a drill hole surrounded by a circle. Drill the holes through the component side. Before milling the solder side, mill a single hole and see if the circle is centered on the hole. If not, adjust the placement of the pattern by changing the origin values for X and Y found in the Placement menu window of BoardMaster. Create alignment holes in CCAM before insulating the board. Select any drill hole by clicking the mouse cursor on it. Create a copy of the drill hole using New | Instance. Place three or four new drill holes outside the border of the circuit board. The holes can be precisely placed in a line by using a large placement grid. To increase the size of the cursor grid, enter View | Cursor Grid and select 1/10 inch units. Press ESCape to exit from the new drill hole mode. Create new pads around the drill holes by selecting a pad that is larger than the drill hole. Make sure that is pad is selected from the bottom side of the board. Click on New | Instance to make a copy of this pad. Place a copy of the pad directly on top of each of the new drill holes. When the layer for the bottom side of the board is insulated, milling paths will be created around the registration drill holes. These milling paths must be on the bottom side of the board because circles milled around holes on the top of the board will always be centered perfectly. The last step for creating alignment holes is to set the Cursor grid back to its default. Enter View | Cursor Grid and set the value to 0(off). After milling the component side, flip the copper and select the MillingSoldSide phase. Highlight one of the registration holes only. Mill out the circle around the hole. The circle should be centered on the hole. If not, adjust the placement of the pattern and mill a circle around the next registration hole. This way you can get precise top-to-bottom registration without cutting misaligned segments on the circuit board itself. Most of the misalignment will be on the Y axis. If there is more than two or three mils offset in the X direction, the pins are too loose and new holes should be drilled in the red plastic strips. These strips should be at least three inches long in order to hold their positions securely. When adjusting the Y position, remember that it is referenced from the top side of the board. With the board flipped, moving the pattern towards the exchange position means increasing the Y origin value. If the offset in the Y direction is greater than ten mils, adjust the Home position. Install a 3mm tool and remove the copper board and backing material sheet. Move the drill to the home position and adjust its position with a small step (.005 inch) until the drill fits precisely into the hole in the plastic strip when the head is pressed down. Under Machine | Settings, click on Unlock and Set Home to make this the new Home position.

11

Creating a board outline If the Gerber files do not have an outline around the board, use New | Path to create one. Click on the corner of the new outline path to select it and move the entire outline to a new layer for insulation. However, should there already be an outline around the board, move this outline to a new layer (called Board or Outline). If you only get one segment of the outline, hold down the control key and click on the remaining segments. After moving an outline from one side to a new layer, delete the corresponding outline from the other side. If the new board outline is insulated on both sides even with Inner Insulation turned off, then there is a small gap in the new outline path. Zoom in very tightly on the outline path and follow it around the board until you find the gap. Use Prop | Path/Polygon Edit Method | Add/App Point to add a line segment to the outline path that will close it. Some people prefer to generate a polygon because it is automatically closed. Making a Drill layer from a Gerber file Sometimes there is difficulty creating an Excellon file and you can only get a Gerber file describing hole locations. You can create a drill layer for the board from one of the files of the physical layers by using the flashes for the pads on the top (component side). Create a new (logical) layer and call it ‘DrillFlash’. Make it visible and give it a color different from the other layers. In the combo box under Include Layer\Sublayer (located to the right of the layer list), select WiringComp(Flash) and click on ‘insert’. Do Accept and OK. Note: This will move the flashes from the component layer to the new layer. If you do an insulation on the component layer after moving the flashes to the new drill layer, then there will be no insulation around the holes. If you need to create a drill layer from the pad flashes, do the insulation before creating the new drill layer. If you know which holes are to be different sizes, click on one of these flashes (turn off the select option for the other layers of the elements around it) to select it, then hold down the control key and select the other flashes for that hole size. Output each hole size to a separate layer and HPGL drill file (using a drill format reference). In BoardMaster, assign each file to a separate phase and tool size. “Just STOP NOW !!!!” If something is going WRONG and you want the machine to stop everything immediately, hit the power switch. When you turn the switch back on, the head will rise off the board and move to the tool exchange position. Select Machine | Settings from the main menu and then click OK to return to the main BoardMaster screen. Entering and leaving ‘Settings’ sends an initialization string from the PC to the ProtoMat and restores the set-up parameters to what they were before powering down. Hitting the ‘Stop’ button on the main menu will not stop what the machine is doing immediately because the serial buffer in Windows has already sent a batch of HPGL commands to the ProtoMat. Removing Extra Copper only around the Pads It is often expedient to have a second track cut around the pads in order to minimize the chances of having the solder bridge between the pad and the background copper when the components are soldered to the pads. CCAM allows you to put an extra width of cut around selected board features. This process is arranged while setting up the insulation step in CCAM. Select File | Insulate and select the ‘special’ combo box of the Source layer window. Select the flash layer for the side of the board associated with the current task. For example, if you are working on the Solder side, use WiringSold-Flash as the layer selected for the ‘special’ combo box.

Etched circuit boards need photoplots to create the traces. These photoplots are made with a machine that projects a light onto photographic film. If the projector does not move with the light on, then a ‘flash’ aperture is created on the film. When the projector head moves with the light on, the aperture is ‘drawn’ on the film. Generally the pads of an IC are flashed apertures and the traces are drawn..

The ‘special’ section of the Source layer part of the insulation setup allows a selected layer to have a different insulation width. The actual width of the ‘special’ layer’s insulation is set in the Insulation Width section located below the Source Layer box. We recommend a ‘special’ pad width of 18 mils (10 mils - 2 mils overlap + 10 mils of second path). Adding a second destination layer for the ‘special’ function is not necessary. Setting the width of cut without a microscope It is possible to get an approximation of 10 mils for the width of the cut by using a feeler gauge. Set the thumbwheel adjustment so that a .005 inch feeler will fit under the foot ( the cylinder that rides on the copper board during milling) when the head is pressed down and the tool touches the copper. Or use the HPGL send command in Machine | settings (PD;) to move the head to the copper surface. At 5 mils the tool is too deep in the copper, so turn the thumbwheel 25-30 clicks counter-clockwise to set the depth at @3mils. Common Mistakes, problems, and things to avoid -Use the hardware flow control for the serial port, not X-ON/X-OFF. -Do not insulate the drill layer. -Use the right format reference when creating output files from CCAM. Use a ‘Mill’ type format reference for any task that

moves the head and a ‘Drill’ type for making holes. Use the Tutor references for metric boards. -Check that the units value in BoardMaster Project-Edit is set to 0.001 inches, not 0.0003937 inches. -Delete multiple copies of the same board if they are on top of each other. Check for this in BMaster Placement. -Make sure that the drill tip is not lower than the edge of the board. When the drill hits the edge, it will break. -Set the speed of the contour-router tools to 0.1 inches/second or less. Make sure that the router is secured tightly! -Make sure that Serpentine is switched ON when insulating a rubout section. -Be sure that the CAD system is producing ‘ASCII-none’ Gerber files. Letters, digits, and punctuation only.

12

The Dumbest Thing that I ever did while learning to make a board I had finished the process of installing a new set of pins and had the step size for the X direction set to 11 inches (the distance from the Home position to the rear pin). I drilled pin-mounting holes in a new copper board and loaded the project job into BoardMaster. I mounted a UniMill tool and moved the head to near the Home position. I wanted to check the milling width by making a short line segment on an unused part of the material. I selected the manual operation icon, started the motor, and lowered the head to the board. Then I clicked the X direction step button and a milled path 11 inches long cut right down the center of the board. I had forgotten to go into Machine | Settings and set the step size to a small value such as 0.1 inch for the test cut. The previous step size from the pin setting process was still active. Errors, Problems and Unusual situations that occur with BoardMaster Ruining a board because the head dragged a line across the copper { This problem is corrected in machines manufactured after July 1996 } Sometimes the head will not lift before moving and will cut a channel across the board. The way to get around this problem is to have Serpentine: ON (the direction x-,x+,y-,y+ does not matter) when insulating the rubout area. Having Serpentine switched ON will cause the rubout tracks to move in parallel lines and not curve around circular pads and mounting holes. Also do not allow the black border enclosing the design to be placed off the display. This problem comes from the software losing its reference position when drawing arc commands. HPGL defines an arc, or semicircular movement of a pen, by giving the coordinates of the center of the circle that would include the arc being drawn. Also included in the HPGL arc command is the number of degrees of this circle that will be drawn. AR -5, 20, 180; (HPGL Arc Relative, X position of center, Y center, # of arc degrees) Drawing this arc begins at the pen’s current position. If the number of degrees covered is small, then the center point of the circle defining this arc can be located far from the artwork design of the board. In previous versions of BoardMaster, the black border around the design included the center points of all the circles needed to create all the arcs defined in the board. Often the border would be several inches away from the elements of the board. While it was inconvenient, it did indicate where the Arc Centers were. However, version 2.0 has the black border directly around the board. If the board is positioned near the edge of the table, then the center coordinates for the arcs can be lost and the ProtoMat will cut channels erratically when it reaches this point in the board making process. This error most often happens when doing the rubout phase of a board. Since the insulate tracks that have been made with Serpentine: ON have no Arc Relative HPGL commands, there is no risk of having arc center reference points that lie outside the circuit board pattern. When serpentine is switched off, the rubout paths for the tool will curve around any pads. As the arcs of the rubout tracks around the pads get smaller and smaller, the center points for the arcs get farther away from the rubout track. When the arc center points leave the board area and the board in placed near the edge of the Protomat table, the risk increases of having the actual (invisible) arc center points off the table. When the rubout is being cut and the program references an arc center point that is off the table, the Protomat will make pseudo random motions with the tool cutting the copper, ruining the board. Repeating ruins the board at the same point. Another cause of this problem is using backing material that is so thick that the tool does not rise completely off the surface of the copper material. Standard material is 0.08 (80 mil) inches thick for use with FR4 copper board. Use thicker material only if you are using thinner copper board. We have 60, 80, and 100 mil backing material in stock. Machine is moving erratically, breaking drill bits, not following the correct pattern, ect. A primary cause of this is having the FIFO (First In, First Out) buffer enabled on the 16550 IC that is used by late model PC serial ports. We believe that the program only takes the first data byte from the FIFO and ignores the remaining bytes. If your system’s serial port for the Protomat uses a 16550 IC, disable the FIFO in Windows 3.1 by adding the command COMxFIFO=0 to the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file located in the C:\WINDOWS directory. The ‘x’ in the command is the digit of the COM port controlling the Protomat; for example: COM2FIFO=0. Windows 95 users need to go through a series of screens to access the FIFO switch. Here is a list of steps: *START | Settings | Control Panel | System | Device Manager | Ports (Select the COM port #) | Port

Settings * Advanced * Disable [Use FIFO buffers] switch {restart Win95} Another cause of erratic movement could be if the Protomat serial cable is running parallel to the monitor cable. If the monitor degausses, the surge of current can induce a crosstalk pulse into the Protomat’s serial cable. This will be received as a rogue command by the Protomat and will cause the machine to act strangely. If the isolation grid size is set too small, say 0.1mil, CCAM will generate movement commands that are smaller than the minimum step sizes of the stepper motors. With older EPROMs (before July 1996) this would cause the machine to stop milling, always at the same place on the board. If this is a problem, try using a larger grid size or call us about an EPROM upgrade. Giant Gerber files for a small board This happens when your CAD system uses a single small aperture to make larger lines and shapes (by placing the small apertures side by side) or does not use flashes to make pads. Consult the reference manuals or with the tech support of your CAD system for a more efficient way to create Gerber files.

13

Insulation traces are offset from pads The grid unit size in CCAM is too large. Select View | Grid unit and enter a lower value such as 1 mil or off. Use the 100 mil grid unit for editing the placement of pads and traces on the circuit display. Copper traces are milled away instead of outlines This results from using the trace layer in CCAM’s Data Output section instead the isolation layer that was created by the insulate process. For example, if the copper for the component layer’s traces is being removed instead of the tool going around the traces, then the HPGL file for this phase was created from the WiringComp(Layer) instead of the CompISO layer in CCAM’s Data Output section. Rubout in BoardMaster is destroying traces Check that Data Output routine in CCAM is using the rubout isolation layer instead of the layer that holds the rubout polygon. In other words, make sure that the HPGL or LMD file is generated from the layer that was created by running the isolation routine. For example, the source layer in Data Output for the component rubout should be RubCompISO instead of RubComp. Holes are not drilled all the way through the board The drill time (the amount of time that the drill remains down in the hole before the Z axis solenoid is released) is too short. This is more common on small size drills than larger drills. Adjust the drill time for the drill size in BoardMaster’s Tool menu window. The adjusted drill times will remain as a default for all further boards until changed again in the Tool window. ‘Mass Parameter Not Found’ error Appears when loading Gerber or Excellon files. The file contained some piece of information that is not used by the CCAM program. Some information parameter was placed into the Gerber or Excellon file by the PCB layout system. Since the program does not need this parameter to display the image, this message can be ignored. ‘Divide by zero’ error Appears when running CCAM. If you have a ‘divide by zero’ error, you are using a video card with more than 256 colors. Change the video driver in Windows set-up to a mode that uses only 256 colors. We should be getting this characteristic fixed in some future software version. ‘No appropriate tool defined’ or ‘Tool Not Found’ error This error usually occurs when creating HPGL files during the Data Output step in CCAM. The most common cause is using a drill-type format reference for a milling layer. In CCAM, the insulation channels are created with a line width of zero mils by default. The MillInch format reference assigns all lines between 0 and 16 mils to HPGL pen number 1. The format reference DrillInch has as its smallest entry a drill size of 0.3mm with a minimum of 5 mils and max of 13 mils. Every time the Data Output routine tries to assign a zero width line to an HPGL pen number it fails because there is not an entry in the DrillInch format reference that extends down to zero. The result is a page full of ‘Tool Not Found’ errors in the Log & Error window. Fix this by selecting a mill-type format reference (HPGLMillInch) for any file that has tools that move in X-Y. When the ‘Tool Not Found’ error occurs when generating a board image from Gerber files (after selecting ‘run’ in Data Input), the wrong aperture list is being used. Create a new correct aperture list from the Gerber files. ‘No Layer Polygon defined’ This error appears usually when doing isolation in CCAM. The Isolation Grid is set to zero. Set the Isolation Grid value to 0.5 mils and do this for each isolation layer on the task list. Protomat makes multiple passes when cutting a board from the copper panel This results from rounding errors in the Format Reference. Enter Data Format, select type: HPGL, and Reference: HPGLMillInch. Check that the entry for size 79 (the fourth on the list) has a minimum size of 78 (in a,x section) instead of 79. After modifying the format be sure to save it using File | Save Script. This also happens when using a 31 mil endmill. Check that there is no gap in the Format Reference between the maximum value of pen 1 and the minimum value of pen 2. The software converts the 2mm routing tool to 78.74 mils. If there is no entry on the format reference that includes the 78 mil size, then the software assigns the smallest tool size to this width and generates as many passes as needed to fill the 78 mils. Here the smallest entry is 10 mils (the size of the UniMill tool). The software makes eight passes to fill out the 2mm. Protomat makes multiple passes around the traces This results from not deleting the previous insulation layers before running the insulation function again. If there is a previously existing layer with the same name as the insulation destination layer, then the new insulation data is appended to that layer. If you do not delete the old insulation layers, then multiple passes of the UniMill tool around the traces will result. Before rerunning the insulation on a board, go to Edit | Layer and delete the previous insulation layers from the bottom of the layer list. Isolation channels have gaps at the beginning or end of a cut The problem of cutting gaps is due to the amount of time being too short between the tool descending and moving. The spinning tool needs time to penetrate the copper after falling before beginning to move in the X-Y direction. This value is a configuration parameter in the INI and .STP files. Most of the configuration parameters of the Protomat are stored in initialization files that get loaded when the BoardMaster program is executed. Each machine has its own set of .INI and .STP files. For instance, if you are using a 91S Protomat, then your initialization files are BM-91PS.INI and BM-91PS.STP. These files are found in the same directory as the BoardMaster EXE program.

14

To find the exact directory of these files, highlight the BoardMaster icon and then check Files

| Properties. The name and directory of the .INI file is the third file on the list. There are three initialization files used by BoardMaster. Most values are stored in the .INI file. Any variable listed in the .NAM file gets its initial value from the .STP file instead of the .INI file. These files are in ASCII and may be read with any text editor such as Windows NOTEPAD. The initialization files have an unusual format. Here is an example for a single variable value: 0 start of a variable’s structure ELEMENT type of structure 1 type of next part of the structure 1=string for variable name tm2 variable name tm2 controls the amount of time from tool down until tool move 4 type of variable value 4=integer (16 bit) 300 value of variable increase this time value to 500 to get rid of the trace gaps The tool movement time variable that solves the incomplete trace problem is ‘TM2’ . Change the value from 300 to 500 in both the .INI and .STP files. This situation occurs on about 10% of the machines in the field, we are not sure why. Selecting the Correct Coordinate Characteristics for Gerber files The original Gerber format was defined in the 1960’s and much emphasis was placed on saving memory space. Designers adapted every possible trick and technique that could compress the data without losing resolution. While this made the files as small as possible, it made them difficult to work with. These awkward legacy file structures continue to be used despite today’s enormous memory capacities. How Gerber coordinate values are encoded The easiest way to save memory is to not include a decimal point in the X-Y coordinates. In order to eliminate the decimal point from the number, you need to know from which side of the number to start and how many digits to read. For instance, if there is a point at 2.34 for X and 0.567 for Y you can write this point as: X2340 Y567. Reading back the correct values requires that you know that the encoding starts on the right side of the digits and the decimal point is added after three digits. If the numeric format says that the digits start at the left side and that there are three digits before the decimal point, then the encoded number will look like: X00234 Y000567. The M.N value in the Gerber format tells how many digits that there are on each side of the suppressed decimal point. The sum of the M and N values tells how many digits that there are in total. If the M.N value is 2.3, then the total digits can be only five. However if the number can be written with fewer digits, then the unneeded zeros will be left off. In addition to the M.N value, you need to know from which side to read the number: from the left or from the right. Gerber files with Leading Zeros Suppressed will be read the digits from the right and files with Trailing Zeros Suppressed are read from the left. Here are some examples, using an M.N encoding of 2.3 and Leading Zeros suppressed: 0.023 becomes 23 here the leading three zeros are suppressed and the number is read from the right. Since the M.N value is 2.3, there are three digits before the decimal point. A zero gets added behind the digit string ‘23’ to recreate the number 0.023. The added zero is considered ‘behind’ the digits because the number is encoded from the right side. 6.942 becomes 6942 this is straightforward if you know that the leading zeros are suppressed and the number is read from the right. 14.5 becomes 14500 here there is no way to encode the number with less than five digits. There must be three digits before the decimal point from the direction that the number is being created. Since the format has leading zeros suppressed and the number is read from the right, two zeros must be placed before the digit ‘5’. The zeros are before the digit ‘5’ because we are encoding the number from the right side.

15

Determining the correct numeric format from a Gerber file A Gerber file will look similar to this sample listing: D15 X12430Y11370D02* X12150D01* Y11380D02* X11150D01* ect.... To determine the correct format look first to see if any of the X or Y coordinates end in zeros. If any X or Y number ends with a zero then the numbers were encoded with Leading Zeros Suppressed. In the above example, the first X value ends in zero, so this file has Leading Zeros Suppressed. Note: Some programs have the term Trailing Zeros and some use Leading Zeros Suppressed. The two terms have the same meaning. If the X-Y values have zeros on both ends, then use the Decimal Point option in Data Format | More. This will place the decimal point at the position selected by the M.N value. The M.N value must be guessed from the digit strings themselves. It is necessary to know the size of the board and the units of the board’s dimensions to make a reasonable guess. In the case shown above, the first guess would be that the board is less than two inches square. In the first XY coordinate pair, the numbers have five digits and the first digit is ‘1’. There is no other coordinate value in the listing that has five digits and has the first digit greater than 1. A good first guess for the M.N value is 1.4. In this case the coordinates in the listing above will be: X 1.243” Y 1.137” D02 means activate (open the light shutter using) aperture D15 X 1.215” move to this X coordinate without changing Y position, then deactivate D15 X 1.138” move to this X coordinate without changing Y position, then activate D15 X 1.115” move to this X coordinate without changing Y position, then deactivate D15 Create the image of the board using M.N of 1.4, Leading Zeros Suppressed, Absolute values, and inch units. If the board display looks reasonable, then set the zero point on one section in a corner and measure the size to the other corner. If the board is about two inches square then format’s assumptions are correct. If the board is distorted in scale by a factor of ten (a one inch trace measures ten inches or 1/10 inch), then use a shifted M.N value (use 2.3 instead of 1.4). If the board is wildly distorted and the lines look like a pile of uncooked spaghetti, then use the other value for leading or trailing zeros. If the board looks good but is too small (or too big) by a factor of 2.54 or 0.39, then the units value (inches or metric) is wrong. Generally Gerber files created from the same board at the same time will have the same numeric format values. The most common for inch unit boards are 2.4 and 2.3-Leading zeros suppressed. For metric boards, try 3.2-Leading zeros suppressed as a first test. It is not uncommon for the Excellon file for the same board to have a different format. Often the Excellon file will have the Trailing zeros suppressed. With practice, the formats of Gerber and Excellon files get easier to decode. Certain formats are commonly used and get to be recognized. We suggest to our clients that they select a format for all their company’s work and include this information whenever they need to distribute their Gerber files. Embedded aperture lists in Gerber 274x files To avoid the nuisance of entering aperture lists for each board, the PCB layout industry is expanding the Gerber standard to include aperture information and coordinate characteristics inside the Gerber files themselves. These embedded aperture lists are the most commonly used part of the new RS-274x standard for Gerber files. (The previous Gerber standard is 274d.) Our CircuitCAM program will read 274x files and create a Data Format from the embedded aperture list. The current version of CCAM 2.00 can not handle 274x aperture macros. The aperture information is found in a header that is before the standard 274d format Gerber file. Here is a sample header with aperture and coordinate characteristic information: %AX24Y24*% The first line contains X-Y coordinate characteristic information: 2.4 in this case %MOIN*% Unit value of the X-Y values: inch in this case %AD*% Beginning of the aperture list %ADD10C, 0.008*% aperture D10 circle 8 mils in size %ADD11C, 0.010*% aperture D11 circle 10 mils in size %ADD12C, 0.010*% aperture D12 circle also 10 mils in size aperture sizes may be repeated %ADD13R, 0.025X0.030*% aperture D13 rectangle y value first 25 mils in size, followed by X value 30 mils %ADD14C, 0.028*% aperture D14 circle 28 mils in size %ADD15R, 0.030X0.025*% aperture D15 rectangle y value first 30 mils in size, followed by X value 25 mils %ADD16R, 0.030X0.050*% aperture D16 rectangle y value first 30 mils in size, followed by X value 50 mils %ADD17C, 0.050*% aperture D17 circle 50 mils in size %ADD18R, 0.025X0.030*% aperture D18 rectangle y value first 25 mils in size, followed by X value 30 mils %ADD19C, 0.050*% Gerber D codes go D10 to D19, then D70 and D71, and continues with D20... %ADD70R, 0.060X0.025*% Header ends here and 274d Gerber format data follows G54D13*G1X018180Y013780D3*G1X020040Y012580D3*G1X012620Y011120D3*G1X012030Y011140D3* ... I believe that any aperture list can be loaded automatically into a Data Format if the aperture list is rewritten in the 274x header format and placed onto the front of an older format 274d Gerber file.

16

U This is a custom binary format for moving boards from Circuit CAM (ver. 2) to BoardMaster without using HPGL files. Instead of creating several HPGL files in the last stage of CCAM, a single .LMD file will hold all the set-up and display information. When this LMD file is loaded into BoardMaster, the set-up information is transferred along with the milling paths and drill hole coordinates. For this to work well, the LMD output file must be generated correctly in CCAM. Here is a description of how to make and use an LMD file for the tutor board.

sing the .LMD File Format

In CCAM, use File | Open to load the tutor.EDI file from C:\LPKF\CCAM. The image of the board on the screen should contain the isolations around the traces created previously. Enter Edit | Layer and make sure that the isolation layers (such as CompISO and SoldISO) have pathwidth values that are equal to the milling tool width. When the isolation layers are created by the isolation process, the new layers default to zero pathwidth. For LMD to work correctly, you need to enter the width of the tool that you will be using to cut the isolation channels. For example, if the isolation tool width is 10 mils for CompISO, enter 10 mils as the pathwidth (in the upper right corner of the Edit | Layer window). Repeat for all the isolation layers created. Enter the File | Data Output screen and click on -All to remove the HPGL filenames from the Task List (or click on New [to avoid losing the previous set-up] and then give the LMD job a different job macro name.). In the combo box Layer: (in the Task section) select the layer for the isolation channels around the component side traces (CompISO). For the filename (File:) enter ‘*.lmd’ with the append switch off. The format type will be LpkfMillDrill and the format reference will be LPKFMillTool. For LMD files, the two metric format references are LPKFMillTool and LPKFDrillTool and the two inch references are LPKFMillInch and LPKFDrillInch. Customers in Silicon Valley - Northern California will also have the format references created by our local rep: MTS_LPKFMillTool and MTS_LPKFDrillTool. The Phase: combo box is active in LMD mode and its use is necessary to match the isolation layer with the correct BoardMaster phase. For the layer ‘CompISO’ use the phase ‘MillingCompSide’. If a layer does not have a corresponding phase, then first type a new phase name into the combo box text entry. Then in BoardMaster, create a new phase with the same name. Keep the x: and y: offsets set at 0 mil and the mag: at 1. The Orientation setting is not active in LMD mode. The layer will be orientated top or bottom according to the setting of the Reversed side switch in the Phase section of BoardMaster. Click on Add to place this layer onto the task list. Go back to Layer: and select ‘TextComp(Layer)’ from the combo box list of layers. Activate the Append switch by clicking it on. The File: , Format Type: , and Format Ref: settings will remain the same for the previous layer. Highlight the text in the Phase: combo box and enter ‘TextComp’ for the new phase name. Click on Add to place this layer on the task list. All the other layers are appended to the .LMD file in this manner. Here is a table for all the layers: Layer: Format Ref: Phase: CompISO LpkfMillTool MillingCompSide TextComp(Layer) LpkfMillTool TextComp SoldISO LpkfMillTool MillingSoldSide TextSold(Layer) LpkfMillTool TextSold BoardISO LpkfMillTool Cutting Drill(Layer) LpkfDrillTool DrillingPlated Note the different format reference for drills Create the .LMD file by clicking on Run. Save the new script with File | Save Script and exit CCAM. Enter BoardMaster and click on Project | Add. Set the directory to C:\LPKF\Data and select Tutor.lmd from the file list box. Click on OK when the ‘Enter New Name:’ box displays ‘tutor.lmd’. The Project Edit window will display all the layers created in CCAM data output in the box in the lower left corner. There will not be any phases associated with the text layers. Click on OK to exit the Project Edit window and enter the Phases... window from the main menu. Highlight the phase ‘Cutting’ and click on the Ins. above button on the right side. In the text box enter the label ‘TextComp’. Hit the Ins. Above button again and enter the label ‘TextSold’. Activate the Reversed Side switch and also the save settings as default button and click OK. This creates and saves the new phase names. Reenter Project and check that all the phases in the Phase File/Layer box on the lower left have phase numbers assigned to them. Highlight each phase and verify that the correct tools are assigned to each pen in the File/Layer box on the lower right. Ignore the y => -y switch since it is not used in the LMD format. Make sure that the board isolation/cutting layer has a routing tool assigned instead of a milling tool. Check that each drill number has the correct tool assigned to it. When the project is correctly configured, click on OK to return to the main menu. To place the project on the display, click on Placement | Add. Select the LMD project and click OK. The project will most likely need to be relocated on the display. Click on the ‘move project’ icon (under the menu item ‘Material’), then click and drag the project to any new location.

17

Creating an LPKF printed circuit board by free-hand drawing The Circuit CAM software allows the creation of a printed circuit board without a prepared Gerber or HPGL file by using the Add and Edit features of the software. Boards made in this fashion will lack the design rule checking and all-traces-completed verification found in standard PCB layout software, but they can be produced through free-hand drawing. The resulting boards will have all the precision available on the Protomat regardless of the input source. There is one flaw in the Circuit CAM software when drawing a board free-hand. The new board should not be started with the File | New command. This command will blank the screen and produce a working area that is thousands of feet in size. It will be impossible to work with a board of this dimension and it appears that the software will not let you reduce the size to a realistic area. The way to get around this bug is to use a board file that has already been completed and erase all of the pads, holes, and traces that are not needed on the new design. Try to use a file that has the same characteristics as the new board being created: the same relative size, the same number of sides, ect. Back up this original file to a floppy or different subdirectory to avoid its accidental loss. After loading the .EDI file from a previous board, highlight all the unwanted elements by click-and-dragging the cursor over them. Remove the pads, holes, and traces from the display by hitting the delete key. All the highlighted (blinking) elements will be removed. This may take a minute on a dense board or slow computer. Begin drawing the new board by selecting a grid unit size. This will assure that all the pads and drill holes will align on both sides of the board. The grid unit should be large enough that the drawn elements will not be offset by mistake but also not so large that the grid prevents efficient board design. I recommend 0.05 inch. Set the grid by selecting View | GridUnit | Cursor Grid: 50 mil (hint: access 50 mil - 1/20 inch by dragging the combo box’ small scroll bar). You can have a visible dot grid array by selecting View | GridUnit | Display Grid: 50 mil. Pads and vias are placed by first selecting the correct side of the board and the right size and placement. Select Edit | Layer and highlight the layer corresponding to the desired working side. For example, highlight WiringComp(Layer) to work the top side of the board. All new elements will be placed into the highlighted layer. Exit to the EDIF display and select Property | Circle Method | Radius + Center. Enter the radius of the pad to be placed. A reminder: the standard pad size is a diameter, so enter half of this value. Select New | Circle and place the pads on the display grid. Hit ESCape twice to exit from this mode. The first ESC stops placing circles and the second exits the New operation. If the pads have drilled holes, place identically sized pads on the opposite side of the board on top of the pads already done. Generate the drilled holes by selecting or creating Drill(Layer) in Edit | Layer list and setting the drill hole size under Property as done with the pads. Place the drill circles directly on top of their pads and press Enter. The grid will snap the drill circles into the exact position on the pad. The drill circles should have a different color from the pads, which indicates that they are on separate layers. In order to get exact registration between the top and bottom of the board when fabricating, place several holes on the top and corresponding pads on the bottom in an area off the PCB. Isolating these pads will make milled circles precisely centered on the holes. Before milling the under side of the board, select and mill one of the circles and check for exact centering. The pattern placement can be shifted with 1 mil resolution to create exact registration between top and bottom sides. Save the board work occasionally by using File | Save As and giving the new board a unique filename. Do not use the Save command as this will write the new work to the file that was originally used to provide the scaling for the hand drawn board. Unlike Microsoft programs, the Save As command will not change the default filename to the new file. Therefore use Save As each time you update. Make the traces by laying paths between the pads. Be sure to select the layer for the right board side [such as WiringComp(Layer)] in Edit | Layer. Enter the width the path in the path width box in the upper right and click Accept and OK. Select New | Path and place the path dot in the middle of the beginning pad. Click the left mouse key and drag the new path to its end pad. Clicking will also bend or turn the path. Hit ESCape to terminate the current path. Place other paths in the same manner. Hitting ESCape again will exit the New mode. Select the opposite side of the board and generate its paths. Each side’s traces should have different colors. Form a new layer for the board outline by using New | Path to draw a line around the board. This is the border where the new board will be routed from the background copper panel. Give this layer a different color in order to make sure that it on a unique layer. Click on the edge of the board and select Edit | Make Zero Point. This assures that the board will not be off the table when transferred to BoardMaster. Create new layers for any rubout areas by using New | Polygon to enclose these background copper removal zones. After the hand drawn board is created and checked it can be isolated as any board created from input files. After generating the isolation layers, create the output LMD or HPGL files as described in the tutorial or manuals. After loading the files into BoardMaster, check that there are no missing traces, pads, or drill holes. Then drill, mill, and cutout the new PCB.

18

Drilling new alignment holes in the red plastic strips Insert a 2.95mm tool and move the head to HOME position. Press the head down manually and verify that the tip of the tool will drill into the center of the plastic strip. If the drill tip is offset greatly from the strip center, initialize the machine. The Y value for the HOME position is now exactly on the machine’s center line. Set the step size to 0.1 inch and move the tool to be about one half of an inch from the front of the machine and directly over the center of the plastic strip. This is the location of the front pin. Open Machine | Settings, click on Unlock, and click on SetHome. This marks the current head position as HOME. Place a thin piece of masking tape onto the bottom of the channel that holds the plastic strip. Step the head towards the rear of the machine until the tool is over the piece of masking tape. Lower the head by entering Machine | Settings and typing PD; into the box next to the Send switch. The HPGL command must be in upper case capital letters and terminated by a semi-colon. Click on the Send switch to transmit the HPGL instruction to the Protomat. Loosen the tool in the collet and allow the tool to fall onto the piece of tape. [91S/92S users] Loosen the set screw holding the tool in the collet. [93S users] Depress the motor knob, lock into the tool release, and turn counter clockwise. Retighten the tool in the collet. Click on OK in the Machine | Settings screen and the motor will rise to standard Z-axis position. The tool should be secure and the tip should clear the top of the red plastic strip. Move the tool to the HOME position. Set the machine to manual mode: the automotor ON/OFF button will have a white line through it. Turn on the motor and the vacuum. Quickly press the lower-head button twice. This will drill out the red plastic and immediately raise the drill out of the plastic. If the drill is kept spinning in the plastic, it will enlarge the hole by melting the plastic. Move the head down and up quickly. Switch off the motor. Enter Machine | Settings and set the X step to be the distance between the pins. We suggest 11 inches for the 91S and 15 inches for the 92S/93S, but the distance between pins should match the size of the copper boards with which you will be working. Exit Machine | Settings and make a single step in the X direction (towards the rear of the machine). This is the location of the second pin. Drill the rear pin hole Replace the 2.95mm tool with the 3.00mm. Do not insert the pins yet, but place a copper panel on a piece of backing material and tape them securely to the machine table surface. [91S users: Do not cover the front notch] Move to the HOME position and drill a 3.00mm hole. Lower the drill a millimeter if it does not go completely through the copper panel. Move the drill head back a single step over the second pin hole and drill the back hole. Drill new holes in a piece of backing material if needed. Mark the new holes in the strip with a felt tip pen in order to avoid confusing them with previous holes. Insert the pins and press the backing and copper sheets onto them. Reset the X step to a small value like 0.1 inch. Go to Machine | Settings, unlock, and add an inch to the X value of the Home position so that HOME is not directly on the front pin. Record the X and Y home position values. Circuit boards will not have correct registration if the Y value of the HOME position is not exactly centered on the pins. Now the Protomat is ready to create double-sided PCBs.

19

LPKF Protomat Service Guide With any luck you won’t ever need this section. We have included it for your reference and as a starting point should the need arise for any machine repairs. When the machine is powered on, the LED will blink on/off and the head will move to the tool exchange position in the front right corner of the machine. This corner is the nearest to the LED. Problem: When the power is switched on, the machine does not move to the tool exchange position.

- Check the fuses in the block near where the power cable enters the machine. There are also fuses inside the machine on the controller circuit board.

Problem: Machine moves only a little when turned on: -open limit switch, probably due to a disconnected wire on the controller board. Problem: The front panel LED will not turn on. -The green LED comes on when the machine completes its internal initialization and finishes moving to the tool exchange position. Problem: Machine motor turns off at random intervals or the solenoid does not rise after milling or drilling

(breaking a drill tool in the hole). The machine operates correctly when the head is in certain positions and does not operate when the head is in other positions.

-The problem is likely to be a broken wire in the cable that goes from the DB15 connector to the circuit board inside the carriage. Metal fatigue due to constant bending can cause the internal strands to break.

Test: Set the step to 1 inch in X and Y. Start at Exchange position and test motor on/off and solenoid up/down. Move diagonally towards the Pause position in 1 inch steps and test motor and solenoid at each step. If the motor or solenoid doesn’t work at a certain position, most likely this is a broken wire problem. LPKF can send you a new cable.

Problem: Machine works OK in Y direction, but makes cuts that are too short in the X direction.

-Most likely the anti-backlash nut (the triangular white plastic nut that couples the lead screw to the carriage) is broken. We stock these replacement parts. Problem: The machine shakes and makes noises when approaching the Pause position.

-Loosen the bolts holding the X-axis stepper motor. Run the carriage between the tool exchange and Pause positions several times. With the carriage in the Pause position, tighten the bolts holding the motor to the rear end plate.

Problem: Machine has offsets in the X direction between phases. Test: Note: we run this test before shipping any new machine. Turn machine off/on; enter Machine |

Settings; move to HOME; make dimple with Unimill tool; run a file the has lots of drill holes that are located randomly throughout the board (leave motor switch off to save time) ; move back to HOME; make another dimple; check that the two dimples are at the same exact location. If not:

-Check that the .STP file has the initialization string: !AS400; Add if missing from STP file. Problem: There is a registration alignment problem between the front and rear of machine. Test: 1. Drill a copper sheet with these HPGL commands in a file: Note: we run this test before shipping any new machine. SP1;PD;PU; PA1000,0;PD;PU; PA5000,0;PD;PU; PA8000,0;PD;PU; PA10000,0;PD;PU; 2. Flip board over and make set of cross cuts through each hole with this set of HPGL commands in a file. PA-50,0;PD;PA50,0;PU;PA0,-50;PD;PA0,50;PU; PA1000,-50;PD;PA1000,50;PU;PA950,0;PD;PA1050,0;PU; PA4950,0;PD;PA5050,0;PU;PA5000,-50;PD;PA5000,50;PU; PA7950,0;PD;PA8050,0;PU;PA8000,-50;PD;PA8000,50;PU; PA9950,0;PD;PA10050,0;PU;PA10000,-50;PD;PA10000,50;PU; 3. Verify that all crosses have the same offset from the hole center.

If there is a greater than two mil difference between the front and back offset, then there are two things that can be done to return the machine to alignment:

1. Loosen the 2.5 mm bolts securing the horizontal crossbars and run the carriage between HOME and PAUSE ten times. This will reset the crossbars. Tighten bolts and retest.

2. Add thin metal shims under the table’s corner as needed.

20

Testing Registration: Create a file in CircuitCAM that has drill holes on the top of the board and isolated circular pads around the holes on the bottom. The holes should be on the center X axis and also on the left and right edges of the copper board. Please see the section on Setting and Checking Registration on page 7 for more details. Problem: The registration is off in the X axis in the same direction at the table edges. The head assembly is tilted. Correct with very thin metal shims between the head assembly and the Y axis carriage. Problem: The registration is off in the X axis in opposite directions at the table edges. A drill hole on one side of the table has an X direction offset in a different direction from the drill hole on the opposite side of the table. This problem is due to Orthogonality: the extent that the carriage is not perpendicular to the X axis of the table

(the set pins). Measure with a precision right angle bar tool and a dial gauge. The long edge of the angle bar should be against the 3mm board alignment pins. There should be no more than 1 mil between the measurement near the center of the table and the measurement near the table edge. Adjust by loosening the four bolts that hold the carriage to the X axis rods. The carriage has three sets of four bolts. Work with the bolts closest to the top of the machine. This is a difficult adjustment to make because tightening the bolts will change the carriage’s positioning after making a correct setting. We do not recommend that you loosen the carriage mounting bolts unless there is significant X axis offset and you have the tools to precisely measure the new setting.

Walk-Through Repair. Does your machine move to the tool exchange position after switching on? No - Does the machine move at all? No: Bad fuse in power block where the power cable is inserted? or: Bad fuse inside machine on controller circuit board? Yes: The machine moves a centimeter and then stops. There is an open limit switch. Yes - The machine moves to the tool exchange position. Is there RS-232 (serial) communications between the Protomat and computer? Check BoardMaster's Machine | Connect window. No - Are the communications parameters correct? correct serial port on PC? 9600 Baud, 8 data bits; 1stop bit; no parity; Hardware flow control, FIFO off Is the correct cable used? The null-modem cable’s pin-out is in Protomat manual. Try switching the machine off/on and trying again. Also, try another computer. Yes - Is the SMCU switch selected in BoardMaster’s Machine | Settings? Will the machine initialize? {record Home position values before initialization} Does the head move to all four corners? No - Check that the Pause values are equal to the Size values in BoardMaster’s Machine | Settings. Yes - Will the machine make a board correctly? No - Does the machine cut lines in the wrong places or shift positions? Make sure that the FIFO on the COM port switched off. -and- Check that CircuitCAM’s insulate routine has Serpentine switch ON when generating a background rubout area on the PC board. No - Does the machine fail in certain areas of the table? Yes - Does the motor switch off/on or raise/lower intermittently? Intermittent break in an inner wire. Replace head DB15 cable.

Our E-mail address is: support@lpkfusa.com Web page: http://www.lpkfusa.com

21