Ok, heres the board being etched in Ferric Chloride pcb etchant, in the etching tank I bought years ago from Dick Smith (1st pic). This usually takes anywhere between 5 – 30 minutes depending on the strength/age of the etchant, temperature, etc, as anyone reading this who has made PCBs before will know. I actually diluted the etchant with hot water, 50/50, to get enough to cover the board. I actually made four boards while I was at it.. three stepper boards and another pcb I was making for another project. It took me about 30 minutes to etch four boards, one after the other!
Remaining pics show the end results, 2nd pic is before cleaning the resist off (I used thinners for this), last two pics are the boards cut and cleaned. I tinned the edges where the wires will be attached with solder, and just smeared the sections where the stepper unit fingers will rub with 3 in 1 oil to keep them from tarnishing before I fit them into the game.
The board in the bottom right of the last pic was made for my home made Vortex pin, it will be an upgraded solenoid driver board for the game. You can expect to see a thread soon about the work/upgrades Ive been doing on Vortex..
