You might want to put some kind of diffuser on it to avoid bright/dim spots, the brightness loss isn't too much of an issue as you can just let it stay under it longer. We can't see the UV but we can see the portion of it that extends into the upper Violet range, the primary frequency it puts out is invisible to the human eye. If you put a UV light next to something that fluoresces under UV light you'll notice how much brighter it is than the apparent UV source, and that's a secondary reaction.

Cobra, I'm not sure why you think UV is so limited, it's nothing more than a colour of light that's just outside our visual range, birds have been shown to be sensitive to UV light, and can see interference patterns in the day sky cause by UV light diffraction patterns as part of their geolocation systems. That's UVA though, you may be thinking UVB or farther up the UV spectrum, down actually as it goes clear on down to 10nm's. UVA is only 400-320nm

Hi Magen,

I wonder where you left the original lid of the scanner. Exposing PCB material the lid should be used to avoid UV-light causing (most probably severe) eye damage. Put some extra weight on the lid to have it press the film and the PCB well on the glass.

If you want to learn more about the abilities of UV-light contact the sales manager of Seoul semiconductors. He lost vision of one eye completely looking at an UV-LED radiating at 340nm (UV-A) and a forward current of 100mA.

Boncuk

One of the reasons I suggested a diffuser. Something as simple as a thin sheet of tissue paper will diffuse the light very well. Again power isn't the issue, the frequency of the light is what's supposed to do the work.

Originally Posted by sirmikeylikesit

what is the purpose of the UV scanner? i'm not sure i understand what you're attempting to achieve? pardon my ignorance.

The OP also posted a headline "UV exposure box".

You can't beat the quality of an UV-exposed PCB compared with toner transfer.

It is next to a Gerber photoplot.

If you want top quality for a "film" use positive UV sensitive film and make a contact copy of the original laser print from the transparency of a PCB layout. The positive film fills all "blind" spots being produced by the laser printer.

I used that method using negative sensitive film for double sided PCBs with plated throughholes and differential etching.

Boncuk

cobra1, I had no idea reptiles benefited from UVB lights, interesting. UV LED's while a little less common should cost the same as a typical bright white LED as generically they're the same thing white ones just have phosphor on them that converts the UV to the different colours of lights.

Originally Posted by Magen

@ Boncuk,
Do you produce through hole plated boards at home?

Hi Magen,

I did back in Germany. The machine was designed by Isel automation and required close watch of each step, mainly the plating process. Vias and troughholes had excessive cupper build up at the hole entries and exits quite often (looking like craters). Interrupting the process for a while lead to sufficient results, still not knowing the final copper weight.

The copper clads had a layer of 5µm to add another 30µm on traces and in holes. Plating by timing was just a rough guess.

Bungard offers a better machine indicating the growth of copper digitally. It also uses reverse pulsing during plating to avoid excessive copper buildup at holes. I still have to save some money to buy it.

Boncuk