Pulsar TTS/TRF
Hey Guys,
Ahmad here from UltraKeet; thanks for your feedback! If moderators permit, I'd like to throw in my two cents regarding PulsarProFX's TTS/TRF vs Press'n'Peel vs Photo-Resist vs Photo Paper battle.
Just to clarify, we use both PulsarProFX and PhotoFab methods for proto-runs, depending on the amount of boards required. I have however tried all the methods below, and I've put together a few lists to help you decide which method is best suited to your needs:
Price, cheapest method to most expensive:
- HP Everyday photo Paper + blank FR4 PCB
- Pulsar TTS + TRF + blank FR4 PCB
- Press'n'Peel Blue + blank FR4 PCB
- Photofab + Kinsten FR4 PCB
There's no denying it, photopaper is by far the cheapest and has a reasonably good yield. This is probably the best option to make through-hole boards on-the-cheap.
Output quality (trace width), ordered best to worst:
- Pulsar TTS + TRF + blank FR4 PCB
- Photofab + Kinsten FR4 PCB
- HP Everyday photo Paper + blank FR4 PCB
- Press'n'Peel Blue + blank FR4 PCB
The Pulsar and Photofab methods are
extremely close here. The Pulsar method is able to produce finer traces (easily 8mil spacing/8mil width), photofab using cheap equipment causes the same traces to bleed into eachother and short during exposure.
It's important to note that we're talking overhead transparency and cheap UV exposure box for the photofab method, not expensive specialty UV blocking transfer films. Photofab using specialized films would win against all methods hands-down!
Repeatability, ordered best to worst:
- Photofab + Kinsten/resist FR4 PCB
- Pulsar TTS + TRF + blank FR4 PCB
- HP Everyday photo Paper + blank FR4 PCB
- Press'n'Peel Blue + blank FR4 PCB
Photofab wins for repeatability - Plain and simple, there's much less that can go wrong. Your 'master' artwork is printed once, and is used to expose several boards prior to etching
With Pulsar/PnP/PhotoPaper and other toner transfer methods, there's a chance artwork may come out differently at each printout (toner porosity, glitches, dirt on your OPC, fuser issues, etc) - In addition to this, something can also go wrong during the thermal transfer process, leading to partial/pitted transfers
The above issues happen rarely, but they do happen, and it's worth taking them into account. Think of the expenses incurred using PhotoFab as insurance against screw-ups (but also bear in mind that screw-ups will be far more expensive!)
Here are a few images of PCBs produced with TTS + TRF:
...And a quick video made for a few customers, regarding laminator modification. It contains a quick toner transfer demo using TTS:
Youtube link
Hope this helps. If you have any questions, ask us! It's worth mentioning that we also have a satisfaction guarantee on all PulsarProFX gear. If you're not happy with it, we will refund your full purchase price AND the cost of mailing the gear back to us; no bs