A wireless three dimensional printer for printed circuit board applications

Abstract

A three dimensional printer using step motors from 3.5-inch disk drives was built. An Arduino microcontroller was in charge of controlling the steppers through the DC drivers and a 3D pen was used as the printing unit. The program was created with the Arduino suite and the design of the drawing with the open source cncjs using g code. For the axes, three disk drives were reassembled to form the X, Y and Z levels. In this paper, the potential of the structure to be used for the creation of printed circuit boards has been explored. The 3D printer has been operated as a Computerized Numerical Control machine, whereas the 3D pen was replaced with a soldering iron for PCB applications. Moreover, the structure was integrated with wireless connectivity, enabled with a Wi-Fi module based on the IEEE 802.11n protocol. The 3D printer will be additionally be used for multi-purpose educational purposes. It provides an opportunity for students to experiment with electronics, learn more about robotic machines, and create one from scratch.