PCB Blog - PCB board automatic board making machine operation guide

When you buy a PCB board rapid production machine, you naturally want to make a circuit board to see its powerful functions, but please don't worry, and please read the manual and the operation introduction in this column carefully before starting, you will Quickly become familiar with the operation and will be deeply attracted by its charm.

1. Please check whether your accessories are complete: manuals, fastening tools, DK engraving driver CD, tools, drills, serial port extension cables, power cables, a small amount of copper-clad plates, and carbon brushes for spindle motors.
2. Put the machine on the working platform, take out the serial port extension cable (DB9 cable), connect the communication port on the right side of the chassis and the COM1 port of the computer, and connect the power cord.
3. Please confirm that your computer operating system is win98/2000/XP, the memory configuration is 256M, turn on the computer and insert the DK engraving driver CD, and run the corresponding setup.exe file. Open a PCB board file of PROTEL and import DK.
4. The appropriate tool can be selected according to the circuit board design, and the tool selection parameters of the DK operation interface are recommended to be slightly smaller than the safety distance in the PROTEL PCB board file design (for example, if a tool of 0.38mm is selected, the tool parameter should be selected as 0.36mm). After opening the file, it is necessary to check whether there is any circuit board line sticking caused by wrong tool selection until the correct selection is made. The "Board Thickness" parameter of the DK operation is set according to the thickness of the board, which provides accurate data for drilling and cutting edges.
5. When the operating system performs edge cutting and drilling, it will work slightly below the bottom of the circuit board. In order to protect the cutter, drill bit and machine working platform, the working platform must be equipped with a circuit board that is equal to or slightly larger than the circuit board to be produced. The copper-clad plate is used as a backing plate, and then the copper-clad plate that you want to make is placed; note that it is ideal to place the copper-clad plate with thin double-sided tape. The copper plate used is also required to be flat to ensure the quality of the printed circuit board. It is recommended to use the polished and smoothed original copper-clad plate provided by our company. When installing the copper plate, remember to pay attention to the tool tip installed on the spindle motor. If necessary, install the copper plate and then install the tool tip for safety.
6. After the copper plate and the tool are installed, move the spindle and the working platform when the main power of the machine is not turned on, so that the tool tip is near the lower right corner of the copper plate. After confirming that the main power of the spindle is turned off, turn on the main power. At this time, the online light is green , press the ONLINE button to make the ONLINE light turn red, indicating that the machine is offline; adjust the position of X, Y axis, and then adjust the height of Z axis, so that the tool tip is close to the copper plate, use the Z+1mm key to coarsely adjust to the visual distance close to the copper plate , put a piece of waste paper (it is recommended to use white paper torn off with double-sided tape) on the circuit board, use Z+0.1mm to gradually adjust it, and use Z+0.01mm to adjust it until the tip of the knife just presses the paper.
7. Close the machine door, press the ONLINE button to make the ONLINE light turn green, and turn on the spindle power. If the parameters of the PCB file cutter and board thickness have been set, you can press the trial engraving key, the cutter head starts to move, and engrave a rectangle according to the designed area of the circuit board, and observe whether the engraving depth meets the requirements, if it is too deep or too shallow, first Press the online key to make it offline. Press the Z-axis adjustment button to adjust the height, then press the online button to make it online, and then press the trial engraving until the engraving depth meets the requirements, and then press the engraving button to engrave. After finishing the engraving, the spindle continues to rotate, but stops at the lower right corner of the circuit board and does not move. At this time, press the trim button, and the machine starts to cut the shape according to your design. After the cutting process is completed, turn off the spindle power. Do not turn off the main power at this time. , press the online button to make the online light turn red, press the Z axis adjustment button to raise the Z axis, take out the flat-bottomed knife, replace the drill bit, adjust the Z axis so that the drill bit presses the white paper, press the online button to make the online light turn green, turn off Open the machine door, turn on the spindle power, press the drill button to start drilling, and turn off the main power and spindle power after all operations are completed.

8. Use skills and precautions:
8.1 Form a good habit and make sure the spindle power is turned off before turning on the main power. When turning off the main power, turn off the spindle power at the same time.
8.2 Install the tool and drill and tighten the fixing screws.
8.3 The online light is green when the computer and the machine are online, and red is the offline state. In the online state, the X, Y, and Z axis movement buttons are not controlled, which is not a fault.
8.4 If it is found that the cutter head is too deep or too shallow under the working state, you can press the ONLINE button to make the ONLINE light turn red, and the spindle continues to rotate but does not move. At this time, you can adjust the height of the spindle and continue to work online.
8.5 When the power is turned on, all the lights on the entire control panel flash, which means that the machine has not been reset successfully. Please turn off the main power and spindle power, and then turn it on after one or two seconds; if the main power is suddenly turned off during the work, immediately If the main power is turned on again, because the machine is not completely reset, it will cause the machine to work randomly, so do not try it randomly.
8.6 When opening the file, it will prompt "non-PCB board file". This machine is compatible with PROTEL ASIC2.8 file format. If your drawing software cannot output this format, please import the file you designed in PROTEL99, and export the file in this format after conversion.
8.7 When opening the file, it prompts "No KEEPOUT LAYER". The machine uses the forbidden wiring layer as the outer border of the circuit board. The PCB board file you design must draw a border line on the KEEPOUT LAYER, and the line width is equal to the diameter of the tool (3.15mm) .
8.8 It shows "out of engraving range", there are components or lines outside the KEEPOUT LAYER or close to the KEEPOUT LAYER, please modify the circuit diagram.
8.9 Press the function key and the machine does not respond, please check whether the serial cable is connected correctly: check whether the online light is green on PCB board.