Monday, April 16, 2012

Light painting tool

I was scheduled to teach a course in the local university's life-long learning program, so over the last several weeks I've focused on making some tools for one of the topics I was going to cover: light painting. This is a photo of control boards I worked on this week for two of these tools.
For this project, I decided to make my own printed circuit boards for the first time. At times it was pretty frustrating learning just the right technique to make them come out properly. But in the end, I am pleased with the results, particularly for a first attempt.

As part of the process, the copper covered board is put in an acid bath to etch the traces. It was pretty cool watching that happen; took me back to the days of watching a print emerge on a white piece of paper in the darkroom.

I plan on finishing them this week and taking them to the next Friday Night Fotogs get together. When I do, I'll post a follow-up with pictures of the completed tool, some build notes and the resulting images.