Life could be colorful as Rainbow, how about PCBs?
Back to 1990s, I was quite impressed when i first time looked at a Sound blaster live with Black PCB and golden logo, without plug it in my PC’s PCI slot, i could feel it’s brilliant quality.
Now, we have quite some PCB to work with, it’s exciting for us to make them look and feel different while pursing the quality. We knocked many doors to see if any PCB factory is willing to do a “non-sense” multi color PCB, it’s made reality thanks to low economy. Though the cost is pretty higher than a normal one, we took the first step after a long negotiation.
Nobody knows what it will be like, we chose to try from color blocks. The RGB three colors are casted upon corresponding pins of our new Rainbowduino, adjoin to each other. The result is beyond expectation, the patterns are precisely made. Complex patterns should be OK, re-alignment does not seems to be a problem. Multi color is feasible, but opaque solid. (don’t expect to have some blending effect)
Why not: People use silkscreen and paste pre-printed marks if necessary.
Why: The advantage IMHO is that it’s 1) merely unique, 2)the color could go underneath components, 3) it’s a back ground color for silkscreens.
Anyway, the new Rainbowduino you purchased now will be with 4 PCB color. We will experiment more in the future, opinions welcomed! 🙂
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Cute! I don’t doubt the multiple mask steps would throw most fab houses in a loop.
Next step: 4 color graphics from mask? Maybe even dithered?