PCB agitator from an old CD ROM

PCB making it's a really exciting thing, but when you need to etch, it will be boring if you use ferric chloride (in average it takes 20-30 minutes to be ready). During this time you need to agitate it to speed up the process a bit, but you also need to take care that the ferric chloride didn't spill out.

In this instructable I will present how to build an automatic agitator from an old CD ROM drive quite simply and low cost.

Step 1 The old CD ROM disassembly

First, you need an old CD ROM drive which you need to disassemble carefully, not to break anything.

Comments

[woundup]

Hi try to make an PCB agitator out of an old CD ROM diive,but couldn't make it work,the tray would come out but not go back in again,try anorther CD ROM diive same thing happen, must to do with the switches or is the circuit right ?maybe it's a race between the cp0 and the reset,any thoughts please.

[mzsolt]

Hi! You have a bidirectional limit switch or two normal limit switches? You can try to reverse the motor polarity. If it doesn't work, try the H-bridge without the IC.

[MatchstalkMan]

Nice! And very ecologically responsible. I got to build me one of these!

If I could add a bubble etch system to this and a temperature control and heater system, it would etch even faster!

Where are my crayons so that I can get to designin'?

Inspired, my friend, truly inspired!

Kudos!

[mzsolt]

Thank you!

[static]

Far out, a good idea, good indestructible. I think you meant to say turned off here " until the agitator is turned on" But I think I'll go with the more soothing sound of an air bumbler etching tank. Also the motor reverses in normal operation of the CDROM player. There should be a [H bridge] within the unit already. Any reason you didn't employ it, or was it just easier make one yourself,not messing with hacking into the units electronics?

[mzsolt]

I wanted to build a universal motor driver, because in some cases it's really difficult to find the driver IC datasheet.

[rimar2000]

Clever!

[mzsolt]

Thank you!

I tried to present something useful and easy to build.

[kill-a-watt]

you made hack-a-day

[mzsolt]

I didn't made Hack-a-day. Just check the publication date of my instructable. It's July 16th and the Hack-a-day article was published on July 17th.

[rimar2000]

Maybe mzsolt is same person that Mike Nathan. Otherwise, that is plagiary!

[mzsolt]

No, I'm not the same person with Mike Nathan, my real name is Molnár Zsolt: "Instructables user [mzsolt] ...".

[rimar2000]

So, sorry. The dates (your response to kill-a-watt) clarify the issue...

[mzsolt]

Never mind. It was only a misunderstanding.

[kill-a-watt]

mzsolt created the instructable on July 16th

Mike Nathan covered mzsolt's instructable in a post, saying it was a neat project. That's like the 2011 version of being slashdotted circa 1997.

I clicked on the link in the blog story over at hack-a-day and came here.

When  I said that he "made hackaday", I meant that he "was featured on the front page of hack-a-day".

So sorry for the misunderstanding.

[mzsolt]

So sorry, I didn't speak English as a native language, and I didn't knew this meaning of this word.