Print Your Own Circuitboards with Voltera | Hardware Battlefield

Waiting for a prototype circuitboard you designed to come back from a manufacturer can take weeks; a Voltera printer can get it done by lunchtime, making your development process fast and lean.

[fredtucker]

Justa a random update, had mine for the last 3-4 months. I am happy with it. It works - has a learning curve to it, same as 3d printing but the help is good and its just a good machine. It's not cheap.

[CaliforniaArchitect]

Of all of the start ups pitching at Hardware Battlefield, this seems to be the best one.

[prehistoricgamer]

Now, you can... you can... 3d-print a 3d-printer??? Hell yeah!

[lvignals]

That is going to be awesome when those desktop PCB printers are massively available. Desktop printed PCB is the dream of so many hobbyist. The biggest issue is probably going to be the price point, if history is any indicator the first company to offer a sub $1000 desktop PCB printer will take 70 percent of the early adopters market. $1000 for some reason is that psychological barrier where hobbyist are willing to work through other alternatives or simply rely on their network of contacts for help.

[newtechgs]

this is just a fantastic bit of equipment, hope they do really well with it

[nelsondarwinpaktech]

Good work, , , sir, , , as we r from poor country so kindly tell us the price of this machine, , , ,

[comsoft]

why not printing "regular" ink ditectly on the pcb, and then just putting it into ferric chloride solution?

[MMDR]

Great idea but still out of my league. I'm a poor hobbiest and it's still too pricey for me.
Think I'll stick to my plan of buying a Computer Controlled Router / Engraver at a fraction of that price.

If my prototypes don't work out it's only cost me my time and the cost of a copper clad board or two. I dare say the cost of the ink and other consumables to print one board on this printer is equal to or greater than that. I've seen the price of these conductive inks for other applications and they're not cheap - Something like 5ml for £10 because most quality conductive inks contain silver particles.

This product would be great for businesses, students, educational departments and those with deep pockets but for me - I'll never afford one unless they fall to the £500 mark or less.

Maybe if they catch on, mass production will drop the prices.
Hope they do well, It really is a great product but just not for broke people like me lol

[DanFrederiksen]

I would ask what the ink costs and the conductivity compared to 35u copper. If it's only useful for signal level or if it can draw a few amps. I seem to recall one ink that was something like 20 times worse than copper which is a significant limiter.
I would look into laser etching of copper clad. Ideally combined with a pick and place, past dispenser and use the laser to solder. As well as cut and drill the boards.
Eventually however 3D printing will encompass everything, structure, circuit, parts and wires. One monolithic process to rule them all. I know this because that's how the ETs do it.

[mingyang]

I want to get this machine, is there any other contact information, thank you

[wfg]

Amazing device, but for us home tinkering designers it is till more than twice the price that's reasonable for hobby market

[pedromoraes]

Nothing new here CNC + conductive paint and they are asking 1.899 USD for this, I do the same thing with parts of 3 old cdrom drives and 1 arduino

[javilt]

I wana become a hobbiest got alot of learning to do but this looks cool

[inquisitorbaldy]

The voltera is a nightmare to work with.

[adriandeveraaa]

The second he said "Silver Nano Particle conductive ink" I stopped the video. I already know that stuff is expensive to manufacture and make. Definitely not in the entry price point for hobbyists.

[lanceseidman]

This is beyond useful. Prototype in the U.S. again. Next step, solder and then a mini oven.

[fraznofire]

They make diy pcb etching look dangerous "toxic and corrosive chemical" more like "stuff I nearly died from because I have no idea how to use this"

[vladlv]

bullshit... show me how you print soldermask... why put someone else board to show dispensing of solder????

[rdkater]

needs to print directly on a copper clad wit ordinair paint like nail varnish, let it dry throw the board in the acid, rins en wash off wit acetone.sell the apparatus wit the drivers en software also make Shure to give support for whatever windows is coming out.a printer like this is a real solution for hobby en prototyping.I suggest back to the drawing board.sell it for 200 us dollar retail en you will have it made.

[ArcAiN]

i like how they point out the cost effectiveness of their machine, but once you calculate the prices of their "ink" and all of the supporting materials, it's more expensive to use this machine than to send out to someone like oshpark. Yea, you'll have to wait a few days to get your boards back, but you didn't have to spend $2k on a machine and hundreds on all the of the media for the machine.. And quite frankly, their prices are ridiculous. Asking 12$ for 6 "blank" boards, when i can buy 10 copper clad boards of the same price, for the same size.. Totally not worth it..

Once the "gimmick" factor wears off, this thing will just be overpriced noveltyware.