USING LINEGRINDER TO MAKE PCBS:18-11-2012

Matthew Little
http://www.reinnovation.co.uk/web12/index.php/en/blog-75/224making-pcbs-with-linegrinder

Contiuing from this post about using my CNC machine

to create PCBs, here is an update on the tool chain from
designing circuit board to milling them on my CNC
machine. This process is still not perfect, but this is just
to remind me of the settings and hopefully it might be
useful to other people.
The tool chain I use tries to include free and open
source programs (but I rate 'ease of use' above 'opensource-ness').
The tool chain at present is:

1. KiCAD - To design the circuit schematics

and circuit boards
2. LineGrinder - To generate the g-code from
gerber files
3. LinuxCNC (previously called EMC2)- To
control the CNC machine based upon the
G-code.
I have written a post on the CNC machine at reinnovation. It is a relatively small machine with a bed of
300mm x 200mm and a depth of 70mm. I have been
using it to cut acrylic parts, drill holes for etched circuit
boards and cut holes into boxes for some prototypes.
I have been messing around with LineGrinder which is a
free and open program, but only available for Windows.
I am using it on a Windows 7 machine.

A useful on-line tool, the G-Code commenter can be

found here. This takes G-Code and adds humanreadable comments next to each line. This turned out

to be very useful for decoding the output of

LineGrinder. G-code is relatively human-readable, but I
have not memorised all the G-code commands yet.
Here are my notes on getting the correct outputs from
KiCAD and the settings within LineGrinder to mill PCBs.

This is the PCB in KiCAD I was trying to mill. I set an

Auxillary axis (0,0) point to the top left corner of this
board (the same set-up as my CNC 0,0 point).

Go to File -> Plot and you will get this list of options. I
wanted the front and back copper and the PCB_edges
to be produced. Check those boxes and click 'Plot'. I
also need a drill file.

Click on 'Generate Drill File'. I used: 'millimeters', 'keep

zeros', 'Auxillary Axis' and 'Mirror y axis' and then
clicked 'OK'.

Open up LineGrinder and try and open the .drl file you
have just created in KiCAD.

I got this error message which says that the .drl file is in
mm, but the settings are in inches.

So click on the 'Settings' tab and change Application

data to 'Millimeters'. Click on the .drl option on the left
had side and you will get the various properties shown
here. In these properties you can set the drill depth,
drill feed rate, drill moving height and other options.

Click 'Generate G-code' and hopefully it will compile

correctly. Go back to the 'Plot View' tab and click on
'Drill G-code'. Mine looked like this, which is good. Save
the drill g-code.

You can view the generated g-code which is a good idea

to check. When I first looked at this I had made some
errors and needed to adjust the values explained
above.

The next thing to do is open the gerber file for the

copper. I was making a single sided PCB and just
wanted the back copper. This would be milled from the
top, so I needed to reverse the file. Open your .gbl file
for the back copper (the file from KiCAD is not
automatically recognised, but does open correctly as a
gerber file).

Again there are options associated with this type of file.

I chose an isolation cut, but I needed to change back to
inches. I could not find a way of exporting from KiCAD
in mm. Things to note include the 'Y Flip' (as I was
producing a file for the bottom copper, but cutting it
from the top, if you see what I mean) and the ZCutLevel
which was -0.002 inches. I might need to adjust that.

I created the G-code and then viewed i using the

viewer. It looked as above. The text on the board is the
correct way around, which means it is correct. This
screen shot was done when I had a ground plane,
hence it is quite complex. It was too complex for my
CNC and so I needed to remove the copper fill from the
KiCAD board. This made everything run much more
smoothly and reliably.
Also check this with the drill output file - are holes
where you think they should be?

The last features were the board edge milling and

board levelling. This is a great feature, but I could not
get it to flip on the Y axis, so could not use this feature.
Line Grinder can read in the board edges and create
the board edge mill path (along with tabs to hold the
board) and also perform a board levelling pass which
flattens a piece of sacrificial substrate to the correct
depth and exactly flat so the isolation cut will work
correctly.
This is the board edge mill path (along with tabs). I
cannot find a way to flip this on the Y axis, hence I
could not use this for my board. It

would work if I were to drill and cut on one side and

then flip over. I will try this another day....

This is the board levelling output - it creates a box

around the board edge and levels an area bigger than
the board. This is good, but I alredy have a levelled
board to use so I did not need it for this test.
Now we use these g-code files for LinuxCNC, which
controls my CNC machine.
Problems....
There were some issues with opening the g-code with
LinuxCNC - mainly due to an error from the G02 and
G03 commands, which draw an arc. I solved this error
by removing the copper fill (this would not be needed,
as this will happen automatically with isolation routing).
The issue had been the tiny cuts around the holes

connected to the copper fill plane (this was connected

to ground in my case).
The next issue was due to the drill file and isolation file
not fitting on top of each other. I had created the drill
file using 'Mirror Y axis' option in KiCAD. The isolation
path is created using the 'Flip Y' function. This meant
that the drill file had positive X and Y values, while the
isolation path g-code had positive X values, but
negative Y values. They would match up but only with
adjustment of the origin. This was a hassle. You cannot
flip the drill file using LineGrinder (maybe a feature for
next time?).
I have come up with a workaround, which gets me
where I need to be, but is not very automated and is a
bit of a hassle.
The isolation path generated also creates some code to
do small 'pecks' at the points where the drill holes are
meant to be. This is to aid hand-drilling of the PCB. I
decided to go into the G-Code and adjust these points
to make them the actual drill holes. To do this I needed
to find that section of code (which is luckily called 'Pad
Touchdown'):

Where the line (... pad touchdown start ...) is, I added a
move in the Z axis (G01 Z1.000) (This was in inches),
so I have room to change the bit from the isolation
cutter to the drill bit. I then a generic 'change tools'
command (T01). This will cause the code to stop and
ask for the new tool bit.

The second time I ran this code, it did not ask for the
tool to be changed (and ruined an isolation bit as it
plunged into the substrate!). The reason is that once
the machine thinks it has the correct tool, it will not ask
again. So I needed to change the tool to a different tool
right at the beginning so that it will always ask to
change tools. This meant adding code as shown here:

I was now ready to try this all out...

The CNC machine has a milled flat bed. This ensures a

level substrate so we get even isolation paths.

I used some scrap single sided copper clad board.

This was stuck to the milled flat bed using double sided
carpet tape. This worked OK, but the copper clad board
had a slight warp and the tape was not strong enough
to hold it totally flat. I should have kept the copper clad

board with a weight on it to keep it flat. It did not make

a huge difference on this relatively simple circuit board.

Above is a 45 degree isolation routing bit. This has a

very sharp tip to cut away the copper.

This is the PCB after both isolation routing and drilling.

An attempt where the drill did not hit the isolation path
can be seen on another bit of the copper clad board.

This is the final board after I had cut it out.

The prototype board with components.

The underside of the PCB. It was a 2 sided design,

hence there are some jumper wires on this board. I had
actually made no mistakes with the circuit design of
this board, which is unusual for me.a

The board was a 'shield' for an Arduino clone, to run

and RGB LED unit. Here it is plugged in and working.
Things to improve:
Strength of sticking down substrate (the copper
board still had a warp, which meant uneven
isolation traces).
How to produce drill files correctly or include
different sized drill holes.
Links:
I'll put up relevant links here:
A great video on electroplating through hole vias.