3D Printed on Air Sign With Flashing LEDs and CNC Milled Circuit Board

This On Air Sign with Flashing LED lights was 3D printed and also has a CNC milled circuit board I created on a X-Carve machine. No micro or Arduino required.

A full video of the steps are available at my YouTube Channel.

No microcontroller or Arduino was needed because I used an Astable Multivibrator circuit that only needed two NPN transistors, two capacitors, four resistors and two LEDs. Also a switch and 9v battery were added.

I used ExpressPCB to make the circuit board. There are lots of other options.

I used Copper Connection board layout software to import the ExpressPCB file and output a set of Gerber Files for the board.

I used Flatcam software to load the bottom layer of the board (which was single sided) to create the GCode for the X-Carve CNC.

I use Flatcam to also create the drill file GCode from the Gerber drill file.

Universal GCode Sender software was used to control the X-Carve CNC. The GCode for the Bottom Layer was loaded and then sent to the X-Carve controller.

I used a 20 degree engraving bit to cut the isolation channels that form the traces in the single sided copper board.

Universal GCode sender was used to send the drill file to the X-Carve.

I used a 0.035" drill bit for the holes.

I sanded the top of the board with sandpaper and then checked for shorts with an ohm meter. The traces were good.

The components were inserted and the leads bent to hold them in place.

The copper soldered easily with typical rosin core solder. All excess leads were clipped.

The board was powered up and the circuit worked perfectly. The LEDs were soldered on the opposite side to fit in the 3D Printed case.

A 3D printed case was designed in Tinkercad and shared on Thingiverse. The design has a 9v battery holder and holes for a switch and the two flashing LEDs.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1705206

The board was wired to a switch and 9v Battery clip. The case was completed on my FlashForge 3D printer. Everything ready for assembly.

The battery fit in the designed bracket perfectly and the board was held in place with double sided foam sticky tape. The switch was held in place with a nut.

The finished design is assembled and ready to use. Works great to warn family I'm filming my YouTube Video.