Uploaded December 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The Eagle BRD widget in ChiliPeppr now has a solder mask Gcode creation tab. You can use it to laser or mill out your solder mask.
This approach assumes you have painted, rolled, glued, or stuck on a solder mask and you want to laser etch or mill away the solder pads and smd pads. This can work with paint or rolled on solder mask. Some people use Dynamask, which is a gel film you laminate on with a hot roller. Some people use vinyl and then cut out the pads, then paint. Laser etching the mask can work because copper is highly reflective and thus lasers won't effect it, while burning away the paint. Milling is possible, but you need to be massively accurate on your Z depth to not mill away the copper and only mill the mask ink. Auto-levelling is highly suggested before mask if milling.
In the video I use the NUBM44 blue 445nm laser diode from DTR Laser shop. sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/home/diodes/6w-nubm44-445nm-laser-diode
The solder mask is from ebay at ebay.com/itm/100g-PCB-UV-Curable-Solder-Mask-Repairing-Paint-Green-Negative-Photoresist-SP-/162304812832?hash=item25ca1ee720:g:XhcAAOSwhkRWg2bk
I'm using the chilipeppr.com/tinyg workspace in ChiliPeppr.
TinyG is from Synthetos.com.
CNC machine is generic 3040 from China modified to run the TinyG.
The TinyG is connected to a Raspberry Pi 3 over USB running Serial Port JSON Server. I connect from my laptop to Serial Port JSON Server to send the Gcode from ChiliPeppr.
My laser is controlled from an ESP8266 running the ChiliPeppr Cayenn protocol. It is syncrhonized to the TinyG using the coolant on/off pin to indicate which command should be executed in real-time next on the ESP8266.
The Eagle BRD widget in ChiliPeppr now has a solder mask Gcode creation tab. You can use it to laser or mill out your solder mask.
This approach assumes you have painted, rolled, glued, or stuck on a solder mask and you want to laser etch or mill away the solder pads and smd pads. This can work with paint or rolled on solder mask. Some people use Dynamask, which is a gel film you laminate on with a hot roller. Some people use vinyl and then cut out the pads, then paint. Laser etching the mask can work because copper is highly reflective and thus lasers won't effect it, while burning away the paint. Milling is possible, but you need to be massively accurate on your Z depth to not mill away the copper and only mill the mask ink. Auto-levelling is highly suggested before mask if milling.
In the video I use the NUBM44 blue 445nm laser diode from DTR Laser shop. sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/home/diodes/6w-nubm44-445nm-laser-diode
The solder mask is from ebay at ebay.com/itm/100g-PCB-UV-Curable-Solder-Mask-Repairing-Paint-Green-Negative-Photoresist-SP-/162304812832?hash=item25ca1ee720:g:XhcAAOSwhkRWg2bk
I'm using the chilipeppr.com/tinyg workspace in ChiliPeppr.
TinyG is from Synthetos.com.
CNC machine is generic 3040 from China modified to run the TinyG.
The TinyG is connected to a Raspberry Pi 3 over USB running Serial Port JSON Server. I connect from my laptop to Serial Port JSON Server to send the Gcode from ChiliPeppr.
My laser is controlled from an ESP8266 running the ChiliPeppr Cayenn protocol. It is syncrhonized to the TinyG using the coolant on/off pin to indicate which command should be executed in real-time next on the ESP8266.
