Is twenty times the copper twenty times as much fun to work with? Ask limpkin and follow along as he fabricates a DC/DC block for a Formula E race car on 20-oz copper PCBs.
The typical boards you order from OSH Park and the like usually come with 1-ounce copper – that’s one ounce of copper cladding per square foot of board. For those averse to Imperial units, that’s a copper layer 34 micrometers thick. limpkin’s Formula E control board needs to carry a lot of current, so he specified 700-micrometer thick cladding, or 20-oz per square foot. The board pictured cost $2250, so you’d figure soldering on the components would be an exotic process, but aside from preheating the board, limpkin took it in stride. Check out the image gallery of the session and you’ll see nothing but a couple of regular high-wattage soldering irons, with dirty tips to boot.
It’s pretty neat comparing what’s needed for power electronics versus the normal small signal stuff we usually see. We’d recommend looking at Brian Benchoff’s “Creating a PCB in Everything” series for design tips, but we’re not sure traditional tools will work for boards like these. And just for fun, check out the Formula E highlights video below the break to see what this build is part of.
Thanks to vinnycordeiro for the tip.
icanhaz says: For $2250 I would think you could just mill some copper plate and glue it down to some fr4.
gh0stwriter88 says: Or the other way… epoxy it to fr4 and then mill it…seems like that would be easier to me.
Rodney McKay says: $2250? I think I would have used point-to-point wiring with whatever gauge was needed. Duh.
Gregg Bond (@cabe_bedlam) says: Weight, and vibration control. 4Tthis is after all an elite motorsport.
mikes electric stuff says: a Metcal or JBC iron would have soldered this fine without a hotplate.
macona says: I have soldered some big stuff with my metcal, but I think this would be too much for it.
