Photoplotter FilmStar User Manual
Contents
1. Lavenir aperture file with the ENV extension E Li IN r A I B Bungard Elektronik GmbH amp Co KG a NSE Rilke Str 1 D 51570 Windeck Sieg Tel 02292 5036 Fax 6175 E mail support bungard de Photoplotter FilmStar User Manual Page 7 8 By the way the above mentioned column of several layers will only be necessary if you have one Gerber master file and want to create a set of films in the same spacing and arrangement like a four colour film set for publishing printing The Tool Panelize function will then handle all associated Gerber files according to the Master file on layer 1 and the Tools Panelize drill function will further allow to duplicate the drill data accordingly 3 3 Run_Plotter USB Run photoplotter via USB File Tools Setup Light Info J 4 A H ite ky 4 R id MA LERT R S i fl i CEN bo As n lees a e AF H eP E wef pepe evar le pihs Aoa be if f lt 4 t e Hee b Thy es Run photoplotter photoplotter is not connected Open File Ih Board 4200dpi fpt Photoplotter bitmap FPF Be Preview only photoplotter bitmap User notes Image size Input resolution XM Cancel There will be an indication on the estimate plotting time If your computer is very slow the displayed time will be different from the time actually needed Click on Plot to start the plot It may take several seconds until the drum has reach2. We add it to the FilmStar package free of charge for the case you need a tool to inspect Gerber data and convert aperture tables The Install folder contains the installation programme Setup exe that will install the Gerb2Bitmap exe Run Plotter USB exe View_FPF and associate files Run Plotter will control the photoplotter Two more folders Mark and Sample will contain sample data after the software was installed 3 2 Gerb2Bitmap Gerb2Bitmap handles Gerber data You may load files place the artwork image on the plot area and view them You may also convert the aperture tables of non extended Gerber data Further this software can pan ellize boards and generate drill data from the panels Finally Gerb2Bitmap creates raster data that are ready for use with the following programme that drives the photoplotter These raster data are actually a bitmap that comes in a special FPF format There is an additional output possibility for 250 dp1 Windows BMP files so that you can inspect the conversion results by double clicking the BMP file in Windows Explorer The programme screen is divided in the menu bar the icon bar the dark gray plot area and at the right of the screen a vertical list of layers and aperture files The icons have bubble help com ing up if you place the mouse cursor over them The plotting area shows the maximum film size that the plotter can handle Please set the value to what applies to your unit This is done
3. User Manual Page 3 8 In that state use adhesive tape to fix also the lower end of the film to the drum Finally it is very important that you turn the drum further to the starting position with the two white arrows in one line Close the lid re pack all film material into a safe box and leave the dark room You may now start a first test plot of a test grid in a quick step by step procedure A more detailed explanation of the included software follows later in this manual Start the Run Plotter USB software go to the Setup Generate Grid menu For the Grid parameters enter 5 for the Drum axis 36 for the drum circumference and 5 for the Line width Press OK A grid of 5 cm width and 30 cm height will be created ready to plot Click the triangular start button from the menu symbols or press the F5 function key see also tolls menu In the next menu you can select the output resolution The other entries will be explained later Click the Plot button to start plotting Output settings s Run photoplotter via USB Parameters of grid a File Tools Setup Light Info _ Output resolution dpi C 508 8600 Bm a g l 1016 x 8600 Drum axis C 1355 x 8600 C 1625 x 8600 Drum circumference 36 lt C 2032 x 8600 C 2710 8600 4064 x 8600 Test grid a Include Setup table M Negative S N P Mirror Light intensity 186 Plotfing speed Lo 7 X Cancel Plotting time 6 mins 50 x 360 mm Run ph
4. use white paper tape painter s utilities as this white tape can be best seen in the dark room light and it can easily be cut off the roll by hand Enter the dark room turn the green safe light on and make sure there is no extra light from outside dropping in Open FilmStar s lid You will see the drum Turn it by hand until the white arrow on the drum faces the white arrow on the left of the drum housing Take a sheet of film from its box and tape the upper end to the drum in a way that the tape sits about 20 mm on top over the arrow The emulsion side of the film must be facing the drum Films coming on rolls are already wound accord ingly Under the green light the emulsion side of the film normally looks gray the top side is darker There is another white arrow on the lower part of the drum housing that you should use for lateral position ing of the film After you fixed the upper edge of the sheet turn the drum by hand and sweep over the sheet so it goes tightly on the drum It is important that the sheet edges are parallel to the drum axis and that the upper and the lower sheet corners are facing each other 1 e the film is not twisted else the image will be distorted or the line edges will not be sharp Mounting films correctly will need some practise E Li IN r i B Bungard Elektronik GmbH amp Co KG Rilke Str 1 D 51570 Windeck Sieg NEE 02292 5036 Fax 6175 E mail support bungard de Photoplotter FilmStar
5. x 350 x 200 mm L x W x H Weight approx 24 kg Power supply External power supply 110V 240V 24V 2A System requirements software Pentium PC Windows 98 or higher 15O MB free Hard disk Computer speed has influence on plotting speed E Li IN r i B Bungard Elektronik GmbH amp Co KG Rilke Str 1 D 51570 Windeck Sieg NEE 02292 5036 Fax 6175 E mail support bungard de Photoplotter FilmStar User Manual Page 2 8 1 FilmStar Set Up and first test 1 1 Dark room All feeding or removing of film from the photoplotter as well as the subsequent development and fixation require dark room conditions and a special green safe light Install the unit in an appropriate room together with trays or tanks one each for development fixation and rinse In this room you will further need a main supply for the plotter and the safe light Further the USB cable coming with the plotter must be run out of this room to the place with the computer We recommend vertical mounted tanks with cover for the chemical processing These need little installation footprint and the liquids have a small surface compared to their volume which increases their life time Fur ther vertical film handling has the big advantage that no air bubbles can stay underneath the film and spoil development 1 2 Set Up The front panel of the unit has LEDs as well as a switch labelled Auto Man The power on switch is on the left side of the unit At its rear there
6. 0 the plotter serial no 0 000 0 000 0 000 0 000 0 000 0 000 If there are very special requirements on the 0 000 0 000 plotter precision and suitable measuring ee oF devices assumed the plotter can be calib 0 000 0 000 rated both in the drum and spindle direction For this purpose the Tool Generate Test Grid menu creates a grid with lines each 10 mm You may measure the actual line spacing and enter the res ults into the columns Drum linearity and Screw linearity As you will rarely need these micrometer range corrections we are not going more into details at this point If you need further assistance please call our support 2004 Bungard Elektronik E Li NJ r A I B Bungard Elektronik GmbH amp Co KG Rilke Str 1 D 51570 Windeck Sieg NE 02292 5036 Fax 6175 E mail support bungard de
7. 1s the input connector for the external power supply and the USB port Place the photoplotter in the dark room and connect the power supply to mains Do not yet turn on the power supply and the plotter Connect the USB cable and check if the Auto Man switch is in Auto position Connect the USB cable to the computer outside the dark room and start the computer It will recognize a new device on the USB port Do not allow Windows to search the drivers by itself but specify the CD home directory as the place where to look for the installation files You can ignore messages that say this driver was not certified Next install the software from the CD coming with the plotter The Set up programme can be found in the Install directory on the CD The installation procedure will be explained later in more detail The first test of the unit will work with no special software configuration but for later use under real condi tions individual configuration data need to be entered in the Setup Setup table and the Light menu of the Run Plotter software These information are supplied on a data sheet or floppy disk coming with the unit Please refer to page 9 of this manual for details You may now turn on the plotter You will hear a cooling fan and you will see the green LED blinking The laser head will move to the home position with a little humming noise 1 3 Test run You will need some adhesive tape to mount the film on the drum We suggest you
8. Photoplotter FilmStar User Manual Page 1 8 0 1 Overview Please address any inquiries related to the photoplotter hard or software to your local dealer first The Pho toplotter software is subject to copyright All information enclosed here is subject to change This manual was last updated on 07 Dec 2004 FilmStar is a small inexpensive raster photoplotter that exposes the film by a diode laser The film is moun ted to a rotating drum The laser light moves step by step in parallel to the drum axis The unit has an extern al power supply and is computer controlled FilmStar uses films sensitive to red light as standard in photoplotting industry These films come in sheets or on rolls and usually have 0 1 or 0 18 mm thickness Suppliers are e g Agfa Kodak Fuji We supply 0 1 mm thick sheets cut to size ready for use on FilmStar As usual these films require a darkroom where they go through a standard development and fixation procedure The darkroom needs a special green safe light il lumination The extent of delivery of FimStar comprises 3 software programmes The first Gerb2Bitmap serves for data preparation The second Run Plotter USB takes the so prepared data to control the plotter via the par allel port of your PC The third application supplied is ViewMate a Gerber viewer and aperture converter tool that is supplied for free The most common data format for use on FilmStar is Extended Gerber RS 274X If this is not avai
9. ainer where you want to drain the liquid in and release the thumb Wash all tanks with water and make sure there are no residues sit ting on the walls The procedure to develop a film exposed on FilmStar takes not more than a minute If you do not like to touch the liquid by hand wear thin Latex gloves you should use a film clamp Especially big sheets of film tend to stick to the tank wall To avoid this try to handle the sheet so that it goes in the tank in an S shape This little disadvantage in handling is minor compared to the advantage that there will be no air bubbles at all under the film surface as known from horizontal development trays Moreover the tank offers only a small liquid surface to the air so that the destructive oxidization of the developer will be delayed After exposure a short rinse is sufficient In the fixer the film will mostly be clear after 30 seconds It is good practise and gives better long term stability though to keep it in the fixer for double the time Rinsing after fixing is highly important Finally to dry the film put it to the dark room wall and wipe the first side with a smooth fuzzle free paper tissue Remove the film dry the wall reverse the film and wipe the second side Repeat the procedure with a fresh tissue You may also profit from a hot air dryer A well dried film looks fully transparent Rests of opaque bluish colour indicate insufficient drying The ambient humidity and the
10. ces plotting time but may cause vibra tions 2710 x 8600 C 4064 x 8600 C 8192 x 8600 Negative P Miror Light intensity 186 i Plotfing speed Plotting time 17 mins Bungard Elektronik GmbH amp Co KG Rilke Str 1 Tel 02292 5036 Fax 6175 E mail support bungard de D 51570 Windeck Sieg Photoplotter FilmStar User Manual Page 8 8 The Run Plotter software needs one initial set up in order to prepare it for use with the individual machine This set up covers the light intensity in relation to the output resolution as well as certain correction values The configuration data come with the plotter on a sheet of paper and or on a floppy disk Intensity of laser light The light intensity settings are coarse proposal values only They will vary with the type of film and developer that you use so you have to adapt them to your specific using conditions by test The Auto Manual switch that was mentioned in the begin i ning helps to do this light test If you put this switch to Manual the laser head will a er not return to the home position but will stay where it was after the last plot In this 508 dpi 190 LS a way you may create several test images with different light settings on one piece of 2082 cei 178 film Too poor light intensity will Soc Plot light bar multi resolution 0i 176 create gray instead of black addi 174 areas Too strong exposure will 8128dpi f 70 Resolution 1 R
11. drying grade of the film will highly affect the film precision As mentioned the developer will oxidize when in contact with air It will take a brown colour and cannot blacken the film sufficiently any more Test Expose a piece of film for 2 seconds to normal daylight After max minute of development at ambient temperature the film must be entirely black opaque If this 1s not the case the developer must be exchanged If you use the tank lid and take care not to pollute the developer it will have a life time of more than 6 months For frequent use the developer may be replenished with con centrate that you add in portions The life time of the fixer mostly depends on the throughput The time needed to clear the film will be longer with increasing use Attention The fixer contains silver and must be recycled Safety data sheets for the developer and fixer concentrates are available These are actually no dangerous goods for road transportation 3 Software 3 1 Overview The software comes on a CD that contains the folders Install Manual Util and Viewmate The Manual folder contains this instruction as a PDF file E Li IN r i B Bungard Elektronik GmbH amp Co KG Rilke Str 1 D 51570 Windeck Sieg NEE 02292 5036 Fax 6175 E mail support bungard de Photoplotter FilmStar User Manual Page 5 8 ViewMate Setup is a separate application to install Pentalogix former Lavenir Gerber Viewer software Viewmate
12. ed nominal speed There will be a progress indication on the screen NE BR Run Plotter USB exe reads the FPF file gener ated in Gerb2Bitmap and controls the plotter Ex cept from FPF Run Plotter can also read high resolution BMP files Controlling the plotter includes also the individu al configuration of each unit 1 e in terms of the laser head s light intensity Additionally you may choose to mirror the output and or to create neg ative artwork A sequence of operation in this software starts by loading a file via the File Open menu The file selection allows to select from the different data format A file in the special FPF format will ad ditionally show a preview image and will con tain information on the input resolution After clicking OK you will be returned to the main menu The picture of the loaded image will ap pear only if the file size is below approx 14 MB As the raster image might be quite big please allow for a little time to load data To con tinue press the triangular Start button In the fol lowing menu you may set the output resolution the light intensity and the positive negative or mirrored output The light setting will be pre set according to the output resolution The entry Plotting speed Output settings Lo Hi controls E Output resolution dpi the drum rotation C 508x 8600 f 1016 x 5600 C 1355 x 8600 1625 x 8600 C 2032 x 8600 speed Putting this on Hi redu
13. esolution 2 Resolution 3 Resolution 4 expand the size of fine lines and msa hss Pome pes may create gray shades at the Initial light 1 Initial light 2 Initial light 3 Initial light 4 edges of black areas To assist in E m 170 us is finding the right light intensity ae for several resolutions by one test choose the menu from PS tool plot light bar multi resolution You may enter 4 eee different resolutions with different initial settings Step is the value to increase the settings from one step to the next A sample of a film that was made with this func tion should be included with the plotter and is an indica tion for the settings that you should use together with the films and chemistry that we offer Aane Eein ola The Setup Table menu contains the main in ies Serou West ee configuration settings Important values are Distance mm Delta mm Distance mm Delta mm Drum diameter i mm a eens 0050 ee the corrected drum diameter and the 0 000 0 000 Screw error 0 0200 for 300 mmn in mm screw error on 300 mm Both values are i pee contained on the configuration sheet we sup 0 000 0 000 plied If your individual unit needs other 0 000 0 000 e e 0 000 0 000 special settings you may find them on a 0 000 0 000 floppy disk that we added In this case 0 000 0 000 7 ee oa gi please import the file xxx yy phs via the 0 000 0 000 Setup Import table menu Xxx Stands for 0 000 0 00
14. in the Preference Plotting area menu In Preference Units you may set your preferred meas uring unit metric inch A last but im portant setting that must be done only once is under Preference memory size Set this value to about the amount of RAM that is available on your PC less 20 MB This will speed up program Plotting area 310 d0mm x 380 00mm i i Plotting area size i Select unit Drum circumference 310 00 mm Used memory z7 MB Drum axis x Cancel Jf OK XM Cancel Used memory approx computer RAM memory 20MB Cancel execution during calculation of the raster image A typical sequence of using the Gerb2Bitmap software is as follows i3 Li NJ r A I B Bungard Elektronik GmbH amp Co KG Rilke Str 1 D 51570 Windeck Sieg E i 02292 5036 Fax 6175 E mail support bungard de Photoplotter FilmStar User Manual Page 6 8 1 Job Import Master Gerber opens a file selector that allows to import Gerber files either standard or ex tended In a first approach we assume you have selected a file in Extended Gerber format A rectangle comes up in the upper right corner that corresponds to the artwork in size and orientation You drag this rectangle versus the plot origin in the upper left corner Repeating this step you may arrange several layouts on the plot surface Try to right click the red rectangle with the mouse This will give a pop up menu that allows to position lock unloc
15. jure the human eye Never look into the laser beam E Li IN r FA I B Bungard Elektronik GmbH amp Co KG Rilke Str 1 D 51570 Windeck Sieg NE 02292 5036 Fax 6175 E mail support bungard de Photoplotter FilmStar User Manual Page 4 8 2 Film development and fixing In this chapter we assume that you are using the film and chemicals that we supplied and that you are treat ing the film in the dark room also made by us If you are using other consumables or equipment you will have to adapt to your working conditions the instructions given here below The setup concentration of the developer and fixer concentrate are given on the jerrycans Dilute one part of concentrate in 2 parts of water As a precaution if your tap water is very hard please use deionized water The three vertical tanks in our dark room take 9 litres each so you will need each 3 litres of concentrate and 6 litres of water at room temperature The fixer goes in the first tank from the front the middle tank takes the rinse water and the last tank is to be filled with developer Be careful when filling in the liquids The developer will be destroyed if fixer drops in Please keep all tanks closed by the lids The water in the middle tank will need to be replaced frequently Components of the film emulsion will leave pasty residues in this tank To empty the tanks take the flexible hose from the holder close the opening by your thumb put the end over the cont
16. k and delete the particular image If you have several images on the screen the one in red colour is the active one Some programming reasons require that the assignment of the X and Y axes on the screen look different than on the photoplotter The plot image is both mirrored and twisted by 90 degrees That causes that the direction of the drum circumference shows from the left to the right and the laser head movement is on an axis showing vertically on the screen For maximum execution speed you should try to arrange all artwork so that most data is in the direction of drum rotation say horizontally on the screen 2 Job Preview opens a preview window to show you the total of all layouts that you loaded 3 Job Export Fotoplotter File FPF creates the raster data in an internal format called FPF These data are written to a file of your choice and that can later be used by the Run Plotter software In this menu you se lect also the resolution dpi in which data will be converted Please note that high dpi settings give huge files Also there is a limitation in Windows 98 GDI memory that could spoil the FPF file contents at a too high dpi setting Windows XP should not have that limitation i Data Format SA If you have no Extended Gerber files you need to specify the measuring unit and the zero suppression for each Gerber file This is done in Prefer er ence Data Format Second and again for all Gerber files you need to ana
17. lable standard Gerber RS 274D may be used In this case a built in aperture converter helps transform the aper ture tables of all common CAD and CAM software into a standard format suitable for use with Gerb2Bit map This software exports the bitmap data in a proprietary FPF format for use on the plotter driver soft ware For data inspection purposes it can as well export BMP in a 250 dpi resolution We also include on the CD a program called FPF Viewer that allows to inspect the contents of FPF files Further use of the Ger b2Bitmap software is 1 e to mount several layouts on one sheet of film or creation of step and repeat art work Optional software is required for conversion of Postscript data The Run Plotter USB software controls the photoplotter via USB port It reads bitmap data in the above mentioned FPF format or at user s choice in Windows BMP format In Run Plotter USB you may select the output resolution as well as positive or negative direct or mirrored output 0 2 Technical Data Maximum film size 400x320 mm L x W Maximum plot area 380 x 300 mm Resolution X Y select 508 1016 1355 1625 2032 2710 4064 8192 8000 dpi Speed 13 mm of film width per minute at 1016 dpi Light source Laser diode 670 nm red Data format Import Gerber Extended Gerber Hi Res BMP FPF Aperture table input CAM350 GC CAM IsoCAM Lavenir Aperture converter input PADS EAGLE OrCAD Protel PCAD and others Plotter size 700
18. nena load an appropriate aperture file This is done from the Job Import Aper Digits tures menu A dialogue window will show up that allows to select the type Integer Decimal 2 3 x of aperture file to load and allows to select to use an aperture converter The aperture files from CAM350 GC CAM or IsoCAM are supported dir ectly You may also use the external ViewMate software to convert aper Zero supression Units fe Leading English ee me ture files to the Lavenir format ENV None etric The aperture converter built into Gerb2Bitmap will take all necessary in TK kaa formation automatically You just press Guess format and Start To quit the converter press ESC See Gay The name of the aperture file will show in the a column right to the one with the name of the Gerber 0 00 0 0000 file Each Gerber file needs its own aperture table If eee aa a a a Gerber image was removed from the plot area the Hara 0 00 Coote associate aperture table will be removed as well Us me n ae ing standard Gerber files with no or wrong aperture ete w om tables gives faulty results oe i You may view and edit the aperture file assigned to None 00 the actual layer Select Preference Aperture table se es This menu also allows to create a new table Any tee oe how each entry needs to have the right shape and x size information typed in After you clicked on Save Save and named the file this will be written to disk as a
19. otoplotter photoplotter is not connected The drum rotation starts slowly and noisy due to stepper motor resonance After reaching the nominal speed the computer initiates the plotting The LED marked Laser lights blinks according to the on off condition of the laser head The computer screen shows a progress in dicator You may stop the plotter immediately by pressing the square STOP button or the F6 function key After each stop of the plotting either by program or user the laser head will go to the home position You should wait until this home run finished If you try to start a new plot too early the machine will not be able to communicate with the computer After the test job was finished you may return into the dark room and develop the film as explained in the next chapter Remark Films from different manufacturers show different light intensity It is therefore possible and even necessary to adapt the light intensity So if your first test plot shows poor line blackness this will be over come after you processed the setup explained later in this manual For that purpose the program s tool menu contains an item plot lightbar multi resolution Keep the drum surface clean and dry In order to remove possible residues of the adhesive tape please use a soft cloth with a liquid cleaner like Isopropylic alcohol Please do not use spray cleaners During the plotting process the film is exposed to laser light This light can in
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