Trace pens could they be used.... / General Science and Electronics / Forums

Forums

4hv.org :: Forums :: General Science and Electronics

« Previous topic | Next topic »

Trace pens could they be used....

1 2 next

Move Thread

LAN_403

Ken M.

Sun Sept 02 2007, 03:11PM

Registered Member #618 Joined: Sat Mar 31 2007, 04:15AM
Location: Us-Great Lakes
Posts: 628

After being rudely awakened this morning after 1 hour of sleep and 12 hours of work by the neighbors dog, an interesting idea entered my mind. I thought what if I used a trace pen such as

, but say from a different source, to make a circuit board on a sheet of plexiglass, Say maybe Steve's halfbridge SSTC. With that thought in mind I figured I'd ask you guys these questions,

A) Does anyone know if these things even work, and if so could they be made to draw a thick enough trace for the power section of a half bridge?

More questions if I can think of them, and how to word them correctly with out looking ridiculous.

...

Sun Sept 02 2007, 04:29PM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

In short, NO.

You definantly can't use them for the power section, they aren't conductive enough. For the logic section you could in theory, but good luck soldering the parts to it...

Ken M.

Sun Sept 02 2007, 04:36PM

Registered Member #618 Joined: Sat Mar 31 2007, 04:15AM
Location: Us-Great Lakes
Posts: 628

Thanks for the insight, well back to brainstorming a way to make a sheet of plexiglass into a circuit board.

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Sun Sept 02 2007, 05:54PM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

You can get copper tape from DATAK that is sticky on the bottom. It's not great, but it might work.

I say that because the sticky stuff isn't very sticky.

GreySoul

Sun Sept 02 2007, 08:24PM

Registered Member #546 Joined: Fri Feb 23 2007, 11:43PM
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Posts: 239

you could draw the traces on with such a pen then electroplate the copper to the plexi.... but it won't really "stick" so you have to make mechanical anchors every so often....

-Doug

Reaching

Sun Sept 02 2007, 08:36PM

Registered Member #76 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 10:04AM
Location: Hemer, Germany
Posts: 458

No, you definately "can" do this
But if you find the materials and chemikals to do it is another question.
IÂ´ve seen some design parts for computers etc on plexiglas stuff though.
you can search for some sort of liquid to "etch" the plexi a bit, maybe acetone for PS plexi or some other. then you add a second layer of copper conductive varnish and after that you can add liquid copper (it usually comes in small bottles with brush. you add on the copper manually with the brush. then you put the whole mess in some sort of chemikal to electrolysis the copper on.

That works and is physically tough enough to solder components on it.

But is it really worth it?

why not use plexi, glue some sort of 75Âµ coppe sheet on it, cover it with photoresist and you are ready

Marko

Sun Sept 02 2007, 09:19PM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

I think it would be much easier for us if you told what exactly you want to do.

Electroplating copper is much harder than you might first think, especially on such a surface.
I don't believe it would stick to plexi at all.

Even if you do it, you won't be able to solder anything to bare copper in contact with plexy without melting it and creating mess.

It would be best if you just glued pieces of PCB onto it and then soldered. Board would give some thermal insulation, but not too much so you would still need to be careful.

Ken M.

Mon Sept 03 2007, 12:43PM

Registered Member #618 Joined: Sat Mar 31 2007, 04:15AM
Location: Us-Great Lakes
Posts: 628

My apologies for being vague (as usual), I was thinking it would be interesting, if not really cool to have a circuit board on transparent Plexiglas, Basicly I was thinking of taking a piece of Plexiglas using one of those trace pens and laying out the traces for a SSTC on a piece of Plexiglas and installing some parts on the plexi glass to make it look like a transparent PCB.example.... say BP's circuit

but instead of it being that yellowish fiberglass color, it would be transparent.

Bored Chemist

Mon Sept 03 2007, 05:21PM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

You could get some of the sticky copper foil stuff, make up the circuit tracks on a normal srbp or whatever board then peel it off and transfer it to a perspex board then make the connections with conductive epoxy. Very fiddly and very expensive in silver filled glue. You couldn't solder near perspex- it can't stand the heat. (Having said that I confidently expect to be shown to be wrong by someone using something like indium/tin solder.)

Electroholic

Tue Sept 04 2007, 04:42PM

Registered Member #191 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 02:01AM
Location: Esbjerg Denmark
Posts: 720

well you can also get conductive epoxy, they are expensive, but instead of soldering, now you only have to glue them down.

1 2 next

Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob