I've seen a few videos and heard suggestions of people using conductive ink pens to fix traces on a PCB but I've also seen people using a wire to bypass the affected area on the trace.
Is using a conductive ink pen a good way to fix a trace and, if so, is it considered a permanent solution or will it require reapplication down the line?
Hi all. Let me know if I should ask this in r/electronics instead. My question is whether conductive pens work for creating traces. I've seen a lot of people using solder to create traces on perfboard, etc. but that seems like a lot of work and can get messy if you're new to soldering like me (not to mention a waste of solder) so I was wondering if a conductive pen would work for something like this.
Edit: I meant using those pens on perfboard as a next step after a breadboard. Something more permanent.
Thanks!!
Hey there!
So as I said in the title, I have a 6gb RAM stick that stopped working after a PC reconstruction, nothing I tried working, giving me a black screen can't start PC, when I take out the RAM and replace it with a functioning one everything works great, I tried restarting BIOS battery/MemTest, checked the right frequencies, changed slots, I probably forgot more methods I tried.
I gave up and declared it as dead, but looking at it now I noticed a piece of conductive trace missing from the PCB, possibly fell off/got hit something, no clue.
This is the broken one:
https://i.imgur.com/3dICxb9.jpg
This is the same model but working (which also got a small piece missing at the end for some reason): https://i.imgur.com/YJ7Xm00.jpg
Is there any way to fix this? Solder it? Anything? I have minimal knowledge in electronics. I have a solder gun and a tin wire.
Thanks in advance!
I recently bought the third PS2 controller I've owned which has the common issue of several face buttons not working.
I've traced this down to a break in one of the traces in the button membrane/film; all buttons before that point work fine, all others beyond it don't. Unfortunately, the break is around a button itself (and not in the middle of the trace in an isolated area). I've scratched off some of the insulating plastic around the damaged area and was wondering if anyone had experience using conductive "ink"/"glue" like this to repair the membrane by simply painting over the top.
The two other controllers I had with this fault has detachable membranes so I just bought replacements and installed those in place of the damaged parts, but this controller has the membrane permanently attached and so cannot be easily swapped.
I've done projects in the past modernizing keyboards by removing the old wiring and adding diodes and a Teensy microcontroller.
I'd like to do it again with an Apple Extended Keyboard II and this time I don't want to end up with the rat's nest of wires. Getting a custom PCB printed up seems way out of my league.
I'd like to just sand down the existing board and draw on new traces with conductive ink (plus new holes for the diodes). Has anyone had success with this approach? If so, did it work well with the solder?
I've also looked at getting a board and etching the traces myself, but I can't seem to find blank boards big enough.
Ive read that the new dodocase comes with capacitive screen conductive traces that will allow one to touch the screen in spots. anyone played with this or a DIY version?
I was thinking some solder copper braid could be positioned to touch the screen and then routed out to the bottom/top of the cardboard maybe a back button and a screen press. or conductive copper foil tape. I have both on order for tinkering with at our local Hackerspace.
I have heard that there are benefits in having wider copper traces, but I have no idea how wide I want them. Considering my situation with 8 ICs, I think it'll prove challenging to have them any wider than 0.5mm. What do you think?
I've recently been upping my repair game and bought two rolls of trace repair wire (.1mm diameter, enameled and non enameled). Unfortunately when I test it with my multimeter, it doesn't show as conductive.
My first test was just putting the probes directly on a piece of the non-enameled wire. The multimeter didn't beep and just showed O/L, Strange, so I connected two components with the wire and same deal. I then attached the two components with several strands of both the enameled and non enameled stuff and eventually got a reading of ~85 ohms between them. My multimeter didn't beep though as I think this is too much resistance to be read as "conductive".
I see tons of videos on youtube where people are using .1mm wire for trace repair. Is my multimeter not sensitive enough or something? The wire was purchased from a reliable source so I dont think anything is wrong with it. I feel like i'm missing something basic here. Can anyone provide some insight?
Also - i've been using this multimeter for about 1.5 years and it's never given me any problems, although it's a cheap ~15 one.
thanks!
