Here is a recipe for conductive ink that annuals to the conductivity of silver. Haven't tried it yet since we still have a pen or two of conductive ink left at work.
http://jordanbunker.com/archives/41 Andy On Oct 15, 2014, at 4:06 PM, Nathan McCorkle <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: A friend got me thinking about how to draw traces on clear plastic (acrylic), or for that matter maybe glass. I was thinking something like applying photoresist, applying a mask/stencil that would leave the circuit traces uncoated in cured resist. Then somehow functionalize the plastic and then electroplate it, finally removing the photoresist layer mask. I bet carbon sputtering would work to activate, but I bet it would peel/rub off pretty easily, leading to flaky traces that would rip at the slightest mishap. I don't want to consider conductive paint unless it's cheap, in case my friend wants to make lots of these boards. I guess I don't actually know how far a bottle or pen of the conductive ink/paint costs. Also it should be repairable, and I have a feeling that the 'paint' in conductive paint wouldn't allow soldering. If someone points out some cheap-ish conductive goop, and says trying other methods will take too long, be too toxic or involved, etc... I wonder if my friend could consider ripping components and painted traces during repair, then simply re-paint when installing a new part. I think in that case, he might etch the traces from the plastic using the resist-mask, so there'd be a channel to fill goop into. Quickly googling acrylic electroplating turns up this, which seems like they're just functionalizing with a basic solution with metal ions (i.e. KOH or NaOH, K2CO3, Na2CO3) which are readily available. http://www.google.com/patents/US5268088 I don't see anyone on youtube though talking about electroplating plastic DIY. -- -Nathan _______________________________________________ dorkbotpdx-blabber mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber
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