this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2023
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How to use Liquidwire (conductive paint) (imgur.com)
submitted 1 year ago by ReSordo@lemm.ee to c/askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de
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I have to fix a slightly very stupid mistake that I've made.

I'm trying to recreate the conductive lines of a membrane keyboard, unfortunately after trying to unglue them they got ripped off, I've painted 2 coats but it I'm receiving no signs of life from it.

Is Liquidwire the wrong paint for the job? Maybe the circuit lines ar too long to fix? Should I try copper or silver paint?

I've read online that shaking the pain is not enough and that I should also stirr it.

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[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Do you have a multimeter? Or other way of gauging the resistance of the new traces?

I don't know the specific product you've used, and my experience with conductive paints and glues is almost nonexistent. But what I remember is that it was neither useful as a glue or a conductor. So I suspect that the resistance of the trace is too great to be used for traces going into the 100s of mm.

If my suspicion is correct, then maybe you can fix it by using the paint to attach something with little resistance in parallel to the paint traces. Maybe stripping a multicore wire and using a single strand of copper, lay it down on the trace and paint over it? Or cutting the traces out of tinfoil and gluing them down to the existing traces with some of the paint?

[–] ReSordo@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was thinking about using thin copper tape, it's cheap and it should be better that some graphite ink I hope,

[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Definitely better conduction than the paint. Just make sure that the tape isn't coated where it has to make a connection to the pads.