putting a track on PCB?

Is there any way to put a copper track on ready PCBs? any tools or any alternatives to avoid wires/jumpers without going for re-design?

Reply to
Ajab
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Silver loaded epoxy works to make some connections.

Reply to
MooseFET

There exists adhesive copper strip in various widths. You still need to solder both ends down though. Tell us more. Sometimes you can make the parts do "gymnastics" to fit. SMT or through-hole? fine pitch or not? etc,,

Reply to
a7yvm109gf5d1

You can glue copper strips to the PCB. GC Electronics et al sell this sort of stuff.

Typically this is used in repair or maybe some prototype situations. The glue used is not particularly durable especially to the passage of time or heat, at least if applied under less than ideal circumstances.

Silver-bearing paint is used in some other circumstances.

I think some trade names for these supplies might include "Silver Print" and "Copper circuit tape" (looking at what's on the shelves in the shop.)

As a historical note, in the 40's and 50's PC boards were commonly constructed by glueing copper strips to the boards.

Tim.

Reply to
Tim Shoppa

What's wrong with wire?

John

Reply to
John Larkin

It shows up with wire.....i just need to make the change invisible.... :)

Reply to
Ajab

Use wire the same color as your solder mask.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

It shows up with wire.....i just need to make the change invisible.... :)

Use wire , then wave a magic wand and say 'abracadabra' and the wire will disappear.......

Reply to
TT_Man

"TT_Man" wrote in news:hGJnj.5395$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe4-win.ntli.net:

hand-laying a copper trace on a PCB will be readily visible;it's just not going to look just like the etched-on traces.

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Jim Yanik
jyanik
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Reply to
Jim Yanik

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AHA!

You want to fool your customer into thinking that you got it right
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Reply to
John Fields

Thanks a lot...i got so many options.... :)))) it is just to make the PCB look nice w/o any wires. Want to avoid wires.....

Reply to
Ajab

I use red kluge wires on blue boards. Sort of a Scarlet Letter thing.

Everybody uses kluge wires; it's not at all unusual.

I have seen people who were very skilled and who could add or rework traces invisibly. But it's difficult and generally unnecessary.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

or

Back when I did wire wrap the original was all yellow (with perhaps=20 black and red voltages) and all ECs were done in blue, pretty much=20 for the same reason.

--=20 Keith

Reply to
krw

You know, I don't miss wire-wrap at all.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Wire-wrap wire is nice.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

John, you would have loved Big Blues NIT tester pallets with THOUSANDS of wire wrapped pogo pins....

I never built one, but when someone would crush several pins, I did get the fun of fixing some, fishing out the wires and wrapping to new pins. Coincidently, they used all blue wires :)

Reply to
Brian

:On Jan 29, 9:38 pm, John Larkin : wrote: :> On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:57:02 -0800 (PST), Ajab :> wrote: :>

:> >Is there any way to put a copper track on ready PCBs? :> >any tools or any alternatives to avoid wires/jumpers without going for :> >re-design? :>

:> What's wrong with wire? :>

:> John :It shows up with wire.....i just need to make the change :invisible.... :)

There is absolutely no known method of adding a "track" to an existing pcb so that it is "invisible".

Believe me, the easiest and best way to achieve the end result is to use a suitable gauge wire (such as kynar wire wrap wire) and to use small drops of suitable fast set wire tacking adhesive to hold the wire in place on the board.

Like this

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Reply to
Ross Herbert

I've seen people do it so well it fooled NASA soldering inspectors. But in most cases, there's not a lot of point.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

g for

I do. It was a great way to breadboard or do one-offs. It was=20 quite good for small production runs. Hell, even large ones. I=20 remember walking through the mainframe production facilities at IBM=20 in Poughkeepsie NY, watching the rows and rows of Gardner-Denver=20 machines doing their thing to backplanes. I didn't much like=20 working on the output of the GD machines. I always lost my left- handed unwrap tool.

--=20 Keith

Reply to
krw

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