putting a track on PCB?

[Ajab]

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?

 

[MooseFET]

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?

Silver loaded epoxy works to make some connections.

 

[[email protected]]

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?

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,,

 

[Tim Shoppa]

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?

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.

 

[John Larkin]

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

 

[Ajab]

What's wrong with wire?

John

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

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

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

Use wire the same color as your solder mask.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[TT_Man]

What's wrong with wire?

John

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.......

 

[Jim Yanik]

.. On Jan 29, 9:38 pm, John Larkin

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.......

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.

 

[John Fields]

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

 

[Ajab]

---
AHA!

You want to fool your customer into thinking that you got it right
the first time?

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.....

 

[John Larkin]

Use wire the same color as your solder mask.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

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

 

[krw]

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.

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

 

[John Larkin]

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

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

John

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

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

John

Wire-wrap wire is nice.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Brian]

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

John

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

 

[Ross Herbert]

:On Jan 29, 9:38 pm, John Larkin
:> On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:57:02 -0800 (PST), Ajab <[email protected]>
:> 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 http://www.intertronics.co.uk/articles/tb003.htm

 

[John Larkin]

:On Jan 29, 9:38 pm, John Larkin
:> On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:57:02 -0800 (PST), Ajab <[email protected]>
:> 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".

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

 

[krw]

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

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