You can draw circuits! But does it make sense? Conductive Ink Pen Experiment!

[@putraadriansyah8082]

fixing broken traces with conductive pen seems like a brilliant idea!

[@gullreefclub]

Many years ago automotive parts stores used to sell pens like this to repair broken traces for GM dashboard instrument clusters

[@handlesarefeckinstupid]

I have used conductive paint to fix heated rear windows on vehicles before.

[@mcac-youtube]

Maybe only at low current circuits traces, how could we see.

[@xWonderxBreadx]

It is! And it's a savior for people like me, who have shaky hands and burn traces! It's been used in several solid state +500watt bass amplifiers at my job

[@tanishqbhaiji103]

Nope, just scrape the mask and use solder

[@Casperdroid5]

You could say: "you can draw as much as you want, but not when it comes to current." 😆

[@chrisakaschulbus4903]

please uninstall your internet connection

[@greatscottlab]

Oh boy😅

[@rexsceleratorum1632]

@@chrisakaschulbus4903 He actually tried nine more puns to impress internet people. No pun in ten did.

[@chrisakaschulbus4903]

@@rexsceleratorum1632 "No pun in ten did." why are you like this? why?!

[@rexsceleratorum1632]

@@chrisakaschulbus4903 If you hate puns, more power to you, that is watt I think

[@mohamadmansour2595]

I fix keyboard tracks using silver conducive paint, works perfectly.

[@greatscottlab]

Good to know

[@vibrion121]

@@greatscottlab Also you can repair conductive rubber such remote control or wireless phones

[@bradprimeaux8443]

That what I was thinking a good use of this would be. PCB trace repair.

[@mrt1r]

Graphite is also conductive and pencils are much cheaper.

[@user-vn7ce5ig1z]

You must be using a good-quality one because the three syringes of wire-glue that I've gotten from Chinese sellers on eBay have been useless and don't work (they don't conduct at all whether fresh or dry), so I've got a pile of keyboard membranes waiting to be fixed. 😕 (The first one I got several years ago did work briefly but stopped after a while, the others never worked.) I got some copper tape to fix them instead. 😉

[@mike_x48954]

Never thought I'd see someone solder on paper. It's something different.

[@tanmay8017]

Tried it once, only recommended for low current applications.

[@sayantanmaiti2513]

Where did you buy it?

[@benbaselet2026]

Sooo.. works great as a fuse? :-)

[@tanmay8017]

@@sayantanmaiti2513 AliExpress

[@clifffton]

Great for fixing bad traces. Been using it for years.

[@mcac-youtube]

And i think about the performance of resistence/cm after a long time. Maybe the resistence/cm is going to be higher and higher.

[@simoneazzoni3882]

This is actually something i have never seen that looks quite interesting, great video :D

[@greatscottlab]

Thanks! 😄

[@andreiciora2765]

@@greatscottlab I think I will buy this thing

[@thaneshwarpoudelchhetri4032]

What about your drone🇳🇵🇳🇵??that you had tell to build

[@andreiciora2765]

@Jaydeep Mondal probably the paper will be în fire .

[@gullreefclub]

This is not a new technology back in the 1980’s “squeeze pens” like this were sold to repair broken traces on GM dashboard instrument clusters

[@factorpotencia]

Yes made of silver

[@Alacritous]

I've used a pencil to draw circuits. The graphite is conductive. On the original run of Athlon CPUs you could enable overclocking by drawing a line with a pencil on the top of the chip to connect two contacts. I've used a pencil to draw to connect a broken trace on circuit boards.

[@greatscottlab]

Interesting!

[@n0madfernan257]

teacher: pass your prototype papers, And make sure its working at least... also get ready to explain it later Plot twist: the teacher is GreatScott

[@greatscottlab]

I like ;-)

[@bhoot1702]

Lol! An excuse for teachers. Students will be like "what do you mean?"

[@OffGridInvestor]

Actually DECADES AGO as a kid.... I discovered something with graphite pencils drawing lines on paper....... and you can work it out yourself but I knew FOR YEARS. You won't believe it until you discover it.

[@emir4707]

I tried the same with a pencil, they are very good for making resistors

[@greatscottlab]

Graphite pencil?

[@Bhavesh_g20]

@@greatscottlab I also tried By creating a dark thick line with pencil And it was conducting too

[@Custmzir]

@@greatscottlab probably

[@attackaffection5444]

@@greatscottlab aren't all pencils graphite

[@emir4707]

@@greatscottlab Yes !

[@DrJALAGHARI]

Thank you so much for sharing this valuable information through this amazing video.

[@greatscottlab]

You are so welcome!

[@Rem_NL]

if you already like this look at Robert Murray's channel, he is a inventor and sells conductive ink. He shares a lot of his knowledge and perform lots of cool experiments with battery tech and his ink. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXnUo5apfN6mY5I

[@DrJALAGHARI]

@@Rem_NL Thanks for sharing this valuable KZbin channel.

[@Rem_NL]

@@DrJALAGHARI that is actually his 2nd channel i think more aimed towards his ink, his main channel has way more videos (increasing in audio visual quality over the years ) kzbin.infofeatured

[@liveroy]

Question is, why did you use it on a soaking surface like paper you've used. Wood or glass might have been much better option.

[@bloepje]

Or photo paper. But yeah glass sounds nice.

[@3DPDK]

These came on to the market some time around the late 1970s and early 1980s. Their specified intention was for circuit board repair. This was at a time before surface mount circuits. The smallest trace found on most PC boards was 0.1 inch which is the pad width for through-mount ICs. The only method of creating a PC board at that time, whether mass produced or hobbyist was a photographic process, and using caustic etching solutions to process the copper. Making a PCB as a hobbyist was possible, but more involved than many wanted to go into. The first PCB pens were actually black ink pens used to draw opaque traces on the transparent acetate to hand draw the photo positive for that photo process, and it actually worked pretty well for that purpose. The carbon based black ink in these pens was discovered to be conductive, and so the birth of this whole idea of just drawing the PCB directly.

[@SudipChorghe-ym4is]

Was wating for this all day.

[@greatscottlab]

I hope you liked the video ;-)

[@YoutubeBorkedMyOldHandle_why]

Sometimes I've made double sided DIY PCBs using photo-resist and copper clad etc. This works nicely, but one issue is that the top/bottom vias are not connected after drilling them out. To solve this, I typically insert thin wires in all the vias, and solder on both sides ... but this can be a bit tedious. I wonder if this 'magic' conductive ink might be used to quickly plate the vias, by injecting it into the holes. If so, this ink might possibly be useful for 'actual' projects.

[@mk_annan22]

I first saw the concept of conducive ink in around 2016-2017. It has come a long way since then.

[@trombonebone17456343]

I used one of these pens to fix the traces on an old IBM keyboard a couple years ago! The repaired traces / pads still work.

[@danielfromca]

There is also 5mm conductive sticky tape on amazon as an alternative to conductive ink. Might be interesting to try it on a canvas and with through hole parts.

[@YukonK9]

I wonder if in the future as material science advances, we'll see conductive ink with as good conductivity as like raw copper or something, it'll be so cool and useful

[@greatscottlab]

Only time will tell ;-)

[@deadly_dave]

I think we can print (badly) with copper already (and it's super difficult) but it's not your standard FDM printing on account of needing ~1200 degrees to melt the copper. I think it uses powered copper and laser instead. I like you am super excited to see a day when we can print copper (hobbyist style) esp if you can print it inside a standard print.

[@simplywonderful449]

Since conductive 3D printer "ink" is already available, you can now quite literally "print" printed circuits using a 3D printer. I'm not aware of any standard inkjet printer ink that is conductive to this degree, though the problem with standard inkjets is that you can't "feed" a rigid surface through them, but you CAN 3D print on a thin board, for example.

[@MuhammadDaudkhanTV100]

Fantastic idea

[@wadeh486]

That is on another level, never even considered it.

[@liamridley1605]

how was this commented like 3 days before the video was released

[@wadeh486]

Pateron supporter, videos are released a few days early

[@LightningHelix101]

That’s super cool! The conductive paint from a previous video seemed more permanent and professional, but this is probably better for quick demos

[@doge5603]

I feel like the silver pen would be a decent thermal paste alternative while using small heatsinks.

[@TechBuild]

Yes, It seems to be worthy of a video.

[@michaegi4717]

What is the benefit compared to thermal paste?

[@xcsourceindustrialist7926]

@@michaegi4717 nothing, actually it is worse. there is reason thermal paste DOES NOT dry up and non-conducting, when you change thermal paste with conductive paint and it dry quickly you lose the properties for thermal conducting since the part should be in touch with the paste (dry = shrinking) and heatsink. the thermal paste works with filling the gap between heatsink and the parts, therefore the filling material should not dry. that's why when you see the thermal paste is dry you should change it with the new one. and the reason for thermal paste is not conductive is for safety reason in eletrical sense.

[@boulder795]

No, no it wouldn't.

[@simplywonderful449]

@@michaegi4717 IMO, there would be no real benefit, but this stuff would dry out, perhaps cracking between heat sink and device, which would alter the transfer of heat in a bad way.

[@privatesector0422]

I don't see why you don't just use blue tape for your borders... Cardboard is a complete mistake the edges do not get sealed...

[@ferdinandstrat]

IMO JLCPCB is one of the best services out there today

[@greatscottlab]

Brilliant! :-)

[@gregorymccoy6797]

Great video. I was always curious about this. You answered every question I had.

[@stevefox3763]

They are useful for repairing tracks in rear heated screens on cars, so many people have damaged a track or two where something has been in the boot and scratched though to the glass.

[@dodgydruid]

I use conductive paints and inks to replace acid destroyed circuit traces on my old Soviet quartz watches. Its actually pretty good and instead of all that soldering minute bits of wire onto a circuit board I just paint over the break and jobs a good 'un. I started using originally silver paint used for repairing the fine traces in rear screen demisters for your car, using that to create overclocking and unlocking bridges on AMD and Intel CPU's and was always useful for repairing a circuit board where a capacitor had let go or a coin battery had sprayed its love inside the device.

[@axelurbanski2828]

Hallo Scott Auf gedruckten Schaltungen kann man bauteile kleben. Dazu gibt es Tinte für Plotter und leitenden Kleber. Hab ich leider noch nicht getestet.

[@vaibhavkhurana215]

Now I can finally make my own paper resistors!

[@mapsynth1596]

i've seen people on youtube draw circuits on paper by just using a pencil, stating that since graphite is somewhat of a conductor it was possible to make simple circuits with it. it never worked when i tried it, the trace resistance was way too high, in the order of kiloohms, even with very thick and short lines. perhaps i just have very bad pencils, i don't know.

[@Bri-Sci]

I was starting to experiment with the conductive 3d printer filament. One low voltage application I wanted to try is see if I could make a potentiometer printed into the body of a robot arm. But found multiple issues with trying to get the slicer to print one line width wires.

[@RitamSanyal]

Bruh😂 just 2 hours ago visited your channel,to see if you have posted any ney video since last week, and I was upset not finding one, and now you posted this masterpiece 🙏❤️ from India

[@woodywood1951]

I prefer to use double side tape (the thin one) and very small wires ( as 24 or 28 gauge) and lay the wires and components on the tape. And I use fine soldier to make the connection between wire and components. You can even print out a "circuit" with a printer and lay everything directly on the tape. Fast and reliable.

[@connormichalec]

Best youtube intro on the platform

[@my3dprintedlife]

Always a good day when there's a new Great Scott video!

[@greatscottlab]

Thanks mate :-)

[@Convolutedtubules]

I would love to see this pen in a CNC pen plotter.

[@Zanoab]

Circuit Scribe has videos of their pen in a pen plotter to print circuits. Connecting components is still tricky but using extra ink and hot glue helps keep things together.

[@Convolutedtubules]

@@Zanoab Thanks.

[@jackwilliams2010]

I've been curious about this for a while too. Thanks for the excellent video!

[@toohardtowatch]

@6:11 I am curious: Does the resistance return to the original value after the high current is passed through these traces, and is allowed to cool? If not, perhaps the drawn circuit could be 'baked' to obtain better electrical properties.

[@simplywonderful449]

For higher current, you need wider traces (since you can't really make them thicker). But you probably would be fine on a 3D printer using conducted filament/powder; you'd just want to test or prototype your connections to see what resistance the ink or filament would result in, and adjust from there. 3D printers work well for this, since they can adequately deal with a rigid medium such as a piece of plastic or fiberglass board, where a normal inkjet printer wouldn't handle anything but paper.

[@gopronomad4381]

It can be used to create or repair a flexible circuit material such as keyboard traces (on flexi plastic surface)

[@jumbocube]

if I was a kid seeing this on my physics class back in school I would be blown away!

[@ast1527]

I wish I had this pen when I made my capacitive light switch. Great video mate. Cheers

[@greatscottlab]

Thanks mate👍

[@nullerrno]

I appreciate that it is more of a toy. But it does get me thinking about DIY flexible PCBs.

[@hawaiianryan1890]

I had to use a silver marker like this in order to repair the circuit s in a membrane keyboard. It turns out that the original material that they used for the traces is soluble in isopropyl alcohol. So, I erased the traces while cleaning. A marker like the one you show here allowed me to replace the traces and repair the keyboard. It worked great.

[@misfitsman805]

Used one years ago to modify an ATI Radeon 9500 pro 128 MB graphics card by unlocking more pipelines and bios flash it to a higher model card. Worked perfect!

[@michaegi4717]

This remembers me to smart textiles. It blew my mind when I realized how simple it is to sew a circuit to a textile. But I never figured out a real aplication. I guess it will be similar with such pens.

[@someguy2741]

What if you used the cheapest solder paste to make the traces? You could also try putting the circuit into an oven to see if you could melt it before the paper lights... you could use parchment paper although you may need to rough it up to get some adhesion.

[@artbyrobot1]

I recommend the cheapest silver conductive ink you can find that is more of a paste. squirt that onto a piece of plastic. now get a tiny tiny sewing needle and screw that into your exacto knife instead of the knife. now use the needle as a paintbrush to finely paint traces with amazing accuracy with this this paste into your substrate of choice. don't stop the trace shy of a component! set that component DOWN and trace up onto the leg of it with a little glob of paste to blue down the component and electrically attach it to your trace. no soldering needed AT ALL.

[@normswan5806]

I had used a conductive pen to jump pins on an old AMD Athalon 64 professors. Made it run faster speed. Worked well.

[@red1246]

Mhh, interesting, I'm also tinkering with some athlon 64, can I ask you how you did it?

[@normswan5806]

@@red1246sorry, I was wrong. I went and looked. It's on an Athalon XP chip. Bridge the L1 jumpers unlocks the multiplier. Guess I'm older than I thought.

[@red1246]

@@normswan5806 wow, that's a really old beast, how much more performance do you get from it?

[@normswan5806]

@@red1246 for the time it was worth it to me. Nothing compared to today. But, I also, "upgraded" by putting up a sign..."it's faster now". I felt better.

[@researchandbuild1751]

Something people fail to mention is with the silver inks you should actually heat them for a while to fully cure. The resistance will drop even lower is you do that

[@artbyrobot1]

good point. I am reading that a full 24 hours is required but applying hair dryer for 5 minutes can do the same job as 24 hour air dry

[@rubycarnation8325]

Been waiting for, thanks for making a video about it!

[@trishanustech281]

hey i really enjoy watching ur videos.... I LOVE UR VIDEOS.... KEEP IT UP....

[@greatscottlab]

Thanks, will do!

[@sanfinity_]

Nice video Great Scott🔥 now I know about a new soldering pen which can be used for electronic arts

[@greatscottlab]

Glad to help

[@BESTvsWORST-vx2dg]

Thanks Great Scott. Loved this video

[@greatscottlab]

Glad to hear it!

[@fvrrljr]

Goldsmith Master Jeweler here: silver pen is what was introduced in the Jewelry Business, they had a gold on also but didn't work. but like you said, for beginner's to learn, they kids at school i approve. i Like, OLE'!

[@demonocolips]

i figured it would be for rapid prototyping, or making boge wires. depending upon how well the ink holds up repairing old conductive keyboards seems possible.

[@goodgoat3096]

The problem with even simple LED circuits is that the resistance will cause the LEDs to light up at different intensities. Even the silver palladium and gold palladium inks from DuPont and others screen printed on hi alumina ceramic substrates had limitations. The polymer based inks are even more limiting.

[@CXensation]

I prefer the oldschool readymade hole or holestrip pattern PCB's for a quick prototype build. They are conveniently laid out with a 0.1" hole pattern fits leaded type IC's and all types leaded components. You can even use these PCB's as an overlay for cardboards and then with a nail or needle punch your hole pattern on to the cardboard. That makes for a very neat birds nest on the initial layout. You can always order from JLC pcb maker later on for your deluxe version project.

[@pinball30]

Would you recommend either for trace repairs? If so witch one?

[@aWildOcti]

I wanted to do this myself

[@manos7958]

Years ago in a galaxy far away these pens were used to repair PCBs but today it's a crazy world

[@gauravponnappa8257]

Mr. Great Scoot. Big fan.. I am one of the first here. I hope you get this 💛

[@greatscottlab]

🖐

[@vedritmathias9193]

Circuit Scribe immediately came to mind. I think they did a kickstarter years ago, which I backed. I never did any tests on the pen they sent, but I recall it being a lot less bulky than the pens you got

[@dj_paultuk7052]

What about that silver conductive paint that is used for car heated screen repair ?. I guess that can handle higher currents.

[@dm5rkt]

In a similar vein, check out 3M's Z tape 9703. Double sided adhesive tape that only conducts in the thickness direction. Contains micro balls of copper. You can just stick an IC onto its footprint and all the pins make contact without shorting to each other.

[@Daveyk021]

You did not talk about how the stuff dries. When you have a damaged flex circuit, it is almost always the trace of the outside. Could you scrap or melt the plastic covering and use this ink to fix a flex circuit trace?

[@raphaelwelti6632]

Hi Scott! Can you make a stylophone? There's lots of stuff to play around with while doing one. Greetings!

[@BlackHoleForge]

I remember seeing something about this many years ago. I can't wait to see your take on it.

[@boşişlermüddairebaşkanı]

dilimi biliyormusunuz bilmiyorum ama videolarınızı çok severek izliyorum keşke türkiyedede böyle kanallar olsa , en sevdiğim replik lets get starded I translated this part from google translate I don't know if you know my language but I love watching your videos I wish there were channels like this in turkey, my favorite line lets get starded

[@JedrekVRoscoe]

Would this be an easier way to creat trace lines on a perf board for a beginner? I’m having a lot of trouble with the solder not wanting to cooperate, or simply just bridging where I don’t want it to.

[@tech-dips]

Thanks @greatscott, i know the video is going to be awesome

[@raketadynej2prime405]

Great video. Looking forward for your SMPS project!

[@JoseGutierrez-cw1wn]

I always think of those pens as a way to make small fixes on boards.

[@Cheesysmilesxp]

Would it work better if you use a thin plastic for a stencil instead of cardboard?

[@Shubham-9996]

5:07 Why don't you cut them in rectangular according to require

[@mehmedcanozkan3268]

I usually love this guy but that was just silly and lazy hahah

[@Shubham-9996]

@@mehmedcanozkan3268 Oooo I think frustrating by that rubish and bad tip of pen and ink

[@JaseTheAussie]

Soldering on the paper never even crossed my mind… 🤯

[@shakila975]

Thanks so much 🙏🙏

[@alexoja2918]

What components can you create using that ink? You already made a fuse, now make resistors! Capacitor is pretty straightforward, and how about drawing in circles around a ferrite core? Or a coreless inductor using a cylinder of paper 🤔 also, led paint.

[@aarriikknn33ll]

0:13 Hi GreatScott, i have always wondered where you buy these large prototypeboards, i would like to also buy some.

[@Scootertuner420]

Ebay propably

[@aarriikknn33ll]

@@Scootertuner420 I found some on aliexpress, but they appear to only send from China. This is an issue, because now in Europe we have to pay way too much fees with the new rules

[@bhoot1702]

JLCpcb he says that in every video and also pcbway is there

[@aarriikknn33ll]

@@bhoot1702 No, i don't mean custom made ones. I mean the ones shown at the timestamp i gave.

[@bhoot1702]

@@aarriikknn33ll oh those are more easy to find breadboards. Local electronics (diy stores), and online in bulk you can get. I mostly get them from local market and for online there is Amazon. Ya I could not find good quality like him in the video but its not bad

[@fratermunky4336]

I could see getting a robotic arm to draw out fine circuits that could be electroplated. Dope the ink(or some sort of resin)with different ratios of materials and you could probably make resistors. You also may be able to make capacitors by layering strips of thin plastic or silicone to be rolled up. Idk just curious that's all

[@electropoint2.026]

You can use Chinese pen to make traces and Silver pen for soldering point. It can be less resistive and useful.

[@RakeGrayFox]

GreatScott! What about refreshing old and consumed contacts pad like silicone buttons in controllers and remote or flat contacts pad like in keyboards? Could be a durable fix? In some circumstances there are no spare parts to buy and maybe it can save your old electronics?

[@arthurmuller2965]

Can you upgrade a class d amplifier with a H bridge ?

[@AhmedAymanM]

Great vid from Great Scott, Thanks as always!

[@BenProVids]

Subscribed just because of the name. Also, I enjoy this kind of content.

[@user-wg6ik1wi6s]

I bought some electrically conductive paint from Amazon but I've noticed while using it, it has Alot of resistance and you would never be able to make a circuit with it. Over a 2 inch span it will barely light up LED's.

[@dahlavibez5726]

awesome video sir, really wanted to see how youd led up that "i" haha

[@georgeabraham7256]

That conductive pen looks like the right stuff to fix old Potentiometers in restorations.

[@ufochannel01]

maybe try attaching other components using the conductive pen ink as the connection instead of solder. after it is dry if you dont move it maybe it could work? you may need to find a different way to glue it into place though using this method. but that said it is worth looking into.

[@mayukhnandi8085]

Does it crack with bends in the paper?

[@greatscottlab]

No

[@mayukhnandi8085]

@@greatscottlab Thanks, I was thinking of a flexible pcb for a project, but ig this might help me out!

[@the_omg3242]

I wonder if a better way could be to crazy glue your components to your surface then draw the traces rather than trying to solder to the traces after. This way the trace is painted straight onto your contacts. As suggested in another post, use glass as the board surface so the trace doesn't try to soak into it.

[@chanakasampath9138]

Good Vedio and good idea, i think that it will be used for creat the damege path of PCB (when repairing the TV circuit bord and etc.).

[@CanineDefenseTechnologies]

Dip a blanket in this ink, run some power. Boom electric blanket

[@greatscottlab]

Haha

[@MoritzvonSchweinitz]

How flexible are the drawn traces on e.g. paper?

[@liamhopkins333]

What heat gun were you using in the video where you printed your own pcb's?

[@jiviteshpandab6194]

hi, there I would like to know if we can use a mobile phone fast charger as a variable voltage power supply? if we can then how? just a reply would do.

[@Rudra_Singh_Bhardwaj]

hello greatscott!

[@MCsCreations]

Pretty interesting indeed! Seems to be pretty useful! 😃 Thanks a lot, dude!!! Stay safe and creative there! 🖖😊

[@darkcrox]

can use this to repair missing/broken solder pad... i guess?