Hacking Tip: conductive ink for cut legs

ziddey

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Sure wish I thought about this before I gone and wrecked my wii. Now everywhere is sold out again.

But here's how it goes. Goto your local auto store and buy a rear window defrost repair kit. Should cost anywhere from $3 to $14. All you need from it is the little container of copper ink.

Using a pin/needle, get some copper ink and draw connections from the clipped leg down to the board. Way simpler than shaving down the package and struggling with the soldering iron. And if you mess up, qtip and alcohol removes it right away.

It'll dry in minutes, and you can use a dmm to check for continuity.
 

looneyboy784

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have you actuly gotten this to work? If so this is a very clever solution. It kind of reminds me of unlocking old AMD cpus with a pencil or conductive pen.
 

2cb2ct7

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Nice work Ziddey! Don't know why anyone hasn't thought of conductive pens til now (me included
wink.gif
That sure is a lot safer than dremelling the chip or trying to reattach by solder!

Maybe some people can post their first hand experience with doing this?
 

Dirtie

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You can get conductive ink pens (the same as the one in the link rrburkha posted) from Jaycar for you Aussies/Kiwis, except they cost ~$30NZD IIRC.
 

ziddey

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Those pens tend to be pretty fatty. But if you can get one cheap, still get a pin/needle to get the ink on since it can draw a lot finer
 

FAST6191

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I suppose this is one of those can not see the woods for the trees type of things: you could draw up the chip and solder to the surface of the chip, most people seem to be using low power irons.
 

imgod22222

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...? That doesn't make much sense, FAST (to me at least)
I never have used conductive ink, so i dunno if it would work, its just an idea people can use (maybe?) Personally, i would use solder (as i have) by making a blob of solder, and then lifting out my iron straight up, leaving the solder to form a cone-like shape with a very small tip, and then slowly try to move the tip to where i want to bridge the connection. Words don't make much sense here, but a picture would. Too bad i don't have a camera ATM.
 

FAST6191

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inkdemovh1.jpg


Forgive the artistic stylings of 30 seconds on paint but it should be good enough.

You can normally chip away at the ink with a pin/needle as well.
 

Perplexer

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Let me be the first to say (oops, I mean the second!) that there is virtually no chance that conductive ink will work. And the person that gets it to work will spend an ENORMOUS amount of time making sure the ink tracks are solid enough to work, yet still thin enough to connect the three points without shorting...

Good luck! My last mod used a 0-ohm resistor array which was easier than wires... I'll post a part number when I figure it out!
 

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