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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: DonnyD on Tue, 12 June 2018, 13:53:36

Title: Copper tape wiring
Post by: DonnyD on Tue, 12 June 2018, 13:53:36

Anyone tried wiring something with copper tape ? Will it be enough for current in the keyboard ? It can help make hand wired keyboard a bit thinner, so i though i ask before i do it. Whats your thought on that ?

Title: Re: Copper tape wiring
Post by: xack on Wed, 13 June 2018, 04:08:26

Quote from: DonnyD on Tue, 12 June 2018, 13:53:36

Anyone tried wiring something with copper tape ? Will it be enough for current in the keyboard ? It can help make hand wired keyboard a bit thinner, so i though i ask before i do it.

Don't worry about the current ;) the copper tape is likely thicker than the copper on a PCB and there is not really much current flowing anyways. As long as your traces are not like 0,05mm wide (which i doubt) you are save ;)
;)

Quote from: DonnyD on Tue, 12 June 2018, 13:53:36

Whats your thought on that ?

I think it's a good new idea. We only can move on if we try something new and also we me fail, but than we learned something. So I'm looking forward to your results  :thumb:

Title: Re: Copper tape wiring
Post by: DonnyD on Wed, 13 June 2018, 06:54:56

I will most likely try it. I worst case, I can rip all tape ant stick to well-trusted wires :D I just need to figure out how i will do matrix, so the tape wont touch each other. I thought buying some sort of non-conductive film and place it in between row-column layers, so it wont touch(like on PCB). Cut holes for switches and pins to go trough and solder. I will do more research on that.

Title: Re: Copper tape wiring
Post by: xack on Wed, 13 June 2018, 14:39:35

Hm... would have said copper -> electircal tape -> copper. Should be the cheapest option ;)

Title: Re: Copper tape wiring
Post by: DonnyD on Wed, 13 June 2018, 15:00:51

I am will be using kapton tape, because why not, its meant for that. As big kapton pieces are expensive, I will buy 12mm width and wire matrix like that. So kapton-copper circuit will literally replace wires place.

Title: Re: Copper tape wiring
Post by: JianYang on Thu, 14 June 2018, 01:01:58

I personally don't think that you would gain much from this endeavor. There would be little gain for a lot of effort. If the goal is to make it thinner, enameled copper wire should get you as thin as you could go. I got down to where I had to cut or bend the contact pins off the switches, there was just enough space for the center pin. IIRC it was 7.5mm between the tops of the plates.

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