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Does anyone have any advice on how to make homemade conductive paint to fix a cracked carbon trace in a game controller? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by over_clox@lemmy.world to c/askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de

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It's the trace going towards the mode button, so I'm pretty sure resistance won't exactly be critical over a ~3mm gap, as long as it recognizes when the plunger button is pressed down.

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[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You're giving people shit about "professional" and "random hack shit" and you just tried to use Pepto-Bismal to anchor a piece of wire.

JFC.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world -2 points 2 days ago

I have over 25 years of professional electronics repair experience. This is my own device, so I'm game to think a little outside the box from time to time. You don't learn shit if you're not game to experiment from time to time.

Pepto Bismol contains bismuth, which like other metals, is conductive. There are videos online demonstrating people extracting the raw metal itself from Pepto. Plus the stuff dries sort of like a paint, so I figured it might be worth a try.

So I tried it, on a sample test card, so what? I didn't know what to expect but I lost absolutely nothing by trying it on a test card.

Results: It was partly conductive while still wet, but effectively lost all conductivity once it dried out.

What did I lose? About 5 minutes of my time to set up the test card experiment. What did I gain? Knowledge, about a thing I haven't seen tested anywhere before.

I wouldn't dare try such oddball things in a professional shop, I'd use the right materials. Just figured I'd test something random from around the house for shits and giggles. Woulda been funny if it actually worked, but oh well.

If I really want to do a quick fix, I'll slap down a piece of wire and piece of Kapton tape. But I would like to extend my knowledge to a better point where I don't need to buy a $20 bottle of conductive paint to fix a single spot where I only need like 2 or 3 drops of the stuff, just figured I'd try making something up at home.

But the people offering me alternate solutions are not answering my original question. I would like to learn homebrew ways to make conductive paint similar to what the manufacturers use, both for this project and possibly other future projects. I wasn't asking alternate ideas.

Did it ever cross your mind that maybe I'd like to be able to do repairs with materials more similar to what the manufacturer used rather than a lick-and-stick approach?

TL;DR - I'd never try such random experiments in a professional setting.

Sigh, I guess I'll go hit up YouTube, at least some other commenters have provided links to some valid and relevant resources.