Editing Conductive Paint Lessons

=Lessons on Conductive Paint=

Related to Pulse Choker Hack Notes for July 15th, 2009:

"We tried silk screening silver conductive paint (MGchemicals 842-20G) onto two different types of fabric, a water resistant one and a water proof "leather like" one.  Both showed very high resistance (higher than the meter can read) even for very short thick traces.  It looks really cool though - hopefully we can figure out what we're doing wrong, and make this work.  We also tried measuring the resistance of a huge dollop of paint on the spoon: silver = infinite resistance (!), copper = 200kOhms. It didn't matter if the paint was dried or wet. Note that we shook the bottle prior to use to ensure that the silver particles were dispersed evenly."

==Types of Conductive Paint==

* Opaque paint
** Nickel: 
***   Higher resistance - ~5-6 ohms per square
***   Cracks when dried and flexed - [http://someoneknows.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/desktop-fabrication-wearable-electronics-circuitry/ Desktop Fabrication: Wearable Electronics Circuitry]

** Copper:
***    Higher resistance - ~5 ohms per square, though our hacking yielded different results
***    Reasonably priced - ~$30 for 4 oz from [http://www.lessemf.com/paint.html Less EMF Inc.]

** Silver: 
***    Low resistance - ~0.1 ohms per square according to [http://someoneknows.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/desktop-fabrication-wearable-electronics-circuitry/ Desktop Fabrication: Wearable Electronics Circuitry]
***    Expensive - ~$30 for 0.7 oz (20 g) from [http://www.lessemf.com/paint.html Less EMF Inc.]

* Transparent paint
** [http://www.agfa.com/en/sp/solutions/orgacon_electronic_materials/index.jsp Orgacon] from Agfa - conductive, can be flexed, transparent, can be silk-screened
   

* Alternatives
** Wire glue - $4 for 0.3 oz
** Conductive pen


==Heeds==

* Keep ink wet and workable
* Shake paint well to ensure metal particles are well dispersed


==Art Uses==

* Paper Circuits by Leah Buckley: conductive paint, magnetic paint, magnets

* Paper printed circuit board by Peter Blasser