On Wed, 29 Oct 2014 20:14:07 +0000, jimp wrote:

How many HAMS have any need for a flexible circuit board?

We'll never know if we don't explore things.



--
M0WYM
Sales @ radiowymsey
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Sales-At-Radio-Wymsey/

Wymsey wrote:
On Wed, 29 Oct 2014 20:14:07 +0000, jimp wrote:

How many HAMS have any need for a flexible circuit board?

We'll never know if we don't explore things.

The same could be said for silver plated, titanium antenna parts...




--
Jim Pennino

On 10/30/2014 2:50 PM, Michael Black wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014, wrote:

Wymsey wrote:
On Wed, 29 Oct 2014 20:14:07 +0000, jimp wrote:

How many HAMS have any need for a flexible circuit board?

We'll never know if we don't explore things.

The same could be said for silver plated, titanium antenna parts...

I can see more use for a flexible board.

What are your "more" uses for flexible boards?

--

Rick

On Thu, 30 Oct 2014, wrote:

Wymsey wrote:
On Wed, 29 Oct 2014 20:14:07 +0000, jimp wrote:

How many HAMS have any need for a flexible circuit board?

We'll never know if we don't explore things.

The same could be said for silver plated, titanium antenna parts...

I can see more use for a flexible board.

And certainly in the old days, you'd get your silver plated titanium
antenna parts from surplus.

I remember a Bill Turner filler in "73". Someone had suggested using
large enough gauge copper wire as replacement for tips in Weller soldering
guns, something I've done for around forty years. Someone else suggested
silver plating the copper, for longer life. Bill Turner's short bit was
"get an SCR-522 and use the plate coils from that" (I think it was the
SCR-522). The plate coil was thick copper coil that had been silver
plated. A source common enough that it could be suggested.

Michael

On Thu, 30 Oct 2014, rickman wrote:

On 10/30/2014 2:50 PM, Michael Black wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014, wrote:

Wymsey wrote:
On Wed, 29 Oct 2014 20:14:07 +0000, jimp wrote:

How many HAMS have any need for a flexible circuit board?

We'll never know if we don't explore things.

The same could be said for silver plated, titanium antenna parts...

I can see more use for a flexible board.

What are your "more" uses for flexible boards?

I can't think of any. But a general construction practice (and flexible
circuit board qualifies) seems to have more value than some very expensive
method of making an antenna.

Michael

On 10/31/2014 2:54 PM, Michael Black wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014, rickman wrote:

On 10/30/2014 2:50 PM, Michael Black wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014, wrote:

Wymsey wrote:
On Wed, 29 Oct 2014 20:14:07 +0000, jimp wrote:

How many HAMS have any need for a flexible circuit board?

We'll never know if we don't explore things.

The same could be said for silver plated, titanium antenna parts...

I can see more use for a flexible board.

What are your "more" uses for flexible boards?

I can't think of any. But a general construction practice (and flexible
circuit board qualifies) seems to have more value than some very
expensive method of making an antenna.

I like apples better than oranges. So?

--

Rick

Michael Black wrote in
xample.org:

I can't think of any. But a general construction practice (and flexible
circuit board qualifies) seems to have more value than some very expensive
method of making an antenna.


Isn't the real issue one of accuracy? For example, I once tried a cheap HP
plotter on eBay to draw some PCB tracks. It turned that getting the pens was
expensive! Then I had to empty them, wash them, dry them, refill with the
best ink I had learned of for doing this. Only to discover that a different
colour in that range worked better than the one I was told was best! And then
the accuracy killed the whole deal..... it was terrible. And to make it
cleaner I had to write code to parse and clean up the HPGL....

In short it was a disaster, makign up for all the shortcomings. An HP
Laserjet 5N turned out cheaper than the plotter, the new toner catridge
cheaper than the plotter pens, and the accuracy increased a HUNDREDFOLD.

As far as I know, the accuracy of a cheap 3D printer makes that plotter look
as accurate as the Laserjet.

I doubt that uses for 3D printers and flexible circuot boards and such will
come out of ham exploration first, but out of seeign what enthusiasts of 3D
printers and such extend themselves to. The first reach will almost certainly
come from those who habitually use the stuff in question, whatever it is.

Michael Black wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014, rickman wrote:

On 10/30/2014 2:50 PM, Michael Black wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014, wrote:

Wymsey wrote:
On Wed, 29 Oct 2014 20:14:07 +0000, jimp wrote:

How many HAMS have any need for a flexible circuit board?

We'll never know if we don't explore things.

The same could be said for silver plated, titanium antenna parts...

I can see more use for a flexible board.

What are your "more" uses for flexible boards?

I can't think of any. But a general construction practice (and flexible
circuit board qualifies) seems to have more value than some very expensive
method of making an antenna.

Michael

Did you read the article?

Making these flexible boards is an arduous process and requires a LOT of
capital outlay, so you have to make a LOT of boards or they will be
very expensive.



--
Jim Pennino

wrote in :

Making these flexible boards is an arduous process and requires a LOT of
capital outlay, so you have to make a LOT of boards or they will be
very expensive.


Maybe true if they're made of mylar or kapton, which most are, but I already
posted that very thin FR4 exists, and can be processed in exactly the same
way as any other copper clad FR4, and possibly it may even accept laser-
printed toner directly on to it, as it will roll just fine through the
printer. I don't know where to buy it, but I was given some by a guy who
would not have done that it it was particularly expensive or hard to come by.

As to what uses it has, I can't think of many, other than what I used it for,
namely mounting high power surface mount LED's in very tight spaces, by
epoxying it onto aluminium, then soldering LED's to the copper tracks. Its
thinness makes it a very good heatsink method that saves using more awkward
and expensive parts, and includes nice routing of high current conductors in
a very flat plane. THAT may be useful in a large number of situations, and
cheap too. The main weakness of thin FR4 is a need to avoid a minimum bend
radius because it will break abruptly and easily if pushed.

Lostgallifreyan wrote:
wrote in :

Making these flexible boards is an arduous process and requires a LOT of
capital outlay, so you have to make a LOT of boards or they will be
very expensive.


Maybe true if they're made of mylar or kapton, which most are, but I already
posted that very thin FR4 exists, and can be processed in exactly the same
way as any other copper clad FR4, and possibly it may even accept laser-
printed toner directly on to it, as it will roll just fine through the
printer. I don't know where to buy it, but I was given some by a guy who
would not have done that it it was particularly expensive or hard to come by.

Reread the article, this is NOT how he is making boards.

He is basically cutting the conductors from copper foil, laying the
foil on the printer, then printing the plastic on top of it.

The plastic is whatever the printer prints.


--
Jim Pennino