[HH] ink jet printed circuits, paper Arduinos

[Tom Metro]

Greg London wrote:
> conductive filament for 3d printers.
> "print your own circuit boards"
> http://www.makergeeks.com/co3dfi.html

I guess that's useful if you need to create a low density circuit with a
3D shape. Hardly seems practical if your objective is to create a
typical 2D circuit board.


How about using an ink jet printer to print 2D circuits using ink with
silver nanoparticles?
http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-inkjet-print-circuits-at-fraction-of-time-and-cost

or (has better pictures):
http://www.cnet.com/news/agic-lets-you-print-circuits-with-an-inkjet/

  Kits to turn your home inkjet printer into a circuit board fabricator
  -- including the basic printing kit and developer devices such as
  transistors, LEDs, switches and resistors -- are available for pledges
  starting at US$299, with US$599 getting a printer thrown in too...


It had a Kickstarter campaign:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1597902824/agic-print-printing-circuit-boards-with-home-print

that well exceeded its goal back in April.


Then related, there is a whole community building Arduino projects on
paper circuit boards:

http://makezine.com/2014/04/04/building-an-arduino-out-of-paper/
http://paperduino.eu/doku.php?id=building_paperduino_tiny_step_by_step

These use paper (or more accurately card stock) to hold the components,
and then they bend the component leads or use hookup wire to make the
inter-component connections. No conductive ink.

And then inevitably someone combined the two, using a paper substrate
and conductive ink:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Paperduino-20-with-Circuit-Scribe/

It uses a pen plotter and ink technology from
http://www.electroninks.com/. The video says they used super glue to
hold the components to the board, and in most cases nothing on the
conductive pads, but sometimes they used conductive epoxy to make a
better connection. Power and other leads attaching to the board use
magnetic connectors from Electroninks.

So consider using an Arduino gadget as your next business card. :-)


And tangentially related...Arduino boards and peripherals on "paper
thin" (but not paper) flexible circuit boards:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1030661323/printoo-paper-thin-flexible-arduinotm-compatible-m

Ready for your next wearable Arduino project that you want to wrap
around your wrist like an arm band.

 -Tom