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Reply To: [unofficiall weekender] Communication Breakdown

February 13, 2020 at 11:27 am #1485876

blinky465

17028xp

I’ve played a little with the silver paint (I used the car windscreen heater repair paint rather than GSW conductive paint, but I’m guessing they’re pretty similar). It’s *ok*. But on models where I want to get the LEDs inside, rather than sitting on the surface (for example, the robot dragon has an LED *inside* it’s head that shines out) it’s not so easy to join two pieces of a model, trapping the LED inside AND ensure a good continuity connection between the silver paint, once assembled.

Also, each LED needs two traces painting to it, and these traces need to be as broad as possible (resistance in conductive paint is measured “per square” so it’s not great for long thin lines) so it’s not really suitable if more than one LED is required (as per Gerry’s Necron with eyes and gun illuminated) as you quickly run out of surface area to use for the traces.

Lastly, I like to add a controlling circuit in the base (like those touch-to-activate darlington transistors) which is almost impossible to connect to a line of conductive paint, without soldering on some wires anyway.

In short, yes, I have. I’m just much more comfortable with wires and solder!