Recently I came across conductive inks on Ebay and I thought to myself: “I highly doubt that you can make a well-working electronics circuit with that”. The reason for my thinking this way is that I love creating circuits for which I have to connect individual electrical components to one another. This way they come together to fulfill a purpose, like for example visually reacting to a music signal.

I usually make such circuits by using a perfboard onto which I create solder traces and use copper wires for the connections. Or I come up with a PCB design a bit in advance and simply order professionally made PCBs of my design onto which I have to solder the components in place in order to electrically connect them through copper traces.

Now these two circuit creating methods work perfectly fine for me, but that does not mean that I am not interested in alternative solutions. That is why I tested conductive 3D printing filament as well as a PCB printer in previous videos. And let me tell you that those alternatives do have their application field.

So needless to say for this video I ordered myself two different types of conductive ink pens in order to find out what their application field might be when it comes to creating electrical circuits, which is exactly what we will be finding out in the next couple of minutes!

This video is sponsored by JLCPCB and EasyEDA. As you might know I have been using the EasyEDA schematic and PCB design software for years, and now I am happy to announce that when you are finished with your PCB design that includes an SMT assembly service, you can like always directly order your PCBs through JLCPCB but now you get a 10$ coupon while doing so. Feel free to join the EasyEDA and JLCPCB community.

Well, let's dive straight into my experiments with these conductive ink pens. I have two of them in front of me here, and I'm excited to see what they can do. First things first, I need to test their conductivity on different surfaces.

So I drew some lines on a piece of paper, one by one. And then I hooked up my multimeter to test the resistance of each line. The results are interesting - it looks like the ink works on a multitude of surfaces, including paper, metal, and even plastic!

As you can see from the image above, the ink is able to conduct electricity quite well. Now, let's take it one step further and test its conductivity at different temperatures. I will heat up my multimeter and apply it to each line.

So, what happens when we heat up the ink? The resistance decreases significantly! This means that the ink can potentially be used in certain circumstances to patch a damaged conductive trace.

Now, let's move on to the next test - applying these conductive ink pens to bigger SMD ICs. As you can see from the image above, it looks like they work quite well on larger components as long as we apply enough pressure.

But what about using them for more complex electronics projects? Can we create something like a 555 timer circuit with one of these pens? Let's give it a try!

So, I drew two long lines and hooked up my function generator to test the frequency stability. And guess what? The waveform doesn't alter at all! This means that data communication should not be a problem at all with this ink.

However, when using a square wave, it seems like the waveform was a bit damped at higher frequencies. But overall, I'm very happy with the results of my tests!

Now that we've explored what these conductive ink pens can do, let's talk about their limitations. While they're great for creating some creative electronics art pieces, I have to say that they still cannot replace copper in terms of conductivity.

However, this shouldn't be seen as a negative thing! These conductive ink pens are actually quite unique and can open up new possibilities for DIY electronics projects. And who knows, maybe one day we'll see them become more widely used!

Overall, I have to say that I'm impressed with these conductive ink pens even more than I initially thought. They're definitely the best way if you want to make some creative electronics art pieces with LEDs or something similar.

And with that being said, thanks for watching! Don't forget to like, share, subscribe and hit the notification bell. Stay creative, and I will see you next time!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enRecently I came across such conductive inkpens on Ebay and I thought to myself: “Ihighly doubt that you can make a well workingelectronics circuit with that”The reason for my thinking this way is thatI love creating circuits for which I haveto connect individual electrical componentsto one another.This way they come together to fulfil a purposelike for example visually reacting to a musicsignal.I usually make such circuits by using a perfboardonto which I create solder traces and usecopper wires for the connections.Or I come up with a PCB design a bit in advanceand simply order professionally made PCBsof my design onto which I have to solder thecomponents in place in order to electricallyconnect them through copper traces.Now these two circuit creating methods workperfectly fine for me but that does not meanthat I am not interested in alternative solutions.That is why I tested conductive 3D printingfilament as well as a PCB printer in previousvideos.And let me tell you that that those alternativesdo have their application field.So needless to say for this video I orderedmyself two different types of conductive inkpens in order to find out what their applicationfield might be when it comes to creating electricalcircuits which is exactly what we will befinding out in the next couple of minutes!Let's get started!This video is sponsored by JLCPCB and EasyEDA.As you might know I have been using the EasyEDAschematic and PCB design software for yearsand now I am happy to announce that when youare finished with your PCB design that includesan SMT assembly service, you can like alwaysdirectly order your PCBs through JLCPCB butnow you get a 10$ coupon while doing so.So feel free to join the EasyEDA and JLCPCBuser group today.Now after receiving both pens, I have to saythat one of them not only looked kids friendlybut also a bit Chinese while the other onewith its warning labels looked a bit moreintimidating.And to keep things simple; I will from nowon call one pen the silver pen and the otherpen the Chinese pen.But anyway, both of them required some intenseshaking before usage which I did next.And for the initial test whether both pensare truly conductive, I simply drew a basicline with no specifications regarding thewidth onto a piece of paper.One of the first things I noticed though wasthat the Chinese pen didn't feel like workingwith me most of the time and it was a bitawkward to handle the silver pen since youhave to constantly apply pressure.But nevertheless after around 20 minutes bothlines were reasonably dry and by using a multimeterwith its resistance function I was able tomeasure a value of below 200Ω for both penswhich means that they are in fact electricallyconductive.But for the upcoming test series I will solelyfocus on the silver pen and basically kickout the Chinese one.The reason is not only that the silver oneoffers a way lower resistance in direct comparisonbut also because you can not solder to theChinese pen line.I tried all kinds of different techniquesand temperatures for the soldering processbut all the ink does is disappearing fromthe paper surface.That of course makes it way harder to createcomplicated circuits with more than one componentsince you have to push onto them in orderto make a useful electrical connection.The silver pen on the other hand can be solderedto in a more or less easy way which solvesthe problem of creating more complex circuits.So one pen is out which means we can do aproper resistance, maximum current and frequencytest with the silver pen.And I started with the resistance test; forwhich I drew 3 5cm long lines with a widthof 2, 4 and 6mm onto cardboard which I thencut out.I used this jig in order to create 3 linesof the silver pen onto a piece of paper.But let me tell you that this was a bit messyand since I am not able to create perfectlines with the ink with a know height, thefollowing tests will only be approximations.So after letting everything dry, I solderedwires to the end of all the lines and onceagain used my multimeter in order to measurethe resistance.As it turns out the average resistance equalsaround 1.5 Ω/cm at a width of 1mm which doesnot sound too bad but if you directly comparethat to a PCB trace with the same width thenyou will see that the copper trace featuresa resistance that is around 315 times lower.And that thought brings me to the currenttest in which I let a slowly rising currentflow through the just created lines in orderto see at which point their electrical conductivitybreaks down.And to my own surprise while current valuesbeneath 500mA delivered around the same resistanceat which point the silver ink already reallystarted to heat up, current values of above500mA decreased the resistance of the inknoticeably but eventually it got so hot thatit burned the paper surface which thus actedlike a fuse.It seems like the increased temperature dueto the resistance of the ink does improveits conductivity and it also seems to be ableto withstand pretty high temperatures, I didnot expect that.But overall due to the rather high resistanceof the ink, I would only recommend it forapplications below 500mA due to high voltagedrops.So creating some fancy looking low currentLED Art is certainly possible with such apen.But what about a proper 555 timer circuitthat spits out a square wave with variablefrequency?The reason why I am asking like that is thatthe ink may come with some parasitic inductiveand or capacitive properties that could messwith such an AC signal.This can be a problem not only for the 555timer but everything that uses a high frequencyto communicate like these LEDs with integratedcontroller.So I drew two long ink lines and hooked myfunction generator up to them on one sidewhile I had a look at the frequency with myoscilloscope on the input and output side.And as you can see with the sine voltage test,the frequency does not alter the waveformat all on the output.But while using a square wave it seems likethe waveform was a bit damped at higher frequencieswhich is completely normal though.That means data communication should not bea problem at all with this ink and thus thefrequency test was passed.And that basically means it was go time formy 555 timer circuit ink design which wasactually a small riddle to figure out howto do because you only have one side and nowires were allowed.But eventually I found a fitting design andafter securing all of the components in placewith either the silver ink which can alsobe used as a kind of glue or by using solder,the circuit was complete.And as you can hear with your ears or seeon the oscilloscope, the circuit works perfectlyfine.At this point I was done with my experiments,so what is my verdict?Well, since the ink works on a multitude ofsurfaces it is definitely the best way ifyou want to make some creative electronicsart pieces with LEDs or something similar.The ink can also be used in certain circumstancesto patch a damaged conductive trace.And while it does make it a bit easier towork with bigger SMD ICs, I have to say thatyou can not create fine enough lines for supertiny SMD ICs.And since of course the properties of theink are lacking in comparison to copper thereis not much application when it comes to creatingreliable electronics circuits aside from maybeplayfully teaching beginners the concept ofcircuit design.So overall while the ink actually impressedme more than I initially thought, it stillcan mostly only be used for creative art pieces,which is actually not a bad thing.And with that being said, thanks for watching.As always don't forget to like, share, subscribeand hit the notification bell.Stay creative and I will see you next time.