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Silver Conductive Pen - PCB Trace Repair

nicklmg
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This will become very useful for fixing old keyboard PCB's!

Project Cobalt: 

CPU: AMD FX 8370 Motherboard:

Asus M5A97 R2.0

RAM: G.Skill Ares 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 2133 GPU:

Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming Case: NZXT H440 (Blue)

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 256GB +  2x 1TB WD Cavier Blue

PSU: Corsair 750G2 

CPU Cooler: Swiftech H220X

Keyboard: Model M + a lot of others 

Mouse: Logitech G502
 

Vintage Gaming PC: AMD Athlon T-Bird 800Mhz, Gainward nVidia Ti200 128MB, 512MB Crucial RAM DDR, Compaq ASPEN 2 OEM Board, Soundblaster Live! 5.1, Windows 98SE

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Out of curiosity, @nicklmg.. have you guys seen a decrease in YouTube video views since your partnership with Vessel was announced? I barely watch any LTT videos on YT anymore, other than the other channels and older stuff that's not on Vessel. Just curious.

 

I understand if people go and rewatch the stuff on Youtube (I occasionally do, I like the interface more, but Vessel isn't bad), but I feel like the initial viewers must all be on Vessel

I done been through a whole lot. Trial, tribulations, but I know God - Kendrick Lamar


I question your mother's upbringing if you don't like me - Action Bronson


You apocalyptic dingleberry - James 'Captain Slow' May

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Still more fun to etch your own pcb. Made a few simple ones in highschool.

Blarg

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Out of curiosity, @nicklmg.. have you guys seen a decrease in YouTube video views since your partnership with Vessel was announced? I barely watch any LTT videos on YT anymore, other than the other channels and older stuff that's not on Vessel. Just curious. I understand if people go and rewatch the stuff on Youtube (I do, I like the interface more, but Vessel isn't bad), but I feel like the initial viewers must all be on Vessel

I really like the idea of Vessel, however as a video streaming service, it's a pile of shit right now. Its "high" quality looks like 720p on Youtube, 4K is not supported, the loading speeds are arse, the design is as intuitive as Space Shuttle controls to a toddler.

 

But at least G+ isn't mandatory. Silver linings, you know...

Any unknown button should be pressed even number of times.

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Still more fun to etch your own pcb. Made a few simple ones in highschool.

I assume you've used Cl-Fe and not the heat treating? 

Any unknown button should be pressed even number of times.

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I assume you've used Cl-Fe and not the heat treating?

I dont remember much of the details. It has been some time since then. Just remember that it was an acid bath to remove the copper and leave the traces that were drawn on.

Blarg

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I really like the idea of Vessel, however as a video streaming service, it's a pile of shit right now. Its "high" quality looks like 720p on Youtube, 4K is not supported, the loading speeds are arse, the design is as intuitive as Space Shuttle controls to a toddler.

 

But at least G+ isn't mandatory. Silver linings, you know...

Vessel's reviews seem to be all over the place, very hit or miss. Some people seem to think it sucks, and others think it's fine. I'm in the latter. It does it's job decently well. I just want to get in my daily dose of Linus earlier than normal. It does that for me perfectly fine.

 

Surprisingly, loading times for me have been totally great. I don't get stutters or buffering or anything. I will agree on the video quality though, that could definitely be worked on. The UI isn't that bad. It took some time getting used to but I've gotten the hang of it. Again, it's not as good as YouTube's, but Vessel is still in a pretty early stage so I'll let it slide for now. 

 

The G+ thing is definitely another positive, for sure :D

I done been through a whole lot. Trial, tribulations, but I know God - Kendrick Lamar


I question your mother's upbringing if you don't like me - Action Bronson


You apocalyptic dingleberry - James 'Captain Slow' May

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I dont remember much of the details. It has been some time since then. Just remember that it was an acid bath to remove the copper and leave the traces that were drawn on.

Yeah, that sounds like Cl-Fe method to me (language barriers ftw).

Any unknown button should be pressed even number of times.

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The ting sponsor spot makes me think that LMG could probably make a full-length ad for them.

 

Starting off with a cellphone subscriber in slapdash armour battling their way thought hoards of robots in the entrance to some place that looks vaguely office like and kicking down doors between waves, pushing all of the way through to a customer service rep looking pretty apathetic at their desk.

This subscriber then looks down at the note he wrote to himself on his palm, looks up and asks if he can change his package to one with more data, or international roaming.

 

Then it cuts to the same person, even more equipped, bursting through a pair of doors. Then, cut to them looking confused as there's just a single person at the desk in there.

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faster than using thin insulated copper wires ... jumper connexions between two points :)

great stuff :) keep up your good work :) thanks :)

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How difficult would it have been to just recreate the connections with wires?

I can see how a pen like this makes sense when you can't carry with you/plug in a soldering iron, but wires are something everyone has lying around.

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So this is how I can fix my 386 motherboard. It had the barrel battery from my barely used 486 board (25MHz-got its ass kicked by the older DX-40) leak onto the I/O connectors. How would I clean off the corroded copper without damaging the good part of the tracks? (they are relatively large compared to the tracks on modern motherboards-no components are damaged and the power LED still lights up).

"We also blind small animals with cosmetics.
We do not sell cosmetics. We just blind animals."

 

"Please don't mistake us for Equifax. Those fuckers are evil"

 

This PSA brought to you by Equifacks.
PMSL

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Hi guys, cool video, I hadn't seen this product before. As someone who works a good bit with PCBs, and has repaired broken traces with solder bridges, here are my suggestions:

 

(1) Clean the area you are going to work on with isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol). This will prevent future corrosion from acid residue.

(2) Before and after you finish, check for condutivity between points of interest using a multimeter. This will let you know that you've successfully made a connection where you intended to, and that you haven't shorted anything together. Most multimeters have a mode where they will beep at you when the measured resistance is low enough to be considered a 'short', this is pretty handy for doing these checks.

 

As for the traces being janky, it's all about the frequencies of interest. For a button, the max frequency it's going to deal with is maybe like 10 clicks per second if you're clicking crazy fast. In terms of electronics, this signal is so incredibly slow that you could probably make the connection with a several meter long wire and as long as the resistance wasn't too high, it would work. On the other hand, trying to repair a motherboard memory trace with this stuff might be less successful, even with very careful applicaion.

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Out of curiosity, @nicklmg.. have you guys seen a decrease in YouTube video views since your partnership with Vessel was announced? I barely watch any LTT videos on YT anymore, other than the other channels and older stuff that's not on Vessel. Just curious.

 

I understand if people go and rewatch the stuff on Youtube (I occasionally do, I like the interface more, but Vessel isn't bad), but I feel like the initial viewers must all be on Vessel

I feel the same

 

my point of view is that Linus kinda' made a mistake giving priority to Vessel, even this video is 2 weeks old compared to Vessel release

and then you get to more important videos like reviews and previews that should be out ASAP - what would then be the point of releasing the video 1week or 2 weeks later? case and point the GTA5 video card showdown .. it's already 4days late and won;t be another 3, at least, until it gets on YT

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Love to see episodes like this. Actual "tech tips" not just a review of the latest thing I can't afford. In my eyes the best ones are the ones where uncertainty is a factor. 

 

Don't get me wrong I still like and watch all of it, but I enjoy things like this, Lukes software recommendations, handy tech under 100, mineral oil pc, scrapyard wars etc far more than just the general review stuff. 

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I screwed through a pathway to a ram socket on a board. Was actually wondering if there was a fix for it. I wonder if it'll work on a motherboard?

"I try to put good out into the world...that way I can believe it's out there." --CKN                  “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” --Wayne Dyer            

[Needs Updating] My PC: i5-10600K @TBD / 32GB DDR4 @4000MHz / Z490 AORUS Elite AC / Titan RTX / Samsung 1TB 960 Evo / EVGA SuperNova 850 T2

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  • Author

Out of curiosity, @nicklmg.. have you guys seen a decrease in YouTube video views since your partnership with Vessel was announced? I barely watch any LTT videos on YT anymore, other than the other channels and older stuff that's not on Vessel. Just curious.

 

I understand if people go and rewatch the stuff on Youtube (I occasionally do, I like the interface more, but Vessel isn't bad), but I feel like the initial viewers must all be on Vessel

Surprisingly enough, while we have seen a bit of a hit to initial views, our overall totals on YouTube have only been affected by 10-15%. If we weren't experiencing the ridiculous growth we always are, we may have seen a bit more of a drop. But so far it hasn't had a big negative impact from what I've seen! :)

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More tinkering videos! 

The only time incorrectly is spelled incorrectly is when it is spelled incorrectly.

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More tinkering videos! 

+1

 

This and the Makey Makey were really fun videos 

I done been through a whole lot. Trial, tribulations, but I know God - Kendrick Lamar


I question your mother's upbringing if you don't like me - Action Bronson


You apocalyptic dingleberry - James 'Captain Slow' May

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Out of curiosity, @nicklmg.. have you guys seen a decrease in YouTube video views since your partnership with Vessel was announced? I barely watch any LTT videos on YT anymore, other than the other channels and older stuff that's not on Vessel. Just curious.

 

I understand if people go and rewatch the stuff on Youtube (I occasionally do, I like the interface more, but Vessel isn't bad), but I feel like the initial viewers must all be on Vessel

 

Personally I don't bother with Vessel.

 

I have no need for hipster video platforms.  

4K // R5 3600 // RTX2080Ti

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