I found out about flexible PCB strip a few years back and a friend in Denmark was able to order some from Germany and send them on to me in the States. I then ordered more from a store in England when England was still in the EU. Now you can only order them (as far as I know) if you are in Germany or in an EU country. If you are in those countries ( HERE ) is a link to where you can buy them. These strips can have many uses, such as those ( HERE ). Being very thin fit into tight places for lights and such. They are easy to mount SMD’s like resistors and LED’s to and can act as solder pads where you need to connect multiple wires to one source. I have a pretty good supply of them but thought about what I’d do if I didn’t or what others can do that can’t order them. I came up with the following which I think has potential and is easy and cheap to use or experiment with. I made up the following test strip in about 10 minutes and I’m happy with it. The two main components of the strip is Kapton tape (various widths available) and Copper Foil Tape, also available in various widths and very cheap. If you are doing decoder installs you are probably using Kapton tape to hold wiring in place and to insulate areas of the install. You can find Copper Foil Tape multiple places for not much at all. To make a strip take a length of Kapton tape twice as long as what you need. Double it back on itself so that the two sticky sides stick together. Then cut a length of the Copper Foil Tape and pull the backing off of it and stick it onto one side or the other of the Kapton tape. That’s it….you have a flexible PCB strip that you can solder to. You can put separate piece of the copper foil on and solder SMD’s like resistors or LED’s or other components across the gaps. A wire or multiple wires are easy to solder to the ends or any place along their length. You can use wider Kapton tape and run multiple parallel copper foils on the tape for multiple circuits or solder devices bridging from one to the other. If you don’t need them to be flexible but stick to something don’t double the kapton tape or use only the copper foil. A day or two later decided to see how easy it would be to make a double circuit flexible strip with the Kapton tape and the copper foil with the adhesive backing. Only took about 30 minutes to knock one out. See the following images. . . Only took about 30 minutes to build the LED light strip above. ========================= Copper Foil Dispenser ===================================== When I got the copper foil I found it kind of unwieldy to use so made the dispenser above and below in about 15 minutes and find that it works great. . Hope all of the above helps some of you guys out. I use the flexible PCB strips all the time for decoder installs and other projects. Here is a link to this info on my site also.... https://1fatgmc.com/RailRoad/Decoder-1/page-35.html Sumner
Nice dispenser! I have some of the copper tape and have used it for a mini circut board to wire up a bridge rectifier and capacitors for LED lighting. Haven't tried the flexible method. Will have to keep that on in my toolbelt.
To All, The flexible copper strip has been used in the doll house hobby, using it to make electrical wiring for the light fixtures in the doll house. The strips were dual tracked self adhesive tapes, after installation they would be covered by the wallpaper etc. My other half has built a few houses using this system, believe itt was of the Circuitron brand. I have some leftover and use it all the time for the n scale buildings om my layout. Maybe you could have your light shine on that alternative... All the best,
I think you did , thanks. I've use the flexible 2 circuit strips from Germany for a few years now but BNSF FAN recently posted about the copper foil strips with adhesive backing. That gave me the idea to combine them with the Kapton tape for when a flexible option is needed. Sumner
It's used in stained glass work, as well. I used it to create my own steering wheel mounted button board for sim racing. https://imgur.com/M543VoL There's some that's conductive one side and another that's conductive two sides. Even with the two-sided tape, I've had to solder the connections between adjacent pieces.
Glad to be a bad influence I like the Kapton tape idea for flexible circuits. I like the dispenser you posted. Looks like it would make it a lot easier to handle. Need to take a pic of the dispenser I currently am using. It's quite bulky compared to the lids.
