Circuit board blanks- where do they come from?

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
G

GoatRider

Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2011
Messages
417
Location
Maple Grove, Minnesota
I brought a circuit board pen to work today, to give to our SysAdmin in thanks for all the help he's given me over the years.

Since I work in web development, everybody in the office is 100% nerd, even the women. They all really loved it, but of course nerds want to know how things work. We wondered what the circuit board inside the resin is, and where it comes from. The technology to make a round PCB and solder surface mount components is way too sophisticated to have been developed for the purpose of a novelty pen. There must be a high-tech use for a PCB of that shape, but nobody in the office knows what it is.

Does anybody here know?
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
thewishman said:
It is a real circuit board and was created specifically for making these blanks.
Click to expand...


Close!!!

It is a circuit board, but not one with a purpose. Look at all the pens, they all have the same pattern of component connection points. So, yes it is probably the facing that is used in real boards, but it was engineered to "look real" rather than to "do" something.
 
Before they were readily available, IAP member bruce119 used to make them. Try searching some of the old posts .... it's an interesting read. I know it involved sanding the cuircuit boards till they were thin enough to heat up and wrap around the tubes. The sanding proccess alone would have been a nasty job!
I still like to think we have Bruce to thank for the cuircuit board pens. Once the "big boys" saw how popular they were here, they started mass producing them.
 
Thanks guys, adding "bruce" to my search term allowed me to find the history.

I asked one of my EE friends, and he thinks it looks like a "kapton flex PCB". Using a flexible PCB would certainly make the process a lot easier, it would save the step of sanding it thin. So that's probably how Berea is doing it.
 
fake boards

I had the misfortune of cutting a little to hard on one of those blanks purchased at WC some time back:eek:. Being a bit of a electronic nerd (and Ham:biggrin:) myself I took the broken blank apart to look at the board. What i found was paper with an image printed on it:eek:. A little gold paint for the traces, and chips and other parts glued to the paper. for the mass market I suspect they went the label route for expedency and cost. I guess, unless you destroy one to find out:frown:, they figured noone would know.

I was thinking about painting a tube circuit board green, using the SMA parts from on old radio, and make traces with a gold paint pen. casting it in clear poly and see if a reproduction of the same effect could be created. it would be simular in method to the wonderful watch pen's found elsware on the boards, now those take talent:).

I think, I read a thread about someone making a scan of a snake skin printing it on a label then casting the pen. I think they said it sold well at a show.

You never know what you will see now-a-day...
 
w5brw said:
I had the misfortune of cutting a little to hard on one of those blanks purchased at WC some time back:eek:. Being a bit of a electronic nerd (and Ham:biggrin:) myself I took the broken blank apart to look at the board. What i found was paper with an image printed on it:eek:. A little gold paint for the traces, and chips and other parts glued to the paper. for the mass market I suspect they went the label route for expedency and cost. I guess, unless you destroy one to find out:frown:, they figured noone would know.

I was thinking about painting a tube circuit board green, using the SMA parts from on old radio, and make traces with a gold paint pen. casting it in clear poly and see if a reproduction of the same effect could be created. it would be simular in method to the wonderful watch pen's found elsware on the boards, now those take talent:).

I think, I read a thread about someone making a scan of a snake skin printing it on a label then casting the pen. I think they said it sold well at a show.

You never know what you will see now-a-day...
Click to expand...

I had made a mistake on a red one and decided to cut it up just to see.
It is a true circuit board, I was able to see copper between the board and the brass tube.
Woodcraft gets the circuitboard kits from Berea.
 
I gave one to my son for Christmas and he took it to work, the EE's grabbed it and prototyped it on their software. I does not do anything and is not part of a circuit that was in the library of the program they were using.

They did come up with a circuit that they wanted me to make into a pen for they it was an inclinometer that used LED's to show level and had a photo cell to charge the battery.

I took them one that I had busted and they took that one apart and are working on doing a metallic paper label that will support their circuit.

These guys have too much time on their hands.
 
In air, space & other SWaP (size, weight, and power) constraints, you use flexible circuits. So, I understand we have thin and bendable circuit boards for such things.

I've worked airborne networking and research for years, but haven't seen any yet.

-- joe
 
I've heard that it's actually a very expensive CB. the cost is subsidized by the chinese government, and the board actually records whatever the user writes, and than transmits it to china (via the Wi-Fi antenna/pen clip)
 
studioso said:
I've heard that it's actually a very expensive CB. the cost is subsidized by the chinese government, and the board actually records whatever the user writes, and than transmits it to china (via the Wi-Fi antenna/pen clip)
Click to expand...

Speaking of which, does anybody have a good pattern for a tin foil hat? :wink:
 
studioso said:
I've heard that it's actually a very expensive CB. the cost is subsidized by the chinese government, and the board actually records whatever the user writes, and than transmits it to china (via the Wi-Fi antenna/pen clip)
Click to expand...

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Funniest post in a LONG time!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom