@steverino How about Kapton film + adhesive-backed copper tape?

Is Kapton film the material used to make the flexible cables for connecting laptops to their displays through the hinges?

@steverino Yes, it's the orange colored substrate. High temp rated so you could solder on it

Kapton tape, also available. Actually, FCPCB blank, unetched is available too. But copper foil is cheaper, so is Kapton Tape

Awesome, you made my day. My original thought was to try to use the same materials as those flex cables, but I had no idea what search terms to use to ge there.

I think adafruit may have had the copper-clad substrates, but you can get copper tape from an arts+crafts store

(commonly used for stained glass)

I already have a couple of rolls of copper tape leftover from helping the same cosplay crowd with connecting EL wire.

@steverino That being said, if you're just wiring up direct connections (no chips, passives, modules) then wire is probably your best bet

I used to stock FCPCB strips, 3mm, 5mm, 8mm, 10mm, 15mm and 25mm, but it's sooo much easier to get a Chinese fab to make whatever I need on them

Funny how many LARP/Cosplay people these days think of us nerds to help them

My LARPy friends kind of never ask me any more, makes me a bit sad

Made some cool stuff a few years back

There is a small round PCB that these guys are wanting to use that comes from either sparkfun or adafruit. The "wardrobe malfunctions" they want my help with though are mainly connections failing between the board and leds or power

@steverino use wire - it'll be more reliable

something like a lilypad?

yup lillypad. that is it. The costumes have some vacuum formed pieces with hinges. The wires break at the hinges. That is why I thought of flex cables for laptop displays. And was so pleased to hear that what I needed was the term "kapton" For the most part, though, I agree wires are better.

Little roll of 34x40 AWG, preferably silicone wrapped, perfect for wardrobe power

The other thing I have thought of, (but haven't yet tried) was using ribbon cable.

Could you clue me in on what you mean by silicone wrapped? I am imagining putting RTV over a wire reading that comment.

Nope, I mean the wire itself

The more strands the better, like this stuff:

nl.farnell.com/mc-multi-contact/61-7605-23/…

But less expensive per 5M

Very flexible, many strands: doesn't break on the outside easily and doesn't break on the inside easily

It's what they use on mid to high end BLDC motors as well, so you can use them in robots with joints and not worry about cable lifetime

You guys are a wealth of information. Thanks W5VO and Asmyldof.

nl.farnell.com/pro-power/12-x-123-black/…

nl.farnell.com/pro-power/12-x-123-red/…

You can lookup the product numbers on Element14 or your local Farnell site as well.

No worries

25m should be adequate for just a bit of powering.

I was thinking of ordering 1000m spools of some types about a week ago (from a factory, because tbh, if you need a lot RS/Farnell/Digikey are still expensive)

The cost of this wire is a drop in the bucket compared to what some of these folks spend on plastic for vacuum forming.

Cheaper option, but with the note that it's 40 conductors in stead of 200: aliexpress.com/item/…

Oh I know.

I only tell very few people I also do glass and carbon fibre

:-)

Want an apprentice?

I would love to learn a little about doing fused silica or borosilicate stuff. The startup cost has always daunted me.

Hah. I don't do it professionally, my quality of goods is lower, but my Carbon Fibre motorcycle joint is fine for my Sport/Tour

For a costume usually glass fibre, clear silicone or epoxy with a colour in is a decent base for most projects

Making the shape is doable with sand or clay, if you've practised, if it's important you can cement the surface with modelling gipsum, then you can sand it smooth, possibly then polish off with some cheap epoxy and sand even smoother. If you added strong epoxy, it's ready for silicone directly, for epoxy you need a layer of separating agent.

Then you build up your "layer stack", put enough wet material on and through it, if it is thick you need to apply wet matter and layers of cloth in steps. Then you put some vacuum foil over it with "large holes", some absorption fibre, another vacuum foil with tinier holes, and basically "ziplock" a big hooverbag around it all with the "hoover attachments" spread out at the absorption side.

And turn on your vacuum pump

For small parts moulding can be done with 3D printers

Or a dremel, really

Sounds really interesting. I am sure that a local hackerspace would be excited to attend one of your classes. Have you done any videos documenting a build?

Nah, always too busy to keep my lab clean enough to invite people and or turn a camera on

:-)

(or too lazy, however you want to read that)

I'm pondering having a go at making a mask for someone

One that fits well enough to be worn a full day, but with 0603 LEDs here and there for some creepyness through some "wounds"

Maybe some UV ones near the eyes for creepy contacts that people normally use in discos

I can relate to all of the above. On a completely different topic; have you guys seen the liquid metal TedX talk by Michael Dickey? tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Liquid-Metal-The-Prophecy-of-th

No, I haven't

Is it mostly about quicksilver or hot lead? ;-)

There are using a 1 volt stimulus to control surface tension in a gallium indium liquid metal. Its really cool.

I think maybe dating would help me keep clean enough in the lab. I'd be embarrassed and start cleaning up

But, too... let's say lazy... for that too

huhm

I immediately think of quicksilver switches with funny side effects

I should really go to bed. Pro forma

Don't think I'll fall asleep before the alarm goes, but then I can claim I tried

Too busy calculating prices.

It's annoying with new customers, you need to calculate something they say yes to, but also something that gives a margin for "Yes, but, we actually...." 5 days before a deadline

Anyone in the BeNeLux/DE area in need of a LiFePO4 (DIY) Pack for something? On the verge of ordering 10Ah Single Cells and a set of protection boards (@PlasmaHH @jippie et al)

@Asmyldof zou niet weten wat ik ermee moet doen.

@NickAlexeev I think it was a bit premature to migrate that question just then to the Arduino SE. It seems like there are many electronics answers to the question, in combination with microcontroller code (the Arduino side).

he's already using a buffer amp with gain of 2 to get the 10V, so surely we could suggest an [electronics based] interface to get the incremental behaviour that the OP was asking about

@KyranF The way I see that question: "Please help me with code connecting increment/decrement button and PWM". But, perhaps, you are right and that question could have stewed here on EE.SE for a day first.

The thing is, the OP doesn't need to use PWM. depending on how many IO they have available, they can do all sorts of fancy things, like using a resistor ladder on the output for a form of DAC, with 0.25V increments per bit, etc.

oh well, good luck to them

@Asmyldof I doubt htat... just have a look into my office... there is a clean walking path through all kinds of stuff stacked on top of each other... ^^

@PlasmaHH Just thought I'd ask.

I know these are good cells, but getting 2 or 3 of them into the EU is a nightmare of stacks of euros, so I hear many hobbyists say "Ah, LiFePO, too much hassle, either expensive or complicated"

Which is sort of true, but if you've tried it before there's options.

:-)

Just trying to share in my hassle and sweat ;-)

Or, actually the results of it

Can anybody here tell me if my head's still on?