mike writes:

Repair Traces on Glass?

A chip of glass broke out of the corner of the
display on my Palm m505 PDA. It took with it
the trace that wraps all the way around to the
other side of the touchpanel.

If I short across the break with tweezers,
the touchpanel works. But I can't figger out how
to repair the break.

The trace is silver in color; I'm guessing aluminum???

I bent a short piece of #30 solid wire into a right
angle and mashed it flat to increase the surface
area. Attached it with silver-bearing conductive
paint. The contact resistance must be too high,
cause it doesn't work.

Tried soldering for grins, but no success.

I have a 125 Joule CD spot welder and a tiny head.
Thought about trying to weld a section of aluminum foil.
I'm not optimistic about getting it done the first time.
Probably won't get a second chance after I blow it all
to smitherines. ;-)

Ideas on how to fix this?

It doesn't need much current.

Get rid of the silver paint - it probably isn't even conductive.

Get some circuit board repair silver Epoxy or something similar.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Mirror: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/
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