My Apogee Caliper hf ribbons are open circuited through a break in the conductive layer. This happened as a result of a design flaw - the hf ribbons are spaced from their panel housing with foam bungs which rotted away over the years and deposited on the bottom loop of the ribbons. This in turn corroded away a section of the conductive aluminium layer about 3mm wide leaving the underlying kapton exposed 🙁
Is there a way to mend this electrical break on the ribbon? Since the material is aluminium on kapton I assume soldering is out of the question and some chemical means is needed to form a conductive bond between two aluminium surfaces (I can fold the ribbon to make this contact). As this is a low impedance speaker, the bond must be able to withstand high current of several amps.
Last resort is to replace the entire ribbon but this is very costly if it's available at all.
Is there a way to mend this electrical break on the ribbon? Since the material is aluminium on kapton I assume soldering is out of the question and some chemical means is needed to form a conductive bond between two aluminium surfaces (I can fold the ribbon to make this contact). As this is a low impedance speaker, the bond must be able to withstand high current of several amps.
Last resort is to replace the entire ribbon but this is very costly if it's available at all.
I used some Circuit Works conductive silver paint to fix an open spot on my dueette's bass panels.
I used it to glue on a small jumper wire and then secure the wire to the diagphram with a small drop of silicone.
It has lasted 11 years now.
I see no reason that conductive paint would not to work if you where to use a thin coating as it is kind of thick but dries very rubbery and flexible.
I have used nickel print from mg chemicals before aswell on different things and it dries hard.
But use a sliver based one.
jer
I used it to glue on a small jumper wire and then secure the wire to the diagphram with a small drop of silicone.
It has lasted 11 years now.
I see no reason that conductive paint would not to work if you where to use a thin coating as it is kind of thick but dries very rubbery and flexible.
I have used nickel print from mg chemicals before aswell on different things and it dries hard.
But use a sliver based one.
jer
dunno about the electrolytic corrosion issues, but it seems to me there's not much to lose here. the silver stuff will have a lower resistance, I was thinking some very thin foil (like scavanged from a film/foil cap bonded over the break with the silver paint... that would give a wide surface area for current handling, passed over to the foil by a rather thin layer of the silver paint... it will muck up the ribbon to some degree where the problem is, but since the ribbon is large it likely will me more or less meaningless in terms of listening...
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Thanks for the good suggestions folks.
I have previously tried silver conductive paint (used in pcb repairs) but it worked only for a few weeks before it burnt out. Guess the current was too high, so may try again this time with a bigger area of contact and some way to keep the surfaces pressed together for good measure.
I have previously tried silver conductive paint (used in pcb repairs) but it worked only for a few weeks before it burnt out. Guess the current was too high, so may try again this time with a bigger area of contact and some way to keep the surfaces pressed together for good measure.
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