Conductive Copper Tape

I am upgrading my upscale Solar Flare to its intended purpose as a night launch vehicle and will be attaching a lot of LED strip lights to the rocket. I will be running wires around the ring fin and a conductive copper tape that I could solder to would make the wiring simpler. The LEDS on the strip lights are attached to a copper tape as part of their circuity. Does anyone have a recommended brand and source for this purpose. I can use wires if need be, but conductive tape would make the setup neater. The strip lights themselves draw from 1 to 5 amps (varies with length and LED type used).

https://www.leadingedgerocketry.com/night_flight.php does that with their night flight kits. Might want to see if they'll sell you some.

Or, go to McMaster.com and look at the stuff that shows up when you search for "copper tape" and see if that will do.

Stewart MacDonald sells it for shielding guitar pickups. - https://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Shielding/

Any place that sells stained glass art supplies will have it in a variety of widths. I use it for screw switches.
If you drill holes through your board and bring your wire in from the back side it helps retain the tape.

The local plastics house used to carry it here. I see the guitar tape seems a lot cheaper than the 3M stuff.

You should be able to get several different widths at Hobby Lobby in the stained glass section. I used this a several years ago to make a Gray-Hoverman TV antenna using a piece of foamboard.

Concept: External tracking transmitter dipole antenna for CF airframes using copper tape. Haven't tried it but it should be workable...

cerving said:

Concept: External tracking transmitter dipole antenna for CF airframes using copper tape. Haven't tried it but it should be workable...

Click to expand...

I have been thinking about that for a couple of years. Been so busy with life that I have not tried it, but it makes sense to me.

I wonder how the ground plane that is made up by the conductive BT will affect the radiation pattern. Would make one heck of a Smith chart & Fresnel pattern.

H_Rocket said:

I wonder how the ground plane that is made up by the conductive BT will affect the radiation pattern. Would make one heck of a Smith chart & Fresnel pattern.

Click to expand...

A dipole doesn't need a ground plane because the opposing element is the counterpoise. It's a typical "donut" pattern, but of course the signal immediately opposite the side of the tape that's mounted on the tube is going to be blocked to some extent by the contents of the AV bay and possibly by the actual tubing if it's CF. To what extent, it would be hard to say... there are modeling programs out there but an empirical test may be easier.

Years ago I made several dipole antennas from copper tape and toroids. These were used on composite aircraft construction like a Rutan Long EZ. They worked well but since only fiberglass was used vs CF They would transmit and receive in
all directions. This technique may be useful in creating an inexpensive antenna on a FG frame or nosecone because you can create your own gain and pattern but I see problems on CF.

Photo is my plane but not me.

3M conductive copper tape. Also made in a variant with conductive adhesive so if you cross tapes you make electrical contact....

from MMC https://www.mcmaster.com/#copper-foil-tape/=z1svah in both flavors....

Bob