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This past week I iterated with physically to push past my initial units shortcomings. I was focused on two things in my iterations: usability ad functionality.

When I did my initial batch of copper tape circuits I automatically knew I’d need to make the circuit traces larger. It was next to impossible to get the circuit off its adhesive backing and onto a substrate without a sharp pointed tool(i.e. needle/paperclip).

To fix this I enlarged the traces from 1mm to 2.5m and was able to place the traces with the aid of a scissor blade. I was also able to peel back excess material with the addition of carefully placed slits. The enlarged traces coincidentally are more forgiving(larger area) when soldering, which will make the process of soldering with kids much easier.

With these two obstacles somewhat taken care of I moved onto the act of placing the cut tape on its target substrate.Peeling the circuit directly from the backing is very difficult due to excess material and the materials tendency to unevenly stick to its backer. Initially I thought I would have to devise some sort of transfer paper method as seen in traditional vinyl decal processing/installation. I instead chose to create a margin around the circuit, this margin allowed for the circuit to be peeled with less excess material. In the end its not 100% perfect, but a little work to remove the excess will allow the makers of the tool to take more ownership of it.

Within the context of functionality I was looking at the circuit and wether or not it could operate after being cut. I had to adjust the coper traces so that they did not create any unintended shorts, just a matter of tweaking the vector file.