Good Idea: Clay as a PCB substrate

https://feministhackerspaces.cargo.site/Clay-PCB-Tutorial

A circuit board is just a substrate that holds conductive traces and components. It does not have to be fiberglass reinforced with brominated flame retardants, sourced through a supply chain running through conflict zones and toxic processing facilities. The Feminist Hardware project at mz* Baltazar's Laboratory in Vienna is experimenting with natural clay and terracotta as alternatives:
Locally sourced, fired, and traced with conductive paste.

The repository includes actual reproducible tutorials, not just theory. Electrical performance will not replace industrial PCBs, but the goal is to demonstrate that basic electronics do not require a global extraction economy, and to build a practical reference for what genuinely local, low-impact hardware production could look like.
Repo: https://github.com/FeministHardware/Making-PCBs-from-natural-clay

Thanks to our friends @klimadeswandels

#Open #Hardware #Sustainability #Hacking #Manufacturing #Degrowth #solarpunk

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Clay circuit board on the grass

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Wiring diagram for pcb

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A batch of unfired clay pcb

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A clay pcb in the fire

#sfw #hardware

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Dark-ish picture showing motherboard mounted horizontally on a transparent acrylic surface. Underneath a combined 5.25 inch and 90mm floppy drive. The installed RAM lights up in different colours, four sticks with blue, purpole organge and yellow LEDs, respectively. VGA, network and sound cards are also visible.