Breadboard (perfboard) question

[rodneon]

I'm new to electronics and am planning on building a few small projects before I try my hand at the mighty MB64.

I went to a local electronic supply store yesterday and was interested in the breadboards they had, especially "perfboards" -- the kind with just the holes and little copper rings etched around each one of them. I was reading about them on the Internet, and someone wrote that they're great for prototyping, although you end up with a mess of wires on the under side to make all the connections.

Is it possible to make tracks between the holes using plain ol' solder? I mean, instead of using wires, can I just "connect the dots" with solder?

[moebius]

Hi,

I think what I've seen, has been done by putting a bare wire against the prefboard and then applying solder to build the "Tracks". Looked a bit messy, but I think it worked ok. At least it looked better, than a big mess of point-to-point wires.

Bye, Moebius

[jdutcher]

i use protoboards like the one you mentioned quite often.  what i do is just bridge adjacent pads and use solid, insulated wire for larger gaps.  i use bare wire for medium sized gaps (as long as no other components will get in the way, or for "sneaky" connections (i.e. under ICs, etc.).  a good trick is to solder a component on to the board and then bend the lead over to the pad that you want it to connect to and use that as a bare wire connection.

the absolute best way to use a protoboard though, is to map out your circuit ahead of time and use a conductive silver trace pen.  basically, this is a pen whose ink is conductive and will carry electricity wherever you draw a line.  try to do it ahead of time though, so you can bake it for 10 min to cure the traces.  that said, even though i have one of those pens (12 bucks at radio shack, i think), i still resort to bridging and wire interconnects in most cases.

depending on your skills, this method can take a while.  i suggest practicing a bit with a smaller circuit if you're new to this.  i think etching your own pcbs is probably the best way to do things for larger circuits, but i don't have a drill press.  i just finished building a complete edrum module using the above method and it took a LONG time.

hope that helps.

[Screaming_Rabbit]

try to do it ahead of time though, so you can bake it for 10 min to cure the traces.

... bake it in the oven (what temerature?) or with a heatgun?

Greets, Roger

[jdutcher]

225ºF in the oven for 5-10 min.  might vary by pen brand, though.

make sure the components aren't on there though!  this should be done on a blank protoboard, obviously.

[js]

By now i´ve midified my old organ and made my midibox sid using breadboards only. I use a combination of bridges on the kobber side and short wires (wiith one stiff connector in the the middle) Don´t use too long wires and think about the order you mount them.

I think it´s a good start to make the first boards on breadboards cause you get a good and deep insight of the circet. A good place to start practice is to build the symectric stuff like the din module.

js

[adamjking]

Hi RodNeon,

I've done all my boards like others have descibed above (solder bridging/wire interconnects). I'm new to electronics too, but here is an example of how I've done it:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/adamjking/images/core.htm

Cheers,

Adam