Perf Board Construction How To?

[cosmosuave]

Looking for some help or some links on how to make a perf board from a schematic drawing? I have no problems with PCB's but I have never done anything with perf board and what I want to add to my SIDbox is a this headphone buffer amp...

http://www.paia.com/proddetail.asp?prod=9605K

I have purchased the parts I just not sure the right way to go about this?

[ultra]

simply put your components on and solder them.  bend the legs of your components over and solder them together, or if they aren't close enough to do that, use cat-3 wire to connect them.  cross off the items on your schematic as you go so you don't forget what you've done.  i'm not really sure how i can better explain, just start putting it together.

i used to do it this way and now, for small circuits with no pcb, i just design it in a program called diy layout creator and etch it to a copper board.  radio shack sells a pcb kit.

[stryd_one]

Search for 'perfboard layout'. Click first hit. Enjoy ;)

http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=7737.0

[ultra]

yeah that's the one :)

i forgot it does other kinds of layouts too.

[cosmosuave]

Thanks... SO....

[AndrewMartens]

If you haven't done perfboarding before, I would suggest buying a cheap breadboard and start with that.  Then you can place the components (start with the IC and the electrolytic caps, leave some room), and then connecting pins together with the resistors, ceramic caps, and any necessary jumper wire.  That will help you determine how and where to place the components together - and also to make sure that your proposed layout will work.  Then condense it as much as possible, if you are trying to save space.  I personally like to draw it out on a piece of graph paper - solid lines for components on the top, dotted lines for connections underneath.  Alternately one can use various software to do this.

For actually building the perfboard, I typically start with soldering in the IC socket, and then adding the resistors.  If you have 2x the necessary components, then you can leave your breadboarded version intact and use it for reference when debugging.  A lot of times you can just bend over the component legs of resistors and caps on the underside to use instead of jumper wire.  If you take a look at the top two images from my MB SID build, you can see how this tends to work:  http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=7521.msg53808#msg53808

It's a bit of an arcane art, and one that I don't pretend to be an expert at.  Normally if there is a reasonably priced kit available (that I can actually get shipped to me for a reasonable price), I will take that over bothering to acquire components separately and perfboard.

Hope this helped...

[Mr. zip]

Also, keep it as clean as you can. You don't want a mess of wires to trace through when something isn't working right. Also, make sure you know where your voltages are going (nothing says defeat like that sickening pop and that smell of toasted electronics).

[cosmosuave]

For actually building the perfboard, I typically start with soldering in the IC socket, and then adding the resistors.  If you have 2x the necessary components, then you can leave your breadboarded version intact and use it for reference when debugging.  A lot of times you can just bend over the component legs of resistors and caps on the underside to use instead of jumper wire.  If you take a look at the top two images from my MB SID build, you can see how this tends to work:  http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=7521.msg53808#msg53808

It's a bit of an arcane art, and one that I don't pretend to be an expert at.  Normally if there is a reasonably priced kit available (that I can actually get shipped to me for a reasonable price), I will take that over bothering to acquire components separately and perfboard.

Hope this helped...

Thanks AM... I guess I am going about it the right way cos I did start with the IC and I have been using the component legs for jumpers... Good job on your SIDbox...

[Wilba]

My 2 cents: get some Kynarâ„¢ wire, aka. wire wrap wire.

Single 0·25 mm (30 a.w.g.) silver-plated copper solid conductor with Kynar™ insulation.

This stuff is awesome. You can strip it to just a bare wire and make tracks on the perfboard, soldering it down at points, or make multiple insulated tracks on top of each other. The Kynarâ„¢will not melt like other plastic coated wires, and the single core makes it easy to solder, no need to tin the wire ends.

It's useful in many other contexts too, like changing/fixing PCB tracks, and wiring SMD LEDs into this abomination:

[cosmosuave]

Are those LED's on the encoders standard or did you add them on and how?

[Wilba]

I added them on with superglue and then soldered the wires between them. The wire was perfect for this kind of work... i.e. soldering 5mm lengths of wire.

[julienvoirin]

i ve done several circuit on veroboard and her is my experience :

if the circuit is basic, it goes faster than with eagle.

if it is to make a control surface it is ok as long as the din are on another pcb, made with eagle. that means you will have to put a lot of cable between the veroboard and the din pcb, but it is ok.

the hardest is to conceptualize the CS, and especially understanding how to place part (rotating them or not by 90° or 270°) in order to minimize the ground lines for example.

an advantage is that you can make mistakes : you will have to desolder and remove the circuitry made by the soldering and the iron ; buy a desoldering pump, very useful.

Something cool to know : buy epoxy translucent veroboard, so that you can see which legs are connected together by watching front of your assembly.

I've made a merger only with a small transparent pcb. The advantage is that you place part before soldering, and think to what is possible, how to pass the wires (in order to realise bridges) for a 2 side circuit ... and then realise that it can be !

I ve recently made the CS for seq v2. It was easy, and i arranged things for having only 1 ground line. and one 5v line.

check drawings