How terrible of an idea is this? (stripboard alternative) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Youkai
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2020, 11:29:23 pm
content: I was doing some stripboard planning for my current project and had a thought/idea. I was already planning on soldering some female headers onto my strip board for things like my NeoPixel and servo connections. The NeoPixel is going to be installed on a separate part than the one that holds the stripboard/microcontroller so I want it to be detachable. Then I was going to directly solder the resistors and some connection wires onto the stripboard. I'm going to need 3 rows of 13 pins with a couple of breaks in various places.But I had a though, if I just put male ends on all of my wires then I could make a fake stripboard out of female headers with a wire soldered across the pins that need to be connected. I have 3 20-pin female headers. So I could pull a pin here and there where I want a break. Then strip and cut a wire to the length of the pin section and solder each pin to the wire. This would make the section of female header effectively like a stripboard (or so my thinking goes).While my limited knowledge of electronics makes me think this will work it "feels" bad. I can see two major possibilities for issues with this method:Obviously not as reliable if I'm not soldering the wires. Not really a concern with this prototype project.Increased resistantce (Possibly). Would doing this method cause (more/enough more) resistance compared to a solid copper strip that it might impact the project? Does adding a solder point to a wire increase the overall resistance of that wire compared to a wire that has no join in it?Anyway what are the thoughts from more experienced members? Is this a terrible idea? Are there other potential issues I haven't considered?

author: Youkai
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2020, 01:00:34 am
content: Not quite what I was thinking. I already have a solderless breadboard circuit set up. I was going to use something like the link below. This would require me to strip an inch or so of wire, lay it across the pins, and solder it to each one.That way I can just use 3 of those strips cut to the exact length I need for a small footprint. (obviously not as small as actually using a stripboard)https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Straight-Female-Spacing-Connector/dp/B00TGOJE1W/ref=sr_1_20?crid=1YDN97YCF8NQN&dchild=1&keywords=female+header+pins&qid=1584147490&sprefix=female+heade%2Caps%2C213&sr=8-20EDIT: That's some awesome solderless breadboard work though!

author: wizard69
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2020, 03:07:16 am
content: I'm having a hard time following what you intend to do here. It sounds like you want to make a solderless breadboard out of header strips. Honeslty this makes no sense to me but maybe I'm missing something.

author: Youkai
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2020, 03:40:41 am
content: Bingo. That's pretty much it exactly. Except that my mock breadboard would be only 3x13 instead of as big as the ones I have. Will it work?

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2020, 04:19:34 am
content: It will work, with all the disadvantages of solderless breadboards + distortion from soldering unsupported header pins + fragility from relying on glue to keep the header strips together. You can build it once, but if you need to modify or repair the assembly it will be an absolute nightmare. There's also no good way to mount it - at least real breadboards and stripboard can be screwed down.If you need denser construction than can reasonably be constructed on stripboard, and don't want to make a PCB or do a 'dead bug'/'Manhattan island' build with SMD parts, consider matrixboard (one pad per hole protoboard), which with point to point wiring on the copper side is only larger than your idea by the thickness of the board + any extra area you allow for mounting holes.

author: Youkai
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2020, 05:00:12 am
content: Yeah. So about what I expected. Technically will work but super not a good idea.

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 14, 2020, 05:11:22 am
content: If you're going to do ANY soldering at all, then there are HEAPS of all different types of Veroboard eg Pretty good to work with

author: Mp3
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2020, 12:17:25 am
content: Quote from: digsys on March 14, 2020, 05:11:22 amThey're so cheap too that i don't bother with solderless boards unless i really know i am going to be constantly changing the design.

author: Youkai
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 31, 2020, 12:02:53 am
content: I gave up. Tried soldering it twice. I'm pretty sure I just got something wrong the first time. Maybe had one of the diode's backwards. The second time it mostly worked but for some reason my pulldown wasn't working which messed up the detection of if my button was pressed or not. Probably had a short somewhere I guess.Anyway I gave up and decided to do basically what Shock did. This isn't the full circuit because the servo's and LED aren't connected but it's everything else and it works. So once I get my 3D printing done on the parts for those I can put wires on them of the correct length and plug them in.

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 31, 2020, 04:03:00 am
content: As they say every project needs an an enclosure.