Perfboard Prototyping  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: TorqueRanger
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2013, 04:16:56 pm
content: I am in the process of designing a couple thing which needs to get mounted on a board ... But my problem is that I have no time to etch my own boards and with my 2 small children and my work area being the kitchen table it's impossible...So where can I get some pad per hole perfboard relative cheaply??? Also is there an easy way to remove the unused pads or anyway of making it look better than it is???

author: grumpydoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2013, 04:41:57 pm
content: Just about anywhere.ebay seems as good a place as anywhere, price wise, or a HamFest if there are any happening near you, or Farnell/Element 14 (prices a bit high though), or even Mike at mikeselectricstuff.

author: TorqueRanger
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2013, 05:54:08 pm
content: Quote from: grumpydoc on January 04, 2013, 04:41:57 pmOh ok cause i am looking to buy 5 to 10 boards and was not sure if the ebay boards where any good????5Quote from: Bored@Work on January 04, 2013, 05:45:46 pm

author: Nirios
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2013, 06:05:44 pm
content: Quote from: TorqueRanger on January 04, 2013, 05:54:08 pmHere are the ones I purchasedeBay auction: #200871567843awhile ago. The quality was great but it just took a few weeks to arrive from China.

author: grumpydoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2013, 06:12:48 pm
content: QuoteI bought a couple of lots of SRBP boards which were as good as any other's I've had and cheaper.

author: ptricks
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2013, 09:39:49 pm
content: Watch out for the made in China boards, especially the ones that are really cheap. I bought some of them on a whim and they are the worst possible quality and smell awful, pads come off easily, the boards are flimsy. The boards I currently use are not the cheapest but they are plated through holes , FR4 material, and very high quality.http://www.ebay.com/sch/usacircuits/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686e

author: mianchen
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2013, 09:52:50 pm
content: Quote from: Nirios on January 04, 2013, 06:05:44 pmThese ones look like the good ones I bought from 2 other different sellers from China - they are good quality. I also bought some extremely cheap paper based ones, they DO smell horrible, quality are bad, not recommended, unless you are really struggle with your budget.Quote from: ptricks on January 04, 2013, 09:39:49 pmThey are too big and too expensive to my taste :< plus I'm not in US of A.

author: LEECH666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2013, 11:06:08 pm
content: I would invest a little bit more and go for an FR4 perfboard. The pads don't come off as easily on those.I really like Blackboard as a perfboard design tool:http://dangerousprototypes.com/2012/04/24/blackboard-perf-board-design-utility/http://blackboard.serverpool.org/Home.htmlHere are a few pictures of my lastest work done with the help of Blackboard.Sorry I just like showing off my pictures.Cheers,Florian

author: david77
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2013, 12:07:32 am
content: Blackboard looks nice, I'll have to check it out as I'm embarking on a big perfboard project soon.Danke, Florian

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2013, 12:35:55 am
content: I have found Jameco to be a nice source for cheap hobbyist electronics. They sell generic components cheaper than Digi-Key's branded ones and sell prototyping items.Here's a bunch of prototyping solutions from Jameco. You can filter them by type:http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDrillDownView?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&categoryName=cat_65&subCategoryName=Electronic%20Design%20%2F%20Prototyping%20Systems&category=6520&refine=1&position=1&history=cbg8szs9%7CsubCategoryName~Electronic%2BDesign%5Ecategory~65%5EcategoryName~category_root%5EprodPage~15%5Epage~SEARCH%252BNAV

author: AlphZeta
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2013, 06:30:00 pm
content: I usually buy my boards from MPJA (http://www.mpja.com/Proto-Boards/products/284/) or Allelectronics (http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/category/455/Perf-Boards/1.html), they also have a lot of other interesting stuff. The cheap eBay boards are FR1 boards and as others mentioned, the pads quality are not that great. However, if you use leaded solder and solder at a lower temperature (e.g. 330 degree C) then it actually works pretty well. The only thing I don't like those cheap eBay FR1 PCBs is that when ironed, they give off horrible smell as if they were treated with some potent chemicals or something... But if you have proper ventilation, this shouldn't be too much of a deal.

author: ptricks
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2013, 01:22:50 pm
content: Quote from: AlphZeta on January 05, 2013, 06:30:00 pmThe boards will also corrode parts in the long term. The chemical smell is from formaldehyde and phenols , very nasty stuff and can harm even at low levels.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FormaldehydeQuoteFR-1 & FR-2 are phenolic paper.FR- 3 is still paper but using an epoxy instead of phenols.FR-4 is glass epoxyThe FR is for fire retardant.

author: ChrisGreece52
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2013, 02:40:32 pm
content: Also Dave recieved a pretty good preffboard from a fan EEV Blog mailbag episode 407# its pretty good<---- Videohttp://www.whitewing.co.uk/protoboard.html<------- Boards (you can order it internationalSome Photos Of the Actual BoardIt realy worth itThanks

author: codeboy2k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2013, 11:44:56 pm
content: [slightly off topic]The other day, I was trying to save Mike's bandwidth, and went to Coral Cache to read his web pages, because going there directly said that the bandwidth has been exceeded.However, Coral Cache servers could not be found at all (!!), and even NS lookups show no such domain.Normally with Coral Cache you add .nyud.net to the end of any website, and the cache will fetch the pages and serve it from locally cached copies around the world, thereby saving the bandwidth of the website owner, making the response faster, and saving bandwidth of the Internet at large.For example, Mike's page would behttp://www.whitewing.co.uk.nyud.net/protoboard.htmlHowever, I can't seem to get to anything on .nyud.net anymore, although the Coral Content Distribution Networkhttp://www.coralcdn.org/seems to be up and doesn't mention any problems with the caching serversToday, Mike's pages are back up, but still Coral Cache .nyud.net domains are not there for me. Being able to cache it would save Mike from another bandwidth exceeded issue again.Can anyone get to anything on .nyud.net ??You can cache any web page .. just add .nyud.net to the end of the host part.For examplehttp://cnn.com.nyud.net, but nothing works for me anymore

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2013, 11:55:30 pm
content: Not sure. *.nyud.net seems to be working from here.

author: miceuz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2013, 07:30:52 pm
content: personally I hate these perfboards - the pads come off easlity and it's a hell to rework. If I can't etch my own board, I opt out to simple copper clad board - you solder stuf directly on copper and cut traces with exacto knife or do it "manhattan" style.

author: LEECH666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2013, 09:19:48 pm
content: That shouldn't happen if you double sided perf boards with plated through holes, but those are less common.

author: Chipset
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2013, 04:37:38 pm
content: Quote from: LEECH666 on January 11, 2013, 09:19:48 pmDX.com has plenty of those for quite reasonable prices.

author: TorqueRanger
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2013, 07:03:32 pm
content: Quote from: miceuz on January 11, 2013, 07:30:52 pmReally can I get some pics of what your talking about please

author: m12lrpv
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2013, 02:34:10 am
content: Quote from: Chipset on January 12, 2013, 04:37:38 pmAgreed. I bought a stack of boards of different sizes from DX and they've been great to use.

author: DaveW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2013, 01:08:07 pm
content: Quote from: TorqueRanger on January 16, 2013, 07:03:32 pmThis covers the technique and has some pictures in it.http://wdv.com/Electronics/Fab/ManhattanConstructionTechniques.pdfAnd for a really nice example of it,http://aa7ee.wordpress.com/tag/manhattan-construction/

author: AlphZeta
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2013, 01:17:50 pm
content: Quote from: DaveW on January 17, 2013, 01:08:07 pmI remember seeing this technique quite often years back when component sizes were rather large. It was a rather popular technique mainly for HAM radio operators since the copper clad also serves as a large ground plane which makes HF circuit more stable. The main draw back of this technique is that, in my opinion, it only works when you have a handful of relatively large components to solder. For ICs with more pins, it would be very time consuming to make the board. But once done, it definitely is a nice piece of art.

author: miceuz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2013, 03:28:02 pm
content: Quote from: TorqueRanger on January 16, 2013, 07:03:32 pmIt's a couple of photos of my builds I have

author: kfitch42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2013, 07:31:04 pm
content: Quote from: Chipset on January 12, 2013, 04:37:38 pmYikes be careful what you search for on there. I went to dx.com and searched for "perf board", nothing. "plated through hole", nope not it. Let me try just "through hole"... lots of results ... definitely NOT what I was looking for

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2013, 08:13:28 pm
content: search for "Prototype" and you will get 75 of them at Dx.com

author: Obin
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2015, 09:40:49 am
content: Quote from: LEECH666 on January 04, 2013, 11:06:08 pmThe linkhttp://blackboard.serverpool.org/Home.htmlseems to be dead... Is there another way to get the software?

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2015, 11:02:07 am
content: you can still get it here, on a web archive of these pageshttp://web.archive.org/web/20110627024338/http://blackboard.serverpool.org/fileDownload.do?download_id=6

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2015, 11:06:22 am
content: sorry my previous link gave an old versionhere are the latests :http://web.archive.org/web/20120101185243/http://blackboard.serverpool.org/Download.html