About Stripboards/Veroboards/Perfboards/Protoboards

[Mint.]

Hello everybody!
I have got a few questions about these boards. I haven't discovered any proper tutorials online so I decided to create this topic about a few of my questions.

The first question is how do you design a circuit ready to be soldered onto a protoboard. Do people here use a software, draw the layout on paper, stick it into the board, solder away and then hope that it works? I've never really did any planning and always used the last option, of course that always resulted in something not working, but it was usually a quick fix such as forgetting to solder a wire. Today I have a decently complicated circuit that I wish to solder onto a board and I really don't want to do a poor job on the project.

About having voltage and ground rails, is there any way to do a rail or something similar on a protoboard with just solder pad circles which are not interconnected with each other?

How do you keep your wiring neat and organised?

The final question I have is how do you solder everything underneath? Do you create solder bridges, or do you use little wires to interconnect the joints?

Any other tips or tricks you use?

- Thanks in advance!

[Chopsticks]

these days when i design anything thats even remotely complex that i want to put on a pcb i just use eagle and design a board layout that works for the project. as for veroboard and those single connection point project boards with just the solder per hole style i only use it for simple stuff now days, however i remember awhile ago before i switched to using only apple mac computers  there was a windows software i came across that allowed you to layout your schematic and then it would create a veroboard layout for you to then print and use as a guide.

http://veecad.com/

im not sure how good it is and i only checked it out briefly to see what the fuss was about, at the end of the day i'd recommend you looking to etching your own boards as it isnt to hard or expensive to do so in the long run

[Chopsticks]

i forgot to add, as for ground and voltage rails on those boards just get some non-sheathed single core wire and solder it along the run you need in a few places using the round pads on the board

[LEECH666]

I really like this tool for perfboard.
http://blackboard.serverpool.org/Home/News.html
I don't know if this tool comes in other languages than German.

I usually do perfboards without too much planning tho.

You can check out some of my pics here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/oBsRVr666/Active_Crossover_Perfboard_09_2010
Well I never really finished building that circuit tho.

I use silver coated single core copper wire for the connections. I straighten the wire with a vice and some pliers and then cut them to size. I hold them down with a pair of straight SMD tweezers. Works really well.

Cheers,
Florian

[Mint.]

None of these seem to work properly
VeeCad is not exactly what I wanted and BlackBoard gives me some kind of error when I run it.

[Spikee]

bla bla

You can check out some of my pics here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/oBsRVr666/Active_Crossover_Perfboard_09_2010
Well I never really finished building that circuit tho.

I use silver coated single core copper wire for the connections. I straighten the wire with a vice and some pliers and then cut them to size. I hold them down with a pair of straight SMD tweezers. Works really well.

Cheers,
Florian

Some nice perfboarding :O

[0xdeadbeef]

Despite of its stupid name "LochMaster" is about the best tool for veroboard planning. In Germany, Voelkner and Reichelt sell it for 31,50€.

The best thing about it is that it can color all connections of the same potential, so you can easily check that everything is wired properly. Apart from being a bit ugly and commercial, it's close to a perfect solution for veroboards and supports all kind of layouts (you can even create your own).

[LEECH666]

None of these seem to work properly
VeeCad is not exactly what I wanted and BlackBoard gives me some kind of error when I run it.

Try uninstalling Java and install the latest one only (Version 7 Update 5).

Some nice perfboarding :O

3.5 Years of training. Uh well it wasn't all assembling perfboards, but the final exam included getting 3 PCB to work together. Ones was a PCB that just had to be populated, one part of the circuit had to be built up on a 160x100 (Euro) perfboarf, and the third PCB had to be assembled. Anyway you train for that exam, cuz the circuits to put on the perfboard werent the super simple type. Decent complexity and you train for that exam in your apprenticeship. So I built quite a few of these back in the time. Used to be even better back then, but that was 10 years ago. For some reason I didn't figuire out the tweezers method until recently, which makes holding the wires in place much easier. Guess we didn't really have SMD tweezers back at the company. At least not among the standard equipment of an apprentice.

Despite of its stupid name "LochMaster" is about the best tool for veroboard planning. In Germany, Voelkner and Reichelt sell it for 31,50€.

The best thing about it is that it can color all connections of the same potential, so you can easily check that everything is wired properly. Apart from being a bit ugly and commercial, it's close to a perfect solution for veroboards and supports all kind of layouts (you can even create your own).

Lochmaster gets the job done indeed.

I think Blackboard is a really strong competitor to Lochmaster regarding perfboards.  It's free tho and still being actively developed. Dunno about Lochmaster, but I think it hasn't seen an update in a few years.

I totally agree on the stupid name, maybe they should have called it OrificesMaster. That sounds even more stupid. Just kidding. [/list]

[Mint.]

None of these seem to work properly
VeeCad is not exactly what I wanted and BlackBoard gives me some kind of error when I run it.

Try uninstalling Java and install the latest one only (Version 7 Update 5).

Doesn't work :/

I don't think I'm going to bother to use software at this moment, can anybody give me some tips on doing it by hand?

[vk6zgo]

The advantage of perfboard/Veroboard is that you can make it up as you go along,& have an,albeit messy, prototype up & running before the PC. freaks get their magic programs running.
The downside is that it will never look as neat as a real PCB,even if you do design your Vero layout with a computer program.

In my opinion, Veroboard has its place in one-off designs,modifications,& as a real prototype board to use instead of those useless parasitic prone "breadboards"so beloved by some.

OK,you have to desolder bits to change values,but Vero will work at reasonably high frequencies,& your power, input,& output connections don't fall off all the time!

[Uncle Vernon]

The advantage of perfboard/Veroboard is that you can make it up as you go along,& have an,albeit messy, prototype up & running before the PC. freaks get their
magic programs running.
The downside is that it will never look as neat as a real PCB,even if you do design your Vero layout with a computer program.

I can remember a time back in another centurywhile working for a division of Wormalds, the engineering dept spent so  much of one projects budget on engineering prototypes that the finished product ended being built by operations on scraps of stripboard. Hidden behind a designer bezel of course.