Matrix pad board with copper ground plane on reverse. Useful stuff?

[Chris Wilson]

Whilst trying to get the hang of Eagle I continue with matrix pad boards. I see some suppliers offer a matrix pad baord with a plain copper ground plain on the reverse side, making an easily accessible ground from any point on the board. If you don't want a leaded or pinned component to be grounded you remove the area around that pin, on the ground side, with a drill bit. It seems great for many projects. Does anyone have experience of this? I could envisage high capacitance if you were not careful with high frequency circuits, but I rarely build such stuff save on commercially designed boards. Thanks for any insights.

[Gyro]

I could envisage high capacitance if you were not careful with high frequency circuits

On the contrary, the main problem with using matrix board for high frequency/high speed stuff is the lack of a decent ground plane. The only drawback I can see (apart from the hassle of isolating non-grounded leads) is getting in to solder top-side ground connections if you go too dense (or don't plan ahead). I would say that the benefit outweighs this.

[CJay]

Dartec RF proto boards are really excellent for HF work (and possibly beyond)

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/DAR-Tec-Matrix-Boards

 I've used a few now but still use cut out islands or even squares of scrap PCB stuck down to an unetched piece of laminate for quick lash ups that aren't intended to be around for long.

[Chris Wilson]

Some DarTec board arrived this morning and hey, it *IS* useful stuff, I wish i had come across this before, having a ground plane accessible from anywhere with the matrix pads on the other side is very handy. One has to concentrate though as soldering in say a IC socket and then finding you forgot to remove the ground plane around the correct pins is a PITA. But I would imagine that once you get used to working with it it is a very neat way to construct stuff, short of making a proper PCB.

Thanks for the replies.

[CJay]

Welcome, and don't forget the slug tape.