Mounting sensors slightly away from the board

[cryptyk]

Hi,
I've run into this a few times, and I'm wondering how the experts do it.  I'm constantly mounting things a few inches away from the board.  A line of LEDs that mount in the enclosure, a hall effect switch that needs to be close the the surface of the enclosure, a power jack that is on a different side of the enclosure than the board, etc.

Right now, I'm cutting up a protoboard into small pieces.  For example, I'll cut protoboard into a piece that is 2x2 so I can fit an LED and a header on it.  Then I run jumper wires between that small "satellite" board and the main board.  A couple of times, I've also just soldered hookup wire to the LED leads and soldered them to the main board on the other side. 

What's the "right" way to do this kind of stuff?

Thanks,
Ryan

[rdl]

That's probably as good a way as any. Most things made these days will have a board that's mounted directly behind the front panel. As much as possible all switches, pots, LEDs, displays, etc. will be soldered directly to this board in order to eliminate excess wiring. It's cheaper and faster to assemble.

[Ian.M]

In consumer products, for stuff like that its not uncommon to see a small PCB with one switch, connector or one LED + resistor, often with only one mounting hole.  There's often evidence to show the small PCB(s) were snap-off sections of the main board, and are likely to have been populated and soldered while still one board then snapped off at the board mounting assembly station.

[cryptyk]

Wow.  I feel like you should bill me for that amount of quality information.  Thank you SO much!

Ryan