Electronics > Beginners
Copperless perfboard + wire wrap for RF prototyping?
bd139:
I can't get on with that. I use a Stanley knife, metal ruler and peel the strips off with pliers.
ledtester:
I'm considering trying out mini diamond hole saw drill bits to create isolated islands.
fourfathom:
--- Quote from: bd139 on September 08, 2019, 01:33:37 pm ---I can't get on with that. I use a Stanley knife, metal ruler and peel the strips off with pliers.
--- End quote ---
Before I got the gouge I used the knife, and usually just made two 45-degree cuts along the same cutline, giving me an adequate gap without the peeling process. More fringing capacitance, but hey, it's a breadboard and I'm going to have to tweak the capacitors anyway. For microstrip you do want a bigger gap, and the peeling method works for that.
I also have used a drill-press as a router for this type of breadboarding. And I recently got an assortment of those cylindrical diamond bits (available cheaply on-line as "glass hole saws"), but haven't tried them yet. I still don't have a Dremel tool, but ought to get one.
Finally, once you are getting close to having a usable design (or even before), do consider having some PCBs made. I have a simple RF filter / preamp design that I used KiCad to lay out and sent the files to JLCPCB. Insanely cheap and quick, and now I have a board with enough options that I can use it from 1 MHz up to over 1 GHz, with filter-shape and preamp options. I did use the gouge-board method to experiment first though.
aneevuser:
One other question: I have no single sided board at the moment, but I have some veroboard. Will I have any joy using the copper side of the veroboard as a makeshift ground plane by bridging the tracks with wire, and using dead bug construction on the other side? Or is there too little copper to make this worthwhile?
bd139:
I wouldn't. It needs to be a solid sheet. Jumping it will create lots of capacitors in parallel.
I usually buy 20 sheets of this at a time: https://www.rapidonline.com/rvfm-copper-clad-single-sided-fr4-fibre-glass-board-100-x-160mm-34-0800
I cut with these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00002N5KQ/ (also work on the fingers of clients who don't pay on time :-DD)
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