Using a breadboard for permanent circuits?

[rrinker]

 On a model railroad forum, I just saw a post where it shows the electronics for a person's layout assembled on strings of solderless breadboards. Sorry, can't post the pic as it is not mine, but the pic shows a typical wiring board with dozens of connections (I believe it is all the block detection circuitry) where it is all plugged in to breadboards.
 I can't imagine this is a very good idea for something intended to be permanent (and this is most definitely a fixed layout, not something that would be taken apart and rearranged on a regular basis). The person who posted the pic claims the guy who did all this is an MIT PhD (in Electrical Engineering) - as if that matters. Solderless breadboards are to me not something to be used for permanent circuits, more for development and design. If the layout is appealing, then there are always the perf boards that are laid out in breadboard patterns so the physical and electrical form can be transferred over.
 Or am I the idiot for not having a PhD from MIT? 

[Caliaxy]

Yes, solderless breadboards are OK for permanent circuits, for obvious durability reasons. Provisional solutions tend to last longer and outlive most permanent solutions. PhD here (not EE, but I can see MIT from my window).

[SiliconWizard]

See rrinker. This confirms you're an idiot with no PhD.

Provisional solutions tend to last longer and outlive most permanent solutions.

That was an interesting statement.

[Zero999]

I suspect lots of model railroad stuff is temporary. I don't see the point in using a breadboard for a permanent circuit.

[Muttley Snickers]

I've had a counter project sitting on a breadboard for the past six years, does that count ?.    

[SiliconWizard]

I've had a counter project sitting on a breadboard for the past six years, does that count ?.   

Well, does it still count?

[Yansi]

Use veroboard instead.

[Muttley Snickers]

Well, does it still count?

Oh, it counts all right but after six years it just doesn't add up.   

Use veroboard instead.

I'm not sure I am quite ready to make that commitment just yet.   

[SiliconWizard]

I don't see the point in using a breadboard for a permanent circuit.

Maybe you would if you grasped the impermanence of all things.
 

[Yansi]

And also impedance after all...   

[TimFox]

There are manufactured PCBs available that replicate the layout of breadboards, suitable for soldering  DIPs and TH components.

[Yansi]

There are manufactured PCBs available that replicate the layout of breadboards, suitable for soldering  DIPs and TH components.

A veroboard. 

[bsudbrink]

I know a few model railroaders.  They use the old POTS punch-down blocks to wire up their layouts.  They use them both for their in home stuff and for temporary displays that they put up around the holidays.  I helped on a setup once and was impressed with how quickly the guy was punching in the circuits.  I wondered at the time whether any of Ma Bell's old pros could have gone any faster.

[TimFox]

There are manufactured PCBs available that replicate the layout of breadboards, suitable for soldering  DIPs and TH components.

A veroboard. 

I’m referring to boards with plated-through holes that have exactly the same arrangement of DIP-capable vertical bars (3 or 4 holes per bar) and long horizontal strips (with the gaps), as found on popular breadboards, not general-purpose Veroboards(TM).

[Domagoj T]

This?

[rrinker]

 Those are fancy ones. Radio Shack when they were still around carried the ones that were plain boards with the matching plates holes and traces - just cheap phenolic, not FR4 or anything, and certainly did not have the rows and columns painted and labelled like those.

 Once you go past the first few layouts which commonly are referred to as "chainsaw layouts" because when you are done you just cut them to pieces with a chainsaw, and move on to filling an entire basement, it becomes a bit more permanent. Nothing a sawzall can;t fix, as the sleazy landlord that owned the building an old club I used to belong to rented (rent was cheap - until we had most of the layout built - next renewal, he tripled it, thinking he had us captive. Nope, tore is all down and the club found an even bigger place that they were able to afford to buy outright, plus the barber across the street who had been there for decades made sure to tell anyone who seemed interested in his for rent sign just what a jerk this guy was - it sat empty for over 2 years before he was able to rent it out again).

[Red Squirrel]

If you like watching the world burn, use a breadboard, and when you're happy with the circuit just pot the whole thing in a tupperware container. 

[SiliconWizard]

And if you want to convince someone to stop using a bunch of breadboards for moderately complex stuff, just arrange to stumble close to the mess of wires, pulling off a few by mere accident. Often the guy won't have a full proper schematic of the whole thing anyway. So that will be hours of wasted time to figure it all out again. They may switch to soldered proto boards after that.

[james_s]

I cringe whenever I see a solderless breadboard installed inside a project box, I've seen it more than once.

I love breadboards for quick tests but I've never tried to build anything particularly complex on one.

[coppercone2]

good contacts require grease usually (or at least live alot longer because corrosion propagation is inhibited), especially with weird pin geometries (not something nice like a battery holder). that will be one UGLY breadboard. Breadboard soaked in deoxit lol

reliability will be low because its not machine pin connectors or heavy spring material. Like good machine pin DIP sockets last a very long time, but the cheap ones like a breadboard are ehhh

if its a fused circuit, its fine for a hobbyist? i mean if you have a train room in your house, so long there is no smoke i don't think you will exactly lose out on something if the display does not work.

[Yansi]

There are manufactured PCBs available that replicate the layout of breadboards, suitable for soldering  DIPs and TH components.

A veroboard. 

I’m referring to boards with plated-through holes that have exactly the same arrangement of DIP-capable vertical bars (3 or 4 holes per bar) and long horizontal strips (with the gaps), as found on popular breadboards, not general-purpose Veroboards(TM).

That also qualifies as a veroboard.

They've been shaped with similar patterns for years, because simply such patterns are useful for building circuits. But I see zero reasons to stick to patterns (overpriced colorful adafruit junk) exactly copying a typical breadboard.

Also, my suggestion is to use veroboards consisting just a matrix of plated holes and then connect them point-to-point using solderable enamel wire. Can be used to produce much nicer and tighter layouts.

[Gyro]

Well if you want to be accurate about things, Veroboard specifically refers to (milled and punched SRBP) stripboards manufactured be Vero Technologies Ltd.  in the UK. In the old days ('70s) it used to be used as a generic term for stripboard as they made pretty much all of it. These days everything else is just matrix board of different flavours and configurations, mostly made in China.
https://www.verotl.com/

Notice that Vero don't even call their own proto boards, in other configurations, Veroboard.

[Yansi]

Well, I do not know of any other anglicism for that thing, we call these things different in our language.

[Gyro]

Stripboard (for veroboard) or matrix / proto boards (which probably cover all of the ones that aren't stripboard). The latter ones require further qualification anyway due to the many types.

[Yansi]

"Matrix prototype board" is then likely the closest term to what I like and suggest using for building prototypes. Thanks for clarification of the names