Next step. Education kit to proto board.

mosquito56

I have my project pretty much done on the education kit and am trying to figure out how to wire up a protoboard. I have the protoboard usb.
··I am unable to find info on how to connect· a pin of an inserted chip and the pin to the prop. The drawing of the proto board shows that the holes next to the pin are connected but how do I connect to the pin on the chip? Also what areas of the proto board are available for pins?


·1. Use a solderbridge. Didn't work to well on the radio shack boards.
·2. Wire wrap and solder to the pins of the chip
·3. Use a radio shack board with connecting holes and run wires to connecting holes on proto board. Waste of space on protoboard. I·have room to put a few chips on the board.

I read the manual and it only shows putting·one led in the wrong place to get started.

I have searched the internet and yet to find an answer to this problem.

Any help is appreciated.
Thanx in advance.

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······· "What do you mean, it doesn't have any tubes?"
······· "No such thing as a dumb question" unless it's on the internet


Post Edited (mosquito56) : 4/13/2009 3:41:20 AM GMT

Mike Green

I do most of my wiring on the top of the Protoboard for neatness. I use wirewrap wire because it's easily soldered. The insulation is tough, but easily stripped with the proper tools. It comes in useful colors (blue, white, red, black). I cut a piece of wire to the length I want and strip the ends. I feed one end, then the other down from the top of the board so that it runs on top where I want it, yet has a little bit of slack. I turn the board over and wrap the end of the wire tightly around the IC pin where it projects through the board starting with the end of the wire closest to where it feeds through the board (so the free end sticks up) and I trim off the excess. I do the same on the other end. If the other end just has to connect to a hole (like a power bus or a Propeller pin) I just feed it through the hole and leave the excess to trim off later. I then solder the wire to the IC pin making sure to solder the pin to the hole it comes through. If it's just a wire in a hole, I fill the hole with solder, then trim off the excess wire.

If I have to "daisy-chain" a wire, I'll use a wirewrap stripper to make a gap in the insulation maybe 1/8" wide, then prep the rest of the wire. The gap gets wrapped around the IC pin "in the middle" and later gets soldered to the pin as usual.

I tend to use IC sockets with machined pins and I favor the ones with longer pins to make it easier to work with the wire. I solder the sockets to the board with a little solder where the pins come through the holes. The pin itself is left without solder on it and can easily hold one or two wire connections.

I also allow a little slack in the wires so they can be gently routed away from the socket for 1/16" to 1/10" or so.

Sapieha

Hi mosquito56

If You look carefuly Propeller pins is conected to holes on PCB and with holes You have PIN numbers.
Al pins is conected to 2 holes. + 2x2 holes have GND and 3.3V marced om PCB VSS and VDD respectively
Look on my picture PinHeaders I have placed in holes from Propeller to my external PCBs

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Nothing is impossible, there are only different degrees of difficulty.
For every stupid question there is at least one intelligent answer.
Don't guess - ask instead.
If you don't ask you won't know.
If your gonna construct something, make it·as simple as·possible yet as versatile as posible.


Sapieha

mosquito56

Mike,
Come thru with a great answer is less than an hour. Thanks. Any way to get a description or a part number for the ic socket? I use digikey but have no idea what I am looking for. 12 or 24 pin socket would be great.

Saphia, any chance to get a look at the other side of your board? Explanation was great and helpful. I don't think I will be getting any more proto boards. I ordered it when I got my education kit and it looked and still looks so professional.

I plugged a 9v wall wart into the proto board and the 5v chip gets very very hot. Is this normal. 9V 1AMP WALL WART.

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·······

······· "What do you mean, it doesn't have any tubes?"
······· "No such thing as a dumb question" unless it's on the internet
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Sapieha

Hi mosquito56

On other side it is only solder with Headerpins
No wires at al. Wires to Propeller chip have You on PCB at start.
You can solder wires in same trough holes I have Headerpins and then then You have conection to Chip pins from them

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Nothing is impossible, there are only different degrees of difficulty.
For every stupid question there is at least one intelligent answer.
Don't guess - ask instead.
If you don't ask you won't know.
If your gonna construct something, make it·as simple as·possible yet as versatile as posible.


Sapieha

ElectricAye

To Mike Green,
thanks very much for giving a detailed account of how to neatly solder a protoboard. I had never heard of anyone using such a "hybrid" technique involving wire wrap and solder, and now that I know it's possible, I can see how that might make life a lot less difficult.

To Mosquito, I feel your pain when it comes to figuring out what is connected to what on the protoboard. (And to Parallax[noparse]:)[/noparse] Yes, there's a schematic, but to newbie eyes it's not easy making a one-to-one correspondence between what's on the protoboard and what's on the schematic. I spent considerable time with a magnifying glass following traces before I convinced myself I knew what I was doing. It would be nice if Parallax had a detailed board diagram that helped bridge that gap. The silkscreen lines on the board do help somewhat. Also annoying: on the Educational Kit, the non-USB Prop Plug logo faces down but on the protoboard it must face up. I think it should be made consistent to help reduce confusion and make the transition as smooth as possible.

my 2 cents worth,
Mark

Mike Green

mosquito56,
I generally use "machined pin" sockets. These are generally the more expensive sockets, but they're not that much more and they're handier to use for this kind of assembly than others.

When you use a 9V supply and a 5V regulator, you're turning 4V at whatever current all into heat. A 7.5V supply only requires that 2.5V at the same current be changed into heat. Most regulators require a minimum voltage above the regulated voltage of 1.2 to 2.5V. Some require less. Less is better from a heat standpoint.

grindel

Mike, can you post an image of what you are talking about with wire wrap at some point? I have the PRC from wulfden.org and a bunch of servo extensions that I currently use for stuff that needs to mounted off of the breadboard, I end up taking apart the connectors so I can have 4 or 5 connections in a row. The servo extensions aren't exactly cheap either, but they have gotten the job done. I wouldn't mind knowing how things are suppose to go together on the protoboard, though. I have avoided it because I really haven't seen how people work with it, other than to solder header pins to it like Sapieha. Having just googled wire wrap, I am even more intrigued. Is this something that is fairly easy to pick up following instructions on the web, or is it an acquired skill? Do you only use it only for ICs and solder on the other discreet components? (resistors,caps,etc?) Digikey has the cheapest wire wrap 40 pin Dip socket for $6 and the least expensive through hole for 50 cents. Am I missing something? The only electronics work I have done is with the PRC, so needless to say, I sit at the feet of the master with ears open.

Post Edited (grindel) : 4/16/2009 2:19:39 AM GMT