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Stupid question about protoboard prototyping area — Parallax Forums

Stupid question about protoboard prototyping area

mparkmpark Posts: 1,322
edited 2010-01-28 01:53 in General Discussion
They say there are no stupid questions, but I intend to prove them wrong. Here goes.

How are you supposed to use the prototyping area on the various Parallax protoboards? There's a bunch of holes with pads, but none of the pads are connected together. I solder something to a pad, and... what next? How do you make electrical connections?

Prototyping boards with rows of pads connected together, like Gadget Gangster's new ProtoPlus or Bill Henning's Propteus, those I can understand. These boards with isolated pads just baffle me. Help me out. How do you guys use them?

Comments

  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2010-01-21 07:24
    You can just use some wires (usually solid core) from one hole to another. It takes a while to do the cutting and stripping, but I think it's easier to build a board on the bench. You don't have to do as much part moving around as you do on a board with connected pads. If the distance is short, you can also use bare wire such as the left over from a resistor that's been soldered in.

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  • mparkmpark Posts: 1,322
    edited 2010-01-21 07:31
    > from one hole to another

    But that's what confuses me. There is no hole any more; it's already filled in with the IC leg (or whatever) that I want to connect to!
  • BradCBradC Posts: 2,601
    edited 2010-01-21 07:50
    I bend the component legs over underneath to make tracks. Works a treat. Additionally, I can usually get 2 component leads into one hole, or a bit of "green wire" into the hole also.

    I design all my layouts on graph paper before I put them down, so a bit of forward planning helps too.

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  • MicrocontrolledMicrocontrolled Posts: 2,461
    edited 2010-01-21 12:24
    I do a solder joint.

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  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2010-01-21 14:00
    Does anyone have photos of what they do?

    I don't think this is a stupid question at all. I wondered about it for a long time, until I saw a few photos of people's projects. From the responses, it's pretty clear that there's a wide variety of ways to do this.
  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2010-01-21 15:04
    http://forums.parallax.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=65406
  • rjo_rjo_ Posts: 1,825
    edited 2010-01-21 15:57
    You can't prove it by me!!!

    I was brand new to all of this when I got my first shipment of Protoboards. I say shipment... because I expected to destroy a lot of them along the way. I had never used a microcontroller, AND I hadn't soldered anything since I was 8 years old... AND I couldn't read a circuit diagram AND everything I did contained some kind of mistake. The last thing I wanted to do was ruin a series of ProtoBoards... but I also wanted something more stable than a breadboard.

    So, what I did with the holes was ... ignore them. I think that is a reasonable thing to do. I still use headers with wires to connect my ProtoBoards to generic PCBs, which now contain all of my mistakes[noparse]:)[/noparse] But this ends up with ugly wires going everywhere on my desk and is only a half a step up from a breadboard.

    For a full step up... the world had to wait for... Nick McClick.

    Nick (of Gadget Gangster) fame has announced a really nice solution to this problem. Take a look http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=419352.

    Nick's board works with a ProtoBoard.



    Rich
  • rjo_rjo_ Posts: 1,825
    edited 2010-01-21 15:58
    In my own defense, I've only destroyed 1 Prop and I had to use a Dremel to do that... PLL's were dropping like flies for a while, but that just injures a Prop, it doesn't actually kill it[noparse]:)[/noparse]
  • mparkmpark Posts: 1,322
    edited 2010-01-21 16:14
    Glad to hear I'm not alone in my befuddlement.

    @PJ Allen—Wow, that's beautiful! But how did you do it? It looks like the wires are half-wrapped around the pins?

    @micro—Did you mean something like PJ's picture?

    @Brad—What is this "planning" you speak of?
  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2010-01-21 16:58
    @mpark - where the IC leg pokes through the protoboard, solder a wire. Then solder the other end of the wire to where it needs to go, like another component lead.

    The pic that Mr. Allen related shows blue insulated, 30 gauge wire soldered to the pins of a device, and then the other ends of the wires are soldered to a flat ribbon cable connector. And yes, the wires are wrapped around the pins to make a good mechanical connection before soldering. To do this requires a wire cutter and wire stripper (both sized to the wire gauge), relatively small needle nose pliers, a soldering iron with a small-ish tip, lots of·light, and a pair of good eyes (magnifying glass comes in handy when you're old).

    DJ

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    Post Edited (davejames) : 1/21/2010 5:07:54 PM GMT
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2010-01-21 16:58
    You can also make traces using wire and solder.

    hobby_elec.piclist.com/e_sampl.htm

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  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2010-01-21 18:07
    Sorry to post and run.· Sylvie asked for photos.· I posted some once upon a time, but I remembered davejames had something recently in Completed Projects, so I snagged that.· Dave and I use the same method.· 30 gauge wire-wrap wire is good for something afterall.· You need those fine-tipped noodle-knees pliers, a good diopter, and a fine touch, and watch the heat.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,938
    edited 2010-01-21 18:33
    Use buss wire to create "traces" or just keep adding solder until the two adjacent pads are joined. Ugly, but a proven method. Here's the picture for my BS2P40 setup for last year's Polar Bear Plunge Logger. Thread link:http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=792332

    ps. that is not a stupid question. Anyone using a hole-grid style board for the first time would have the same questions.

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  • David BDavid B Posts: 592
    edited 2010-01-21 21:31
    Recently I went to the local Radio Shack looking for bare drilled PC board, but all they had were boards with plated pads like those. I didn't really want that style but I bought one anyway.

    But I was pleasantly surprised to find how well the pads worked for holding parts in place.

    You do still need to wire the parts together independently from the pad connection; the pads don't help with that, but they were quite helpful for adding mechanical strength to the circuit.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2010-01-21 22:40
    As a note many of the boards do have certain pads that connect together as well as certain pads that connect to I/O pins or voltage rails. In the case of the Super Carrier Board for the BASIC Stamp 2, the holes are very cleverly arranged to fit a wide variety of uses. On the BS1 Project Board many of the holes serve some other purpose, be it LCD display, servo header, etc.

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    ·
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-01-21 22:42
    I bend the the wire leads on passives over to make connections, so long as the bare wire doesn't cause shorts. Otherwise, I use 30 gauge Kynar wire wrap wire, soldered point-to-point.

    -Phil
  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2010-01-21 23:26
    Here's a pic of how I worked out some circuitry on an SX protoboard (attached.)

    Sorry, but I can't sign off on solder-blobbing or much of anything else.· How can you re-work that without getting irritated?
    sx_proto_area_ex.jpg
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  • tdlivingstdlivings Posts: 437
    edited 2010-01-22 00:43
    Here is a Parallax utube video explaining breadboarding and solderless breaqdboards

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Q5s9AhCR0

    ·
  • BradCBradC Posts: 2,601
    edited 2010-01-22 06:18
    mpark said...

    @Brad—What is this "planning" you speak of?

    Ahh yes, one of my many failings. Prior to soldering stuff to a board I actually draw the circuit out by hand to see if what by brain puts on paper agrees with what my brain thinks it actually wants.

    Here's a couple of boards I had handy.

    The CAR board is one that is in my vehicle at the moment. It has the whole PSU replaced with a combination of 3.3V LDO and a 5V SMPS. It controls the HVAC (replaced a faulty heater valve controller with a servo). Basically at the moment it has an 11 input 10-bit ADC, Servo output, One wire interface and TV output plus soft control of the +5V PSU.

    The Proto one is just a USB powered board that I use for general stuff. It has a couple of leds, a Dallas 18B20, 2x16 LCD with PWM controlled LED backlight, 3 pin USB interface, TV, Hope RF 12B radio, SD Socket & DS1307 RTC & 4 hours worth of capacitor backup.

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  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2010-01-22 17:09
    @Mr. Allen - pretty clean work.

    What're those hoop-like things in the lower right corner? Test points?

    DJ

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  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2010-01-23 01:42
    @Mr James -- Yes, test pts., exactly (for mini/micro-grabber fun-time.)
  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2010-01-23 01:56
    OK, I found the pictures that I wanted to use in the first place.· The soldering is pretty good, I think.·

    And... things not to do -- I dragged the "V_cc" wire over (!) that big GND buss I made there (in "263").· That's not as bad as·it looks because·it's loosely run over and not in contact.

    [noparse][[/noparse]I couldn't understand the trouble another member was having, so I put this together quickly for experimenting along.]
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    263.jpg
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  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2010-01-23 06:19
    When component leads and sockets protrude far enough through the board
    to the back side, it's possible to use a standard wire wrap tool and wire.

    humanoido
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2010-01-23 06:34
    Here is a board that I made last summer. I tried to optimize for the most efficient packing of the chips, so there is quite a bit of extra room on the board for future additions.

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  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2010-01-24 19:36
    "OK, this V_cc wire situation cannot stand," I said to myself.· So, I routed it a little better.· I should have laid it out with the pull-up pack the other way around.
    better_Vcc_wire.jpg
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  • VIRANDVIRAND Posts: 656
    edited 2010-01-27 11:18
    OK for once in a blue moon , lol.gif I am actually online near my Propeller workbench.
    With the Radio Shack boards I make solder globs stick between the copper doughnuts as needed.
    That sometimes happens unintentionally though which is bad.

    The Propeller Proto Boards must be coated with something that prevents that, because I used resistor leads to
    connect all of the holes together that needed to be connected.

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  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2010-01-28 01:53
    I generally used to put more than one wire into the holes [noparse]:)[/noparse] or bridge several holes with a bare wire, and solder to that.

    Then I got tired of snipping & stripping THAT many wires, and designed Proteus & Propteus.

    - Propteus is the one with the Prop on it
    - Proteus is the prototyping board that does not have any pre-defined circuitry, can stack on Propteus (or lots of other boards)
    mpark said...
    They say there are no stupid questions, but I intend to prove them wrong. Here goes.

    How are you supposed to use the prototyping area on the various Parallax protoboards? There's a bunch of holes with pads, but none of the pads are connected together. I solder something to a pad, and... what next? How do you make electrical connections?

    Prototyping boards with rows of pads connected together, like Gadget Gangster's new ProtoPlus or Bill Henning's Propteus, those I can understand. These boards with isolated pads just baffle me. Help me out. How do you guys use them?
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