<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On May 13, 2006, at 3:01 AM, Cole Groff wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">would you guys happen to have any suggestions on how to transfer</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">circuit schematics to a prototype-board like this? <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>First of all, are you working with a solderable prototyping board (otherwise known as "perfboard"), or are you using one of those white plastic, unreliable-as-hell, waffle-hole temporary proto-boards? Not that you shouldn't use them, but... you shouldn't. Their flakiness will just add an additional layer of uncertainty to your experiments. You're gonna have to build it with solder eventually, so why not now?</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Some prototyping tips:</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Go slow.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Draw a picture of your physical layout on paper before you actually start to work with the parts and the board. Get some graph paper and draw a layout using the grid to represent the holes on your proto board -- maybe even draw a few different versions to find the best one. You can use a blue pen to draw the jumpers on the top (component) side of the board, and a red pen to draw the jumpers on the bottom side (the solder side). Use only red and blue, never purple, orange, or green.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Keep all of your chips oriented in the same direction. That is, Pin 1 is pointing the same way on all chips. Unless your name is Buchla.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Figure out your ground and power connections first.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Try to visualize a few different possible layouts for your chips and parts, maybe even temporarily put them together a few ways without soldering, to find the most logical and efficient layout.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Use color-coding on your various jumper wires. You can choose an arbitrary color system -- it's just to help you identify which wire is which once you start growing a forest of parts and wires. Take notes as to the color of each wire.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Don't crowd your parts -- give yourself some space, so you can both see things better, and so you have rooms in which to make and fix mistakes.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Triple check every connection against both your schematic and your layout drawing before you move on to the next connection.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Take special note of polarized components such as diodes and electrolytic capacitors. make sure they're pointing the way they're supposed to be pointing. Especially the caps, because they like to explode when you put them in backwards.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Go slow.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Solid wire jumpers underneath the board are better than flying wire jumpers on top of the board. It's OK to use both, but try to make your jumps on the solder side first, and the component side only if you must.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Try to use the extra lead length of your resistors and caps as part of your jumper network whenever you can make a kind of "daisy chain" with the lead). It'll help clean things up, and make a more physically solid circuit.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>It's perfectly acceptable to put resistors, diodes, and small caps on either side of the board. Those parts can do double-duty as very handy jumpers on the solder side, can be used to solve routing problems, and can reduce your overall wire jumper count if cleverly placed. It's probably best to keep the larger parts all on the component side, though (chips, transistors, big caps, etc.).</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I like to use those little metal "flea clips" to attach flying wires to the board. They look like a little metal flag, about 3/8" to 1/2" long. These make it easier to move or remove the wires if you must, and they make a stronger anchor point for the wire -- stronger than just pushing the wire through one of the holes, which increases long-term reliability. These clips also protrude through the hole and poke out underneath the board, which gives you another convenient point to solder things onto on the underside. You're also able to solder up to three separate wires onto one of the clips, if the need arises. You can buy them in a pack of 100 for a few dollars. They're well worth it.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Keep some insulation tubing (or lengths of cleanly stripped off wire insulation) handy, so you can selectively insulate solid wire jumpers or component leads under the board, when necessary. This will let you run some jumpers and leads over the top of others without shorting things.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Don't power it up until you have triple-checked everything against both your drawing and your schematic. If you can, use sockets for the chips, so you can power it up without the chips in place, and test to make sure that the voltages are what you expect at all the right places. When they test OK, power down, put in the chips, and power up again.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>If the circuit you're building is comprised of several clearly-defined sub-circuits, try building one sub-circuit at a time (leaving plenty of room for the rest, of course). Move on to the next sub-circuit when the first one checks OK. This will make a large project less daunting and confusing. For instance, when building a VCO, you could first build the sawtooth or triangle oscillator core, then when that's working OK, add the waveshaping stuff for the other waves (pulse, sine, etc.).</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Go slow.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Just kidding about the purple, orange, and green pens. Sorry, I'm a wiseass. Use whatever damn colors you want.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Wasn't kidding about the exploding caps, though.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Michael Bacich</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>