[sdiy] Breadboards

[Tim Daugard]

>>>
In 23 years, such a divice has a greater chance of coming into
environments
with higher humidity as it had quite often, over the years; especially
the
last 3 or 4 years.
<<<

I am in an area with high humidity - 90% or better with high salt
content (1/4 mile to the seashore) I've had no problems with the white
strips including one that I've had 20++ years. Humidity is liveable.

>>>
Having 2 test circuits barely working at all, without moving a chip
back and
forth in it's position, I gave up in frustration, removing all of the
parts
and wires and using a screwdriver to rip portions of the board off of
the
metal mounting base.
<<<

Once a test circuit starts working, I transfer it to perfboard and
solder connections. I use a combination of SSB for new parts of a
circuit and soldered perfboard for the semi-proofed circuit. Makes for
a bigger mess but works for me.

>>>
Lo'n'behold, starting back at me are huge amounts of the blue'ish
corrosion
of copper colour, on a large # of pin contacts. :P
I haven't thrown the breadboard out yet.  Just thinking of it now -
I'm
going to take a pic or 2 of it, and post it to my webpage, as a
partial
warning of one thing that can happen to it. :(
<<<

The rat shack breadboard mounted on a metal backing plate is a no-no.
I splurged and bought one to upgrade my breadboards. I had circuits
that wouldn't work on it. I tried prying the breadboard off the plate
and discovered that the breadboard was glued so well that as the plate
flexed it pulled the pins out of the breadboard. When I got the
breadboard off the plate, the pins were falling out of the back of the
white plastic.

>>>
Thankfully - I still have another, that's only about 10 years old, and
still
seems to be working fine. :)

They're great for testing ideas quickly, by just plopping parts in and
powering it all up. :)  I've done a fair amount of design over the
years
with them, and I'll continue to use them. :)
<<<

I have several. I have bought more when a circuit had to spread, I
need an idea for a present, etc. When I absolutly can't remember what
a circuit is for, I'll tear it down. Normally the chip on the
breadboard is transfered to the first soldered board (with sockets.)
That way if I see a breadboard with no ICs and no transistors on it, I
know it's okay to strip the rest of the parts out of it and reuse it.

I have done RF circuits on a SSB. If the circuit works at all, then
it's going to work better done properly.

Tim Daugard
AG4GZ 30.4078N 86.6227W Alt: 12 feet above MSL
http://home.sprintmail.com/~daugard/synth.htm