[sdiy] Perfboard construction pointers

[David G. Dixon]

> is a useful article on the options facing the prototyper who doesn't want
> to
> etch an actual circuit board.
> 
> personally, I use stripboard (covered in that article).
> If you do decide to go with stripboard, remember the main
> problem is accidental solder links between adjacent traces, or
> incompletely broken traces.

I feel an urge to chime in here.  I sketch and etch (and drill) my own PC
boards, and I think they are a fantastic tool for prototyping (along with
simulation), particularly for analog.  They are cheap and relatively easy to
make, and ultimately much, much easier to assemble than protoboard.  Indeed,
I rarely even breadboard circuits anymore.

If you adopt a reasonable layout strategy, then you can easily make
provisions on the board for adding extra parts, and you can always add
"proto-areas" on the board.  You can even put in individual sockets and test
components you aren't sure about like a breadboard.  If you lay out the
board with some sort of program, then it isn't a big deal to fix the errors.
With luck, you can usually get the second board perfectly right.  With care
you can even suck off and reuse the parts.  Hence, all you've wasted is a
bit of PCB material and some solder.

Handmade PCBs as prototyping tools: don't knock it until you try it!