How to use drilled board without traces

R

rmeldo

Senior Member
Hi,

There are on sale drilled boards (2.54 mm pitch) with no copper traces.

What are they used for? How are the components installed on them and the connections made?

I also saw boards where each hole has its own pad and all the pads are separate from each other. How are the connections between pads made?
 
A

alband

Senior Member
I'd need a link to verify, but I imagine that for the ones without any pads you just bend back the wires of your e.g. LED to meet the legs of your PICAXE. And for the ones with pads, you just create tracks by connecting the pads with solder.
 
S

steliosm

Senior Member
We have this kind of perfboards here in Greece. It's pretty easy to use them: You just place your components on them and then use jumper wires to link them together. You use the closest pad to your component to pass the wire through and solder it on the pad with your component.
 
lbenson

lbenson

Senior Member
Perfboard

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, here is a 2,000+ word essay on perfboards, holes and copper pads, .1 inch (2.54mm) on center:



Messy, ain't it.
 
R

rmeldo

Senior Member
Messy indeed.

Stripboard seems a better option, albeit leading to less compact results.

Thanks for the pictures (1000 words indeed)

Riccardo
 
M

manuka

Senior Member
Great pix- which remind me of a 455kHz BFO I built (for SSB decoding) ~1966! Although almost shuddering now to recall the project, it's been mounted 44 years in a classic SW radio set I've retained, & amazingly still works a treat.

For those who've just come in, IMHO "breadboard style" PCB is far superior & faster => http://www.picaxe.orconhosting.net.nz/kiwacan.jpg, => http://www.picaxe.orconhosting.net.nz/bboview.jpg . We've been using locally (NZ)designed "Kiwiboard" (but Chinese made) here to good effect.
 
M

moxhamj

New Member
You can use hookup wire, enamelled wire like bb or (my favourite), wirewrap wire. Point to point, looks like a rats nest, but I've got at least 30 boards still working fine many years later with this style of wiring. Much cheaper than getting PCBs made, especially for one-offs.

BB - is that a 4 Mhz Z80 I see before me? Could we get you over to the N8VEM group by any chance *grin*? And for those that are curious, why bother with Z80? Well, for me it is a path to the elusive serin timeout. With Kaypro's SBasic, you can write your own procedures;
rem *** main program ***
var serintest=string
serintest=serin(0,38400,10000,"ABC")
print "answer :";serintest

Where 0 is port 0 to 3, 38400 is the baud rate 1200 to 38400, 10000 is the timeout in milliseconds and "ABC" is the header to look for. Perfect for interfacing with picaxe basic where you can use similar instructions for both.

BTW if you use wirewrap wire for point to point, you can get lots of different colours. And if you can get a wirewrap stripper tool it makes things a lot easier.
 
Last edited:
B

BeanieBots

Moderator
Doc, that is indeed a Z80. The two missing chips are 2764 EEPROMs.
RTC + varicap trimmer + battery (just out of shot top right) + CTC + 2X battery backed SRAM:D
It's actually clocked at 2.4576Mhz to have an overall frequency suitable for generating common baud rates.

I might have a pop along to N8VEM;)

To be honest though, since finding PICAXE, my Z80 assembler has suffered:eek:
Did a little CPM but almost exclusively assembler with Z80s.

EDIT: after reading your edit.
That particular board is actually being used as a 256 byte serial buffered baud rate converter with xon/xoff handshake for linking to bits of kit that use different rates.
There's a second board with PIO serial chip and interrupt addressing.

The connections are made using special "proto wire".
Very similar to enamelled copper but you just solder to remove the insulation. Quicker and easier than wire-wrap which I also use a lot.
 
Last edited:
D

ddee

New Member
Back in the late 70s, early 80s, I remember reading that the U.S. military did a study of electrical/electronic connections and found that wire wrap was actually more durable than point-to-point soldering!

I've used wire wrap many times and, except for the aesthetics and high frequency considerations, it's a great technique to use, since it's fast, the tools and wire are relatively inexpensive, and it's easy to make modifications. As Dr. Acula points out, wire wrap is a good choice for one-offs.
 
A

alband

Senior Member
BeanieBots said:
The connections are made using special "proto wire".
Very similar to enamelled copper but you just solder to remove the insulation. Quicker and easier than wire-wrap which I also use a lot.
Click to expand...
Speaking of which, I have some varnished headphone wire with a fibre core. Neither melt as I would expect. What is the easiest technique to get rid of heat-proof varnish and fibre.
 
E

eclectic

Moderator
alband said:
Speaking of which, I have some varnished headphone wire with a fibre core. Neither melt as I would expect. What is the easiest technique to get rid of heat-proof varnish and fibre.
Click to expand...
get rid of it?
Get rid of ALL of it! Don't try and remove varnish and "fibres".

The best method. Take it to the local waste recycling plant.

See, (and READ), for example

http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/Equipment-Wire/Wire/Insulated-copper-wire/62484

(Warning re Modified Polyurethane)


http://www.rapidonline.com/netalogue/specs/05-0200e.pdf
(Toxicological Data)

Buy the correct stuff, please.

e
 
M

manuka

Senior Member
Assuming you wish to (re)solder the wire, try very careful scraping with a fine blade. Spot burning off the varnished wire may have some mileage-but this often causes the fine Cu strands to melt too. I used a solvent to good effect on a tricky job once-can't now recall which however. Try meths,turps,paint brush cleaner, or even methyl ethyl ketone (M.E.K.) a universal solvent -available at home improvement stores.
 
J

jaka

Member
Cotton covered wire.

"It's for some headphones so I can't just use other stuff."

Stranded headphone wire is called "Litz".
Wiki will tell you all about it. Don't try and use it unless you have microscopic vision.

Experience:- Making crystal sets in the 50s from WD surplus stores.

jaka
 
M

manuka

Senior Member
Are they faulty? Are you trying to repair the wire? What are the headphones worth to you? There are diverse fiddly techniques for this,usually involving tricks of the trade, but skilled steady hands & eyes are essential. I've certainly repaired a few of my own over the years, most recently when my cat chewed thru' the "mouse tail" cabling, & curse every time. Unless your headphones are very special, such repair jobs may be too time intensive (with "thirsty work" costs!) to be worthwhile.

Extra: Stranded Litz wire is intended to minimise RF skin effects. AFAIK flexible headphone wiring is designed more for the jiving knocks & bangs associated with "in ear entertainment". You can always just buy a coin shop junk headphone, & use it's fresh lead to rewire your golden ear darlings.
 
Last edited:
B

BeanieBots

Moderator
Hold with pliers leaving about 1/4" free.
Apply flame from cigarette lighter until copper glows.
The pliers prevent heat travelling down the wire.
Then dip in flux and solder.

If you don't have any flux, then gently scrape scalpel after the flame treatment.

Don't breath the vapours!
 
A

alband

Senior Member
Thanks, I will try that stuff now.
:)
It is a fix - sort of. Taking good speakers and putting them on a cable for a phone (therefore special connector).
I won't take up any more of this thread with my problems though. If I need further help, I'll start a new one.
 
B

BeanieBots

Moderator
Oh... it's phone cable and NOT litz wire.
That's plain copper mixed with poly...something-or-other.
Crimp it. It's the only way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top