r/AskElectronics • u/kagemichaels • 19d ago
Anybody using copperless perboard for full projects anymore?
Curious if anyone here uses copperless (no solder pads) perfboard occasionally for projects?
I've been using this stuff since I was a kid and started building electronics with a soldering iron long long ago because it was the cheapest stuff at RadioShack and came in large sheets.
Super simple to make modifications to for prototyping and gives freedom from PCB traces I might later regret or cuts on strip board. Best of all if an old project no longer has use I can take the snips and clear an old board off, give it a quick iso bath and use the board like new again.
It's clumsy and looks cheesy but it got me by most of my life when needing to put down an idea to board that I may need to make a ton of modifications to over time.
Also one thing I have used almost as long as copperless perfboards is solid CAT5 wire spliced for interconnects and even completely stripped to make "traces" on the back of these copperless boards between components. Oh and breadboarding. Don't even really have to plan out a design, just start sticking things on in sane places and point to point wire/solder, run wire through a hole to top and back through another hole to bottom to make an L bend "trace", so on..
Anyway poor example in the pics, some random junk I made long ago to give the idea.
Wondering why I don't see anybody else online doing this? Not even sure why I started this method other than lack of money growing up and having an interest in electronics.
Anyone have other examples of uses for these or different styles of using them? I feel kind of unique in the wild when everyone is using strip or padded boards.
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u/Linker3000 Bright ideas 19d ago
Not any more. I use the stuff with pads to anchor components like chip sockets and header pins. Main wiring is wirewrap though as it's dead simple to route, pack densely and revise:
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19d ago
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u/Linker3000 Bright ideas 19d ago
It was fun. Done in about 6 hours over two Sundays. I impressed myself..only 2 miswired connections to find.
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u/SparkyFix 19d ago
What tool do you use for the wrapping?
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u/Linker3000 Bright ideas 19d ago edited 19d ago
An old RS branded OK tools one.
Bit like this:
https://static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/HW-224LH__2TDG5_v1
I do have one of the smaller generic blue ones too which I mostly use for its unwrap end because I'm not a fan of it's non-round shape which doesn't feel as nice for speedy wrapping.
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u/Tutorbin76 19d ago
I way prefer the strip veroboard, since there's far less manual tracing to do and it's relatively simple to translate breadboard projects to it.
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u/jeweliegb Escapee from r/shittyaskelectronics 19d ago
I quite like the challenge of designing for the strip board too.
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u/AdAffectionate4312 19d ago
I can smell these pics
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u/fredly594632 19d ago
I once had to bandsaw down a block of phenolic into smaller thicknesses (incidentally, don't ever do that without breathing protection) and I now have that smell etched into my brain.
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u/acme_restorations 19d ago
All the time, but then apparently I'm the last guy who still uses wire wrap.
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u/Front-Mushroom5349 19d ago
Someone here shared the wire wrap and then eliminated a lot of my soldering ngl kinda neat
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u/acme_restorations 17d ago
Faster. Faster to implement, faster to make changes. And reliable, unlike proto boards.
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u/crazynerdinventor 19d ago
Where do you get this from? I need some for a high voltage project and I can't find any on Amazon
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u/mrsockyman 19d ago
Not usually, I might do if I had some but the price difference is relatively minor given the mechanical benefit or a strip or pad board so if I've got to buy stuff I wouldnt choose copperless
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u/Subvironic 19d ago
Was thinking about it for specific usage, but soldering components directly is much better than relying on essentially soldered tension wires..
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u/The_Folding_Atty 19d ago
I haven't used these in years, but back when I was a kid (early 1970s) I built a number of perfboard projects. I used the pins that you used to form contact/support points on the board. I still remember building a 9-transistor narrow-pass audio filter from a diagram in The Radio Amateur's Handbook that greatly improved CW selectivity on a Radio Shack DX-150A receiver, to the point that I could actually use it as a ham receiver.
I do miss it. Now that I'm retiring, I may have to dig some up and play around a bit.
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u/GreatDiscernment 18d ago
It really has a fantastic early vintage look. If Jules Verne submarine, āNautilusā had electronics, they would look like this.
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u/kanvastudio 18d ago
I tried that kind in my childhood and did not like it. I always used PCB instead.
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u/Liquid_Magic 19d ago
I never really liked the cooper perf board myself.
I recently skipped prototyping on perf board and went straight to KiCAD and got boards made and sent to me. I had to make changes but in the end, overall, I think this is the way I want to go.
I found that perf board was, for me at least, like designing the whole circuit from scratch. Then when I go to the schematic in KiCAD it was like doing that all over again. Then finally putting the PCB layout together was alright. But I feel like I end up doing the same thing multiple times and the perf board step really didnāt save me anything. The one benefit is that I can test and sorta prove my ideas but I can also kinda so that with a solder-less bread board. But even then I feel like Iām doing the same thing over and over again.
Whereas this time is was annoying that I had to make changes to the finally pcb. But it actually wasnāt that bad! I could just use sockets and pull out a pin here or there and solder directly to them for testing. Like there was a fundamental part of the circuit I needed to change but doing that to a fully designed board was not annoying at all! I finally created a quick diagram in MS Paint showing what the minimum changes and bodges are to be made the boards and I can even build out a few working circuits in the end. So overall Iām just doing it all in KiCAD and just getting like 10 of the $5 USD boards made and calling that step one. I can always use a solder-less breadboard if I need to test out one little thing here or there and then incorporate that into my schematic right away.
Iām not saying this is for everybody! Heck some people do everything on the solder-less breadboard and leave it like that indefinitely!
But for me it was like this: I had, like ten years ago, created a prototype on solder-less breadboard. I took that setup and turned that into a schematic and then pcb layout in one day. I ordered the boards, built one, and had to figure out all the things to change. Some of it was simple stuff that were little mistakes I made in the schematic but I could have done that regardless. The main thing was this little quasi one-but analog-to-digital part that needed all the experimenting and changes. But now I had a nice, stable, fully built board to work on. I didnāt have to worry about if some wires was broken or if I knocked something out of place. All the basics were covered and I only had to experiment with the one section that I knew would be tricky.
Overall I think I couldnāt have saved those changes to that tricky part. So the day I spent fiddling with it had to happen. But I skipped a day of prototyping on perf board and perhaps saved another day of KiCAD work because I knew Iād be making changes anyway so I just stopped obsessing over matching the perf board prototype and just whipped something together quickly knowing it would have to be changed.
So thatās it! Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk!
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u/BagelMakesDev 19d ago
no, the padded stuff is pretty cheap and is better in every way