I have a circuit board from radio shack that has pads for soldering in components. These pads are in rows are are not connected. Is there a standard way to lay 'traces' or 'tracks' or whatever the term is for solder on the board, so that I can connect something to something else several rows of holes away?

Thank you

 

Usually you would bend the leads from one component to the next one you want to connect. Then solder both wires together and to the holes where the wires come through the board, to anchor the components.

 

One usually uses just plain ole wire for those connections. My preference is for solid bus wire, thin and insulated for signal connections, thicker and bare for power connections. I also keep some teflon sleeving on hand for those times I want an insulated thick conductor.

 

One usually uses just plain ole wire for those connections. My preference is for solid bus wire, thin and insulated for signal connections, thicker and bare for power connections. I also keep some teflon sleeving on hand for those times I want an insulated thick conductor.

Depending on your power needs wire wrap wire works really nice. You can get ti on ebay pretty cheap in all kinds of colors.

I have never used it but some folks use breadboard layout software before sitting down to wire. It helps you turn out a neat looking project instead a tangle of wires.

 

If you see the phone company working some where, stop and ask the guys if they have any 'Trunk' cable they could let you have. I don't know for sure thats what its called, just what the guy that gave me mine called it. Its a cable about an inch in diameter that has a bunch of small, about 24 gage wires in it. All different insulation colors and a couple of feet of it will be enough for a life time of projects.

 

I like to stuff the perfboard with the leads sticking through, solder to the pads, trim the leads, and wire point-to-point with stripped or insulated wire-wrap wire. I use heavier gauge wire for power busses if needed.

I do the schematic and layout with ExpressPCB, as if it were a 2-sided PCB with a 0.1" grid spacing on all components. Bottom traces are usually bare wire and top traces are insulated, all on the bottom of the pad side of the perfboard.

Ken

 

Sometimes, using stripboard (sometimes called Veroboard) is an advantage. It makes your project very clean. You can use wire to connect tracks (resistor leads are good for that), and a drill bit to "break" a track if you need to. I personally prefer using this instead of perfboard. There are also TriPad boards, excellent for ICs.

 

Sometimes, using stripboard (sometimes called Veroboard) is an advantage. It makes your project very clean. You can use wire to connect tracks (resistor leads are good for that), and a drill bit to "break" a track if you need to. I personally prefer using this instead of perfboard. There are also TriPad boards, excellent for ICs.

I liked it the one time I worked with it. The problem is Radio Shack doesn't carry it. It seems to be "The Standard" for UK/EU and Australia though. Radio Shack is in about every town/city in the US, and they sell several types of boards, from solderless breadboard layout, complete with connections, but as a PC Board, to small IC holder/expansion boards, to larger boards with just copper around each hole as shown above.

If they made them into tracks (Veroboard), then it would be a lot quicker to throw stuff together.

I use wire wrap wire for most everything low power as well (Under 1/2A), then I rip up cat5 wire for lots of higher current jumpers. It's the same as the "Trunk Wire" mentioned above, only not as many colors. Make sure you get the solid type. 10 feet of Cat 5 will last a long time.

 

Depending on your power needs wire wrap wire works really nice. You can get ti on ebay pretty cheap in all kinds of colors.

I have never used it but some folks use breadboard layout software before sitting down to wire. It helps you turn out a neat looking project instead a tangle of wires.

I think I just got some wire wrap wire from the same guy off Ebay, it makes very good breadboard wire even for point to point solder connections (as it is very easy to strip).

I will very often use Autocad to draw out my breadboard either in advance or as I build it. Just helps keep things in order.