Hey All,

The copper padding on the perfboard am working on seems to have worn off . I have attached a picture of the same . I know it's some bad soldering you see in the picture since I have just started off eith electronics and soldering .

My question is : Now that the copper pads have worn off , Is there a way I can still make use of that strip ( bus ) , it is connected to a pin of an IC on the other side ? Or Do i have to discard the board and use a new one ?

 

Just use some small single strand wire, I Keep a reel of wire-wrap that usually does the trick.
Or carry a conductor lead all the way through to cover the other holes, resistor etc.
Max.

 

Thanks for the quick reply .


I did try to solder the whole strip so that they remain connected , but I don't think the solder stuck to the material beneath the copper . does that ever happen ?

 

Generally the reason the copper comes off is because it gets too hot and the glue that holds the copper to the board melts, the copper pad then sticks to the soldering iron due to capillary action.

Like MaxHeadRoom says some thin wire (I often strip down some multi-strand wire and take a single strand) can be used to bridge gaps and repair tracks.

 

These boards remind me about thew old story about an old time car repair shop that had a sign out front: "All our work is good, fast, and cheap. Pick any two."

Single sided boards like this are fast and cheap. They ain't the best quality. You have to be careful with the heat or the pads just lift right off. They may still push off if you push a part from the other side and the leads life off a pad. Also, they seem to come very tarnished so they do not accept solder very well as is; a coating of solder would help that. So you need to burnish them, either with something like an eraser or some fine steel wool.

I use lots of breadboards for my prototypes, but I get the ones on green boards (stronger) with plated thru holes that are solder covered. They don't cost very much more, and perhaps less if you were buying from Radio Shack and now change to China thru Ebay.

 

This mostly happens because you need a better (or more appropriate) soldering iron. Too hot means melted glue on the copper pads.

Soldering irons with thermostat control allow high wattage for thick parts while allowing you to maintain an appropriate temp.

 

Proper stripboard is faster to work with, and the copper strips don't come off;