How to build boards with connections on BOTH sides (help)

Thread Starter

KansaiRobot

Joined Jan 15, 2010
324
Hello and thanks always.
This time I have a question regarding building circuits on a perfboard.

I am building now a circuit in which I have to connect one device on one side and another device on the other side.

First I tried to do this on the usual perfoard I use. This has the holes covered with metal on only one side so, but in this case I am soldering a socket on one side (for one device) and the pins on the other side (for another device or a breadboard), so when I tried to solder the pins from the side that had no metal, it was impossible. I couldn't do it.

Next, I tried a perfboard with metal on both sides of the holes. And it worked to some extend ,I could solder the socket on one side and the pins on the other but then I realized something... How am I going to connect the pins of the socket (coming from device 1) to the pins of the connection pins(for the device 2)? This because this pins have some plastic on that side so I cant solder them...
So far what I have done is for each pin, put some wire across a hole near the pin holes, solder them (on the side where it is possible to solder) and then connect the socket pins to this wire since I cant connect it directly to the connection pins.

A better way to understand what I am saying is looking at this pic

connection.jpg
Now, I dont think this is a professional way to do it.
I was adviced to push the plastic part so that I can solder the pins from just one side, but when I tried to do that the pins broke down, couldnt do it.

I would very much appreciate any advice on how to do this the correct way.

Thanks a lot
 

AnalogKid

Joined Aug 1, 2013
10,987
There is nothing wrong with your method of feeding a wire through from one side of the perfboard to the other. This is very common in prototyping. But there is another way.

The single row connector is called a pin header, and some manufacturers make them with many different length pins. If you get the pins long enough, you can put the header through the perf board from the top with the plastic body and short tails upward and the long pins extending down through the perf board toward the breadboard. Then turn the board over and solder the pins to the bottom side, being careful that solder does not flow all the way down the pins to the area that will be making contact with the breadboard. In this way the pin header solder side and the socket solder side are the same. There are other connector type to solve this problem when using a pc board, but they do not work well with perf board (I've tried).

ak
 

SLK001

Joined Nov 29, 2011
1,549
You could also solder your pin header on one side, then use your soldering iron to melt the plastic away, then solder the header on the flip side. The plastic is only there to keep the pins in a line. Once the line is soldered, the plastic is no longer needed.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,846
Can't picture what you're trying to do (what is the component side on the "breadboard"?), but Samtec has a line of board to board connectors.

Don't know what your space constraints are, but I use male and female 0.025" square headers. I'll take a picture of one and post later...
 

Lestraveled

Joined May 19, 2014
1,946
It is a common thing to do. Here is a modular Vicor power supply.


The module is on the left, note the black receptacles. You can clearly see the vertical mating pins.




Side view with module connected.
 

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