Howdy,

I have just recently completed a project using a picaxe microcontroller after advise from helpful folks on this forum.

It was pretty straight forward and easy using the starter pack which I purchased. However, that being said, I want to now build another board for it as I have purchased multiple IC's. I went down to the local components store and got my self a small proto board to work with, but I have no idea how you're meant to lay the circuit out on these things, do I just run wires, is there something else I need to etch railings or something?

What's the cheapest easiest way of doing it? I tried using wires and tried to make connections between the two copper edged holes with big blobs of solder, but this didn't seem to work.

I dunno, maybe I fried the particular IC I'm using, all I'm going by is it didn't connect when I tried to download a program to it from the pc. Help is appreciated.

I guess the short version of what Im asking, are there any resources that explain prototyping without a pre printed circuit board?

 

Is the board a proto board with holes and some metallic connections? Is the part through hole or surface mount?

 

Sorry to have to ask, feel like such a n00b.

Not starting my course in this stuff for a year or so, have to start somewhere.

It's just holes with copper rings. No rails or anything.

I've surface mounted components, and then fused wiring on the underside of the board to complete the circuit. What I mean by this is just taken a short length of wire, coated the end in solder, then pushed it into the existing solder holding the component already to melt it down and fuse it into one connection. Then I've repeated that process to join all components.

It doesn't seem to work though, I've obviously gone wrong somewhere. Going to buy a multi meter and try again in the not too distant future. Then if it doesn't work, I can at least attempt to work out why with the multi meter.

I've been told one of the issues may be too much resistance through the wiring, but there is a very small amount.

If this wiring solution isn't the best way to go, please let me know, or If you're not sure what I mean, I can take some pictures of what i've done (It's rather untidy though).

Your help is much appreciated.

Cheers
JuzzyDee.