Hello, I am doing a student project and need to ask some questions of electrical engineers or anyone else who prototypes circuitry. This can be anywhere from a Raspberry Pi hobbyist to an embedded systems designer.

1. What devices do you currently use to produce prototype circuitry? (Ex: pick and place machine)
2. What types of circuits are you prototyping?
3. What are your main goals when creating a prototype? (Ex: ease of construction, scale, cost)
4. Are you creating prototypes for a company, personal use, or educational use?
5. How long does the prototyping process take from design to completion?

 

Hello, I am doing a student project and need to ask some questions of electrical engineers or anyone else who prototypes circuitry. This can be anywhere from a Raspberry Pi hobbyist to an embedded systems designer.

1. What devices do you currently use to produce prototype circuitry? (Ex: pick and place machine)
2. What types of circuits are you prototyping?
3. What are your main goals when creating a prototype? (Ex: ease of construction, scale, cost)
4. Are you creating prototypes for a company, personal use, or educational use?
5. How long does the prototyping process take from design to completion?

I'm an electronics hobbyist:

1) I solder components and tracks onto Plated Through Hole board. I use freeware to plan the locations. In the future I'll order PCBs because soldering tracks has proven to be harder than it looks!

2) Clock, radio, programmable LED lamp, oscillator

3) I like to build from scratch because I learn a lot and it's fun. Learning the processes has made me appreciate the technology that is available to me.

4) Personal use

5) My projects will sit on the breadboard while I think about them for months. Given that is takes forever to transfer to a permanent board correctly, most prototypes don't make it past the breadboard. Ordering printed circuits boards should make this a lot easier especially for projects with a lot of components.

Edit: I bought a bundle of PTH boards that will last me the rest of the century. I bought them thinking I'll crank out prototypes... Little did I know how painstaking it all is. Seeing your vision come to life is worth it though!