Thoughts on Veroboard for small scale production

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Circuitfreak101

Joined Apr 13, 2016
15
I know in general people generally get a PCB made after prototyping on Veraboard but for simple circuits I can't see what what advantage a PCB would have for my project as the circuit is simple, stable and is very strip board friendly with only a few cuts.
I know it won't look totally pro but is there any reason a product shouldn't be made with veroboard ?, I'm talking small signal low bandwidth audio here, not digital or high speed video boards.
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,285
A Veroboard should be fine for low frequency analog or digital circuits as long as the layout and ground scheme are carefully done.
PCBs are used for low frequency circuit prototypes mainly for easy of assembly and a neat appearance.
 

AnalogKid

Joined Aug 1, 2013
10,987
And repeatability. While using a pc board does not eliminate the possibility of assembly errors such as solder bridges or incorrect component placement (resistor in a diode space, etc.), it does greatly reduce the possibility of wiring errors.

Every now and then I'll see photos of some home brew project on standard green perf board and the assembly is gorgeous. Other times a home made pc board is a mess . Reliability comes from experience and technique, but customers rarely can see past the perf board.

ak
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,619
What you could use to make the project a bit more fool proof and provide an initial trace removal in the Veroboard is to use one of the development programs aimed at perf board.
LockMaster is a good one, but has limited saving etc in the free version.
Max.
 

mcgyvr

Joined Oct 15, 2009
5,394
define "small scale production" 2 pcs, 50 pcs, 100 pcs?
You can pick up circuit boards cheap now out of China,etc..
 

Marcus2012

Joined Feb 22, 2015
425
Every now and then I'll see photos of some home brew project on standard green perf board and the assembly is gorgeous. Other times a home made pc board is a mess . Reliability comes from experience and technique, but customers rarely can see past the perf board.
I'm with AK here. I am a strong advocate of stripboard but as he says it can very rapidly turn into a complete mess if it's not planned properly. I would steer clear of prefboard entirely, it's just nasty. I tend to go through a few iterations while stripboard planning to try and make sure I've got the most efficient and productive design and, as crutschow says, planning the best ground scheme. Not sure where I got this planning sheet from after all this time otherwise I'd link but it's great help when designing small boards.
 

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