I'm going to take the advice of some people on this forum and use wirewrap for a project I'm building. A question though: how do I attach the components to the perfboard, since there won't be solder to keep them in place?

Thank you

 

I'm going to take the advice of some people on this forum and use wirewrap for a project I'm building. A question though: how do I attach the components to the perfboard, since there won't be solder to keep them in place?

Thank you

I have not used wire wrap in about a century. I still have a wire wrap tool around here somewhere I think.

The wire wrap boards I used to use were populated with a bunch of 16 pin sockets. There were wire wrap pins for each pin of each socket. If you wanted to place discrete components there were special blanks and you soldered the components to them.

I suppose if you had the pins and perfboard you could make a similar thing up yourself.

 

I'm going to take the advice of some people on this forum and use wirewrap for a project I'm building. A question though: how do I attach the components to the perfboard, since there won't be solder to keep them in place?

Thank you

Nearly 30 years ago, when I used to wirewrap prototype boards, I used perf-boards that had the copper rings around each hole. I would solder at least 2 pins of each wirewrap socket to the copper.

IIRC, there were special sockets or pins for individual discrete components. It was a long time ago, and I drank a lot of beer at the time, so I don't remember much about it...

 

They now sell punch pins that go into the hole next to the component, you solder the square pin to the component after punching into the board.

What I like about them is I can do the wrapping on the top side of the board and not get confused, though they were mean to punch on the bottom, it doesn't really matter, I use them for ICs even.

The punch tool is a bit spendy, though, and the pins themselves are pricey, but available at digi-key, and you can put the pins in with a pliers and a touch of force.

 

I've used a technique where I solder the components into pad-per-hole board leaving the leads long then make short wire wraps directly on the component leads followed by soldering over the wraps. After defluxing and testing I conformal coat or pot the connections and wires.

 

Be prepared for sticker shock when pricing the wire wrap pins and sockets. When you can even find the pins and sockets.

KJ6EAD, isn't that more like what they call "Manhattan" wiring?

 

Also, be prepared for with a strong vocabulary if you find that you need to rewire things. If you have to remove and rewire a pin, you have to remove and rewire all the wrapped wires above the problem one. That may mean redoing many pins. It can be sort of a quicksand feeling. That is, if you do it properly.

Ken

 

Yeah I started doing WW 100 years back too. I still use the wire for point to point using SMD parts. I keep the manual strip/wrap tool on hand too for just stripping.

When I did conventional WW I would first try to do every bit of solder work before any wrapping. Any power lines, (leaded!) bypass caps and the like was down first, and a dab of solder on the power pins kept the sockets in place.

There are also quite useful IC tags to mark pin numbers available. Very much worth the overprice you'll pay for them.

The manual wrap tool works well. I also have packed deep and far away an electric wrapper that strips and cuts the wrap end to length as it spins it on. That takes special (++$) wire wrap wire and a lot of practice to get going.

When you can even find the pins and sockets.

I am quite surprised to see Vector still has all that stuff in their catalog.

 

Be prepared for sticker shock when pricing the wire wrap pins and sockets. When you can even find the pins and sockets.

KJ6EAD, isn't that more like what they call "Manhattan" wiring?

No, Manhattan is one of the other kludgey point-to-point wiring techniques where small pieces of copper-clad PCB material are stacked and glued on a larger piece to create islands of conductivity that resemble a cityscape.