The Ultimate Wireless Matrix Proto Boards/PCBs for Noobs (i think )

Parts Archive
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I found these on ebay last night, not sure if they were posted before,

but basically its a hybrid between a matrix board and strip board, with no wiring necessary:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/106SW-wireless-circuit-test-prototype-PCB-board_W0QQitemZ310053571634

Because each ring is connected it means you only need to break the copper rings you dont want connecting.

So it means you can have a nice clean board without wires hanging out.

I found it really frustrating to try and wire components together, because i kept burning the insulation when trying to solder each connection.

My stripboard (bought inmaplin) doesnt seem to be able to take the solder, and ive noticed it could be happening because its tarnished in places, its not shiny.

These 2 problems almost made me give up on the Optimized Sid PSU, so i think a fresh start would be the best thing to do.

For instance when trying to solder the bridge rectifier, i would keep heating and heating the joint and the copper, but solder just would not flow. (unless i shoved the solder against the iron itself).

I was heating it til the top of the rectifier felt hot, and it almost broke my heart. I just hope to god the next pcb will take the damn stuff, or i might give up on the project all together.
1b16_10.JPG

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Good find, seems handy :slight_smile:

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If the solders not sticking to the copper then give it a clean! Copper oxidises very easily, i’ve even had some boards which have had a greasy film on them which has made soldering difficult. Give it a rub over with some wire wool and the tracks will become shiny again and soldering should be much easier.

          G

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Those boards look like they could work really well for prototyping. Nice find! If anyone tries those, let us know what the results are!

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If the solders not sticking to the copper then give it a clean! Copper oxidises very easily, i’ve even had some boards which have had a greasy film on them which has made soldering difficult. Give it a rub over with some wire wool and the tracks will become shiny again and soldering should be much easier.

          G

Thanks dude.

Is wire wool used for cleaning cooking equipment? I think we call it something else here.

Coca cola works really good for cleaning coppper so i might give that a go, my father always dips his copper golf clubs heads in it, and it really takes off all the dirt! Great with coins too.

I think i might just order one anyway and use the strip board for an atari punk console or something.

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Coca cola works really good for cleaning coppper so i might give that a go, my father always dips his copper golf clubs heads in it, and it really takes off all the dirt! Great with coins too.

Does he drink the coke afterwards? ;D

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My stripboard (bought inmaplin) doesnt seem to be able to take the solder, and ive noticed it could be happening because its tarnished in places, its not shiny.

If the board is something you can wash off, buy an organic flux pen or a small bottle of organic flux.  This stuff is great!  Cuts right through the tarnish - just spread some on before you start to solder and the heat from the soldering iron will activate it.

If you have components that can’t be washed (potentiometers, multi-stranded wire) then use an RA flux - not quite as powerful, but not as critical that it be washed off.

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Thanks Doug. it would be good practice use flux alright.

Does he drink the coke afterwards? ;D

;D

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Groovy. Expensive but groovy.

Edit: Cleaned up this crazy tag "Veroboard Stripboard PCB proto "

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I have used a similar board in the past, for me a stripboard does a better work but I guess thats just me as the wireless matrix board require more planning before.

I don’t like planning most of the time.

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Groovy. Expensive but groovy.

Edit: Cleaned up this crazy tag "Veroboard Stripboard PCB proto "

How do you mean crazy?

I just thought the more tags you add the easier it makes something to find.

I was thinking along the lines of keywords/tags on youtube.

Is there a problem with adding too many tags to threads?

I forgot that some of the words are already used in the the thread, which would come up in the search anyway.

So should we have unique words for the tags ya?

just asking because im a bit clueless! lol

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Oh and stryd the seller sells PCBs almost identical to the ones foona used in his seq.

The ones where you can bridge the solder over the 0.1" gap, i remember you asking him where to get them.

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I just thought the more tags you add the easier it makes something to find.

Well, that’s not “more tags”, that’s one big long tag! Also, you’ve mixed naming conventions (veroboard and stripboard are capitalised and have the ‘board’ suffix, proto is all lower case and has no suffix) and pcb is in caps, where we’ve generally been using lowercase.

I was thinking along the lines of keywords/tags on youtube.

Tagging should work in conjunction with the search engine, not in place of it. The idea is, you search for something you want, and you may find many hits, and only some of them will be useful. When you get to your first useful thread, because someone else thinks it’s useful, they’ve tagged it, so you click the tag, and are taken to other useful threads about the same topic. In your search, you might find other, as-yet untagged threads, so you can add the same tag, and the next guy will find all the sweet stuff you dug up for them :slight_smile:

Is there a problem with adding too many tags to threads?

Yes, it adds too many tags to the cloud, and creates ‘noise’. If we just tag the sweet stuff, and keep the tagging minimal, that’s more useful, because following a tag just brings you the sweet stuff. If everything’s tagged to death, then following a tag will yield less useful results.

I forgot that some of the words are already used in the the thread, which would come up in the search anyway.

Bingo :slight_smile:

So should we have unique words for the tags ya?

Well no, you want them to be the same as the other tags so the threads link up nicely. also it’s best to keep it as minimal as possible, so that when a tag search is introduced, it will yeild better hits. That’s the trick really, is to think about how the tag will be used after you make it.

just asking because im a bit clueless! lol

Don’t sweat it dude, the tagging system has been approarched with a very strict “we’ll make it up as we go along” policy… I’m just enforcing the most popular conventions which have arisen from it’s free-for-all usage. It’s like a dynamic tagging democracy :wink:

Oh and stryd the seller sells PCBs almost identical to the ones foona used in his seq.

The ones where you can bridge the solder over the 0.1" gap, i remember you asking him where to get them.

I liked his specifically because they’re green :slight_smile:

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Thanks for clearing it up!  I can see now why its pointless adding multiple tags!

I suppose the best tag i could use here is just “pcb” and leave it at that?

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Well multiple tags is good too, helps narrow it down… I mean, in addition to ‘pcb’, it would be good for example to have one of proto or vero or perf… because just ‘pcb’ is a bit ambiguous, so without more tags we’re actually creating noise in the ‘pcb’ tag. … but all of them seems overkill…

Strictly speaking, I guess this is not perf (which has no copper, just perforated) or proto (which has unconnected holes) but it could be vero (which has connected holes)? Although I think it’s supposed to replace proto more than vero. Seeing as these are so similar maybe it’s worth having a single tag for vero, proto, and perfboard? (I’d say just go with ‘proto’)

I’ll leave it to you to decide which one to go with… But choose wisely because everyone will follow your lead :slight_smile:

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Well multiple tags is good too, helps narrow it down… I mean, in addition to ‘pcb’, it would be good for example to have one of proto or vero or perf… because just ‘pcb’ is a bit ambiguous, so without more tags we’re actually creating noise in the ‘pcb’ tag. … but all of them seems overkill…

hehe yeah, i didnt mean multiple tags generally, i should of being more specific!

(I’d say just go with ‘proto’)

Hehe yeah, i was thinking of matrix because its different to all 3 words, but

that could easily get confused then with modulation matrix etc.. so proto it is!

You can tell we have the engineer’s mentality anyway, even when it comes to tags,

we try to make them more efficent, more accurate, and more helpful!  ;D

Well i guess i didnt, but i will now in future lol!  :stuck_out_tongue:

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I just realised now from another thread, that Caps wont work with the tags.

Didnt quite realise it when you said it earlier.

maybe a quick sticky with advice on tag use would be cool,

in case you find having to repeat yourself in the future?

Just a suggestion.  :slight_smile:

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Yeh I think once we have something really concrete, we might put up a sticky then… although noone seems to read those things anyway (He said, complaining loudly) ;D

Thanks for working it through with me man!

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Those boards look like they could work really well for prototyping. Nice find! If anyone tries those, let us know what the results are!

Ive basically given the lowdown here:

http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,12375.msg103041.html