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Prototyping

NeXT

NeXT

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
8,198
Location
Kamloops, BC, Canada
After a lot of work drawing, googling, erasing and brainstorming I am nearly done creating a video adapter for my Forte VFX1 VR headset.
The next thing to do now is buy all the components I need for the board as well as the breadboard, wire, sockets and the box to hold it all.
Here is page one and page two of the schematics I made. Now the issue for me is I want to select a breadboard and box that is just big enough to hold everything without making stuff too tight or leaving a huge unused spot on the board. What size should I ask for when I go and make my order at the local electronics shop?
 
Yeah, something like that however I can get it in different sizes and either with pre-connected columns or individual holes.

EDIT: Also, I don't go to "The Source" (the Canadian version of Radio Shack that was bought by Circuit City) anymore. Their selection sucks now so I just go to the electronics shop down the hill from the mall. If they don't have what I need they can order it in.
 
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Very ambitious NeXT.
Do you mind if I ask how long you've been putting this together?
Your schematics are very impressive.
Will
 
The schematics took me about a month to draw up and there were several revisions.
The most annoying part was getting information on the necessary ICs so that it would actually work. The big moment however comes when I plug everything in. The key thing is I need a stereoscopic picture.
 
NeXT said:
Yeah, something like that however I can get it in different sizes and either with pre-connected columns or individual holes.
Click to expand...
I like to use a solderless breadboard (something like this) for the very first prototype. You can build stuff very quickly on them and if (when?) you come across any problems, they're eaily fixed.

There are loads of different types/arrangements of stripboard you can use for soldering up a more permanent board. I tend to avoid the "individual hole" sort as it can be tricky to add wires to pins which are already connected (soldering the new wire tends to desolder the old one). I quite like the ones with copper running the whole length of the board, but making breaks in the tracks can get laborious. The one patscc suggested is particularly good if you have lots of small (0.3") ICs as it has power/ground rails and two holes for each IC pin, which is usually just enough.

As for which size to get: I'm sure you're itching to get the thing built, but I'd really recommend working out the layout on paper before breaking out the soldering kit. You'll not only be able to figure out what size you need, but a little forward planning should result in a much neater (and therefore easier to troubleshoot) board. Oh, and if in doubt, go for a larger board than you think you'll need. Things that look like they fit on paper are often bigger than you think in real life! Leaving yourself some extra space will save a lot of frustration when you get to the fiddly bits.
 
I have some awesome grid paper for that however I can't seem to find my layout stencils so I'll have to use EAGLE or something similar as soon as I can get a pc running again.
 
You can take the files from EAGLE and upload them to www.batchpcb.com to have some circuit boards made. :D

I did that a couple of months ago to create my first mod kit for sale - a composite video kit for a Colecovision game console.

RJ
 
channelmaniac said:
You can take the files from EAGLE and upload them to www.batchpcb.com to have some circuit boards made. :D

I did that a couple of months ago to create my first mod kit for sale - a composite video kit for a Colecovision game console.

RJ
Click to expand...

I'll think about making a true PCB after I see that the prototype works.
Actually, if the prototype does work, I might sell a few kits on the side.
 
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