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Veroboard/Perfboard/Prototyping Board

NeXT

NeXT

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
8,141
Location
Kamloops, BC, Canada
I was trying to finish a project this weekend and realized I had run out of 4" x 8" sheets of Veroboard. I've spent the last two days now trying to find more but it seems the official Veroboard source I last bought from a decade ago has since closed and their website is now dedicated to lighting and all the stuff I'm getting out of china is inferior. I'm a huge fan of the single-side dotted board because I can score and snap it to whatever size I needed but I can only find it cheap in small 50mm x 70mm pieces which after ordering from two lots have absolutely trash hole alignment.

PLACA71X94_m.jpg
That isn't your eyes acting up. It's just that garbage.
Larger sheets have massive edge margins and additional solder pads/edge connectors and I'm not paying $15 a sheet for this garbage. The other option it keeps giving me is stripboard. I hate that stuff. What on earth happened to dotted prototyping board?
 
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I use it--in the FR4 variety. Actually, the quality of the Chinese stuff is head and shoulders above the old Veroboard. Good solid resist and plated-through holes.

Example

Larger (e.g. 15x20 cm) and smaller sizes available. Ebay has a ton of this stuff as does Aliexpress.
 
The green FR4 protoboards are exactly the same stuff that I posted--and you don't have to order from Hong Kong.
I do not recommend any of the brown phenolic paper ones--they're too easy to crack with too much pressure--and then you get to start over.
The FR4 ones can be cut by scoring, shearing (tin snips work on the smaller ones) or sawing. I use a tile saw fitted with a fine-tooth blade for mine, although the stock diamond blade should also work. Lets me cut very precise straight lines.
 
Since you're north of the 49th, have you checked out proto-advantage.com ? I've used them in the past for TQFP adapters ... not the cheapest but very good quality. There's several smaller sizes of breadboards and item SBBTH4080-1 is 8.1" x 4.2" with plated through holes at $31.37 Cdn + $2.84 postage.

Another possible option: Quite a few years ago I snagged a couple of full length PC-AT prototype boards filled with plated through holes at a discounter.
 
Looks like multiple vendors are now selling boards with 10cm x 22cm dimensions with fake edge connectors on the end for between 30 and 95 cents per board.

HTB1pk2FXRLN8KJjSZPhq6A.spXaY.jpg

I will not know what the hole quality is until it arrives but this is considerably better than I've seen in the last month.
 
I don't care for the cheap boards that use the phenolic-paper base. I much prefer the FR4 ones--they don't crack easily--I've cracked a paper board by simply inserting a stubborn IC into a socket.
 
I use the green FR4 boards as per the link Chuck gave, So much better than the cheap rubbish i bought before.
 
New board stock came in. It's a little thin but the hole alignment and plating feels a lot better.

IMG_5888.JPG
 
NeXT said:
My last batch was the same way. For me at least I don't entirely mind.
Click to expand...
I much prefer single-sided. I've never had a problem with lifting tracks on SS boards but I find doing genuine prototyping, where you are inserting and removing components in the same holes, to be a miserable experience with through hole plated prototyping boards. More heat is required to desolder the component lead and a thin meniscus of solder is often left behind that is below either the top or bottom layer and out of reach of desoldering braid. Then you need more heat and more solder, or some sort of implement like an offcut of component lead, to wick up the remaining solder and unblock the hole.
 
Ever hear of desoldering needles? Inexpensive, and in my own humble opinion, a must-have for repair. If I have a blocked via, a click of my desoldering pump does the trick.

I guess I should show some of my work. I'll see what I can find that illustrates my point. My biggest problem with the cheap boards is the fragility of the substrate. Too much pressure and the board cracks, turning your project to garbage. Give me FR4 any day.
 
I hadn't heard of desoldering needles - they look very interesting - but I'm talking about clearing a hole that no longer has a component lead in it just a plug of solder out of reach of the braid - are they still of value in that situation?

I have been tempted to get a desoldering setup but tried an expensive Pace unit in a university lab in order to remove the headers from a currently unobtanium Teensy 3.2 to salvage it for another project and I was not able to clear all the holes. Do you think desoldering needles would fit between the square pin of a header and a small PTH?
 
Absolutely useful in clearing a solder-pluggged via. The needles are stainless, so solder doesn't stick and get down to wire sizes--give me a moment for me to grab my calipers). The smallest in my set is 0.79 mm or a bit smaller than AWG 20 wire.

I've been tempted by the desoldering guns, but for now, my Soldapullt/Soldavac tools (both by Edsyn) do the job.
 
I have found that 95% of the time I can get the work done with an iron and a desoldering pump before the desoldering station gets up to temp.

The exception is pulling multiple DIP packages or stripping an entire board of components
 
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