I'm completely new to soldering and I want to make a ldr circuit using a perfboard. I'm having difficulty deciding how to solder on a perf board. Should I use jumper wire or use solder trails to connect components together? Is there a tutorial or instructable on how to solder on a perf board. Can you give me tips on how to do it. Thank you very much.
Use whatever is easiest, there's no right way.
Often with long-legged components like LDRs you don't cut the the leads but bend them to the next component.
Otherwise use jumper wires.
Rob
How do I know where to place the components. Do I place them like on a bread board. Is there a program which automatically generates a picture or something on how to place the parts?
How do I know where to place the components.
Just figure it out, place components as appropriate, for example if A connects to B then it makes sense for them to be near each other unless there's an overriding reason not to.
Is there a program which automatically generates a picture or something on how to place the parts?
There may be but I will guarantee it will do a crap job, all auto-placement tools do AFAIK.
Rob
You should also think about strip board. It is similar to bread board with parallel traces. Use a dremel or knife to break-up trace lengths.
Use a dremel or knife to break-up trace lengths.
Or a 1/8th drill bit in a pin vice, I find that's the easiest.
Rob
I usually just use hookup wire. Once all my components are in, any leads are trimmed back to about a cm or so. The wires themselves (I use .15/7 PTFE insulated for almost everything low-current) are stripped back to about 4mm, tinned on each end and made into little eyelets around round-nosed pliers. I then hook this over the component lead, press down on the pad with some tweezers and reheat the solder joint. Presto!
It's probably by no means the BEST method, and it does get a bit challenging when there's lots of connections to be made, but it seems to work ok for me!
You asked about using jumper wire or use "solder trails" on a "perfboard", and
GN said use either one. That doesn't sound right. Perfboard typically means a
fiberboard with holes spaced at 0.1" and no traces [stripbars] or pads on the
board. If this is the case, you certainly do not want to use solder trails to
make connections.
If the fiberboard has pads, however, you may get away with using solder trails
to make your connections, but it's still probably better to use short jumpers from
solid wire.
This is assuming that what you mean by "solder trails" is what I assume you
mean. I'm beginning to realize that about 98% of the confusion around this
forum is people using their words to mean different things.
There is software... LOCHMASTER is one of them.
Adafruit sells a real solder-able Bread Board... Looks just like an 830 point solderless bread board except it requires soldering... one lays out the thing on a 'solderless' (830 point only) bread board and once it is working as you intended just transfer the parts and jumper wires and it's done.
Doc
I understand that Lochmaster works well too, makes pretty pictures.
Doc
use jumper wire or component leads, you will drive yourself nuts trying to bridge pads
Just to round out the software suggestions... Use Fritzing! Its a great way to prototype Arduino and many other things! Its also free!
In the olden days, I used stained glass self sticking copper foils.
I used Kapton tape for bridge crossings.
You can get the foil in many different widths.
It gave a nice flat, neat result.
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