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[on:]

Etching my own custom board and drilling all the holes seems daunting, so I'm considering this:

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/BusBoard-Prototype-Systems/BR1/?qs=dhMlBWDyGwd3hHrWdzxHJA%3d%3d

Could anyone point me to other (better/cheaper) protoboards? I'm in USA.  Thanks in advance!

[Reply #1 on:]

Plain old stripboard (sometimes called Veroboard) is probably the cheapest option.  Widely available and cheap.



Buy yourself a track cutter while you're at it (also cheap, usually consisting of a small drill bit in a plastic handle)

[Reply #2 on:]

How big of a board do you need?
I use velleman ecs1/2 for many projects, is a good size. 80mm x 100mm.
Velleman makes larger sizes also.  ECS1-H is 100mm x 160mm.
Both are "island of holes", one pad per hole.
I like velleman as the holes are very uniformly spaced - cheaper boards like Datek I have to be lower quality in that regard.

There are other options too, like boards with 2 & 3 pins connected together. Could be handy for solder adjacent parts together.
I usually have several chips that I am wirewrapping together and prefer the individual holes so I am not limited on placement.

[Reply #3 on:]

Thanks for all the quick pointers.  Although searching for veroboard at digikey and mouser did not return meaningful results, I've ordered these:  http://futurlec.com/ProtoBoards.shtml

Quite inexpensive and available in many sizes and variations.

For future hunters, I've seen these boards called: protoboard, veroboard, euroboard, stripboard, busboard.

[Reply #4 on:]

I use simple proto boards and use 30 gauge wire-wrap wire for all the interconnections, except I cut to length and solder the wire. That wire lays nice and flat and doesn't steal too much vertical space. I do use large gauge wire for the main ground and power runs.

Lefty

[Reply #5 on:]

The futurelec experimenters board looks great, lots of sizes to choose from. I'll have to order a couple & try them out next project.

[Reply #6 on:]

stripboard (sometimes called Veroboard) is probably the cheapest option.  Widely available and cheap.

Strangely, this isn't true in the United States.  Pad-per-hold is popular, and there are the proto-board-like PCBs that are sorta nice (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102846 ), but cheap stripboard never seems to have caught on.  Of course there are a bunch of mail-order dealers that fill the void...