Which type of strpboard do you prefer?

Hi all,

So which type pf stripboard do you prefer?

The type which has the pads separated like this one:

strip2.jpg

or the the ones with tracks connecting the pads like this one ?

stripboard.jpg

strip2.jpg

stripboard.jpg

I use solderable breadboard / prototyping board, which splits the difference. You don't have to cut copper like you do with stripboard - and you don't have to make inevitably messy connections between holes like with the separate pads. (I never understood what the point of the protoboard with single holes is)
I sell boards like these in my tindie store

Similar products are available from other vendors, though I obviously think mine is better - I wasn't happy with what was available and started getting my own made.

tripad board is the simplest for most prototyping, less need to cut tracks, will accommodate DIP ICs
and IDC connectors (stripboard can't do the latter, note).

(Yes, it is possible to cut tracks between holes on stripboard, but its tricky and tripad
strikes me as easier, a good compromise between stripboard and isolated pads of protoboard)

One more thing to consider is that often stripboard is not used just for prototyping (with the strict sense of the term) but also for more permanent applications. That is in cases where a circuit has to be put together as one-of application and no proper pcb design will follow.

I do occasionally use the pad per hole type (I call it "protoboard") but I never use the single sided type. I only use the plated through hole double sided type. I use it only when I need to have things on both sides of the board. With the perfboard, you need to make solder jumpers to connect things and that is kind of a pain.

Otherwise, I much prefer stripboard. The stripboard I like is a little different than the picture you posted in that it has solder mask between the holes. The stripboard without the solder mask is cheaper but the solder wicks along the tracks and ends up making things look messy and the soldering is a little slower since you end up laying down more solder to get the joint you want.

Current cheapest sources after checking eBay and Aliexpress:

My dream stripboard would have strips on one side with soldermask but also plated through holes. Surprisingly, I've never seen that for sale.

Well I call the separate pads perf board.

I virtually always use strip board. I never use a PCB unless I want to make more than 10 of a thing.

I nearly always use stripboard but I'm so old I still call it Veroboard which was the name when I first met it 50-odd years ago. It was a huge advance on having all those component legs just hanging about in mid-air.

Steve

Grumpy_Mike:
Well I call the separate pads perf board.

I virtually always use strip board. I never use a PCB unless I want to make more than 10 of a thing.

Sometimes though a pcb is a must if you have to use smd components or very dense boards.

You can use a lot of surface mount components on strip board. Most of the discreet two and three pin parts and 0.05” pitch ICs.

Spot the surface mount resistor and capacitor on this one.

For finer pitch surface mount parts you can use PCB headers or breakout boards to translate to 0.1" pitch.

Now that is just fascinating, but what is the purpose of that breadboard?

Paul__B:
Now that is just fascinating, but what is the purpose of that breadboard?

It is the display and switch I2C expansion interface for my Bat Bass project. It is to allow Sam, who has cerebral palsy, to continue to play a rather simplified Bass Guitar. He has a degenerate condition which will slowly get worse. He is having trouble holding down strings now so I built this using two bungy chords. The bass can be set to any key and one string will sound the note given by the key switch last pushed. The second string is always a fixed ( programmable ) number of semitones above the first string, typically a fifth.

I am part of the Drake Music Labs (North) where geeks like me and disabled people work together to produce accessible instruments. We meet in Manchester, next meeting https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dmlab-north-west-meetups-tickets-44144134294

I normally use perfboard - with plated-through holes as otherwise the pads come loose too often. It's a pain.

No solder joints for me, a little planning and you can use the leads of resistors and capacitors to make most connections (slide some isolation left after stripping a wire over it to make a crossing), pieces of wire for the rest of the connections. Allows for a reasonably compact design.

You can use a lot of surface mount components on strip board. Most of the discreet two and three pin parts and 0.05" pitch ICs.

Cant imagine how I could do this with stripboard as a prototype..


Home made arduino micro compatible 6 channel relay board

Not that hard, provided you have the proper breakout boards for those SMD ICs (or the DIP versions where available). Also use through hole resistors and so. Regulators as module with caps in place.

Overall really not that hard to do. I usually use KiCADs PCB design software to help out: 2.54mm grid, place components in a sensible way (so the rats nest is more or less untangled), and start wiring them together.

Also often you can simplify the prototype: possibly those relays are all the exact same circuit, just add one or two of them to see it all works.

@wvmarle:" what about placement sensitive parts like switching regulators that need short tracks etc?

I use ready-made modules for those.

Such modules are cheap (I pay the equivalent of less then USD 1 a piece - 12V to 5V fixed output) and guaranteed to work quite well, it's just not worth the effort of trying to design my own for that. So even doing that on custom PCBs. Quick and easy :slight_smile:

I haven't tried it but this looks interesting:

I still prefer to use breakout boards for the SMD parts, and through-hole parts where possible.

Then the same IC can be used on breadboard, then on perfboard, and when testing is done recovered and used in another project (most ICs I don't buy in bags of 100 or 1000 like resistors and capacitors).

SMD parts are for actual PCBs. Unless you must... like the 47 uF ceramic caps I have in my kit, needed that for an experiment and those come only in SMD package, though they're also so big they easily go on regular perfboard.

SMD ceramic capacitors are much better for decoupling than leaded parts. And they fit well across adjacent tracks.

SMD ceramic capacitors are much better for decoupling than leaded parts. And they fit well across adjacent tracks.

True!