Use of Breadboards in Final Product

I am brand new to hardware programming and I was just wondering if it was standard to use the breadboards you receive in the starter kits in final products or not? I would think not, but not for sure. Can someone point me in the right direction? What are alternatives?

Thanks

Depends on what you mean by "final product"

Is this a one-off project for your home? Are you planning to build a handful for friends, or thousands for customers? Will this device be in an environment that might cause the jumpers on the breadboards to come loose?

I think most people around here would use strip boards or have PCBs manufactured.

Thanks Arrch, yes the product will be used for 1000s of customers and in harsh environments. I just looked up strip boards and that looks like what we are looking for. Just didn't know what to look into.

I wouldn't look forward to soldering up 1000s of stripboards, even for a very simple circuit.

brmcdani44:
Thanks Arrch, yes the product will be used for 1000s of customers and in harsh environments. I just looked up strip boards and that looks like what we are looking for. Just didn't know what to look into.

1000's of customers? I would think you would want to design a PCB for the project. All that wiring would not be fun. What type of harsh environment?

mik83:

brmcdani44:
Thanks Arrch, yes the product will be used for 1000s of customers and in harsh environments. I just looked up strip boards and that looks like what we are looking for. Just didn't know what to look into.

1000's of customers? I would think you would want to design a PCB for the project. All that wiring would not be fun. What type of harsh environment?

If you are going to do strip boards, you might want to look into the perma-proto boards from Adafruit, that seem to be better made that than the random boards I see at Radio Shack, etc.: Search Results for 'perma-proto' on Adafruit Industries

However, I would suspect that once you get past the tens of boards, you will want to do a custom pcb. You probably want to have a pick-and-place robot to mount most of the components rather than having people hand solder things. While I'm not at that level, I did mark down this link from Sparkfun that describes the process: Beginning Embedded Electronics - 8 - SparkFun Electronics

There are people in this forum that will design the PCB board for a fee (Crossroads is one I've seen doing this). There is a forum (gigs and collaborations) just for setting up those types of deal.

And for a harsh environment, you really need to think about the whole setup, including enclosures to protect the electronics, and ways to set buttons, display information, etc.

I'd get custom PC boards made for anything more than 5 or 10 boards, or for anything you are going to sell. It's more "professional", and the labor savings will make it worthwhile. Even If you are building the circuits yourself and the labor is "free", it might take you a year to build 1000 breadboard assemblies. (And, there will be more to "production & test", than simply assembling boards.)

I am brand new to hardware programming

If you are building 1000 of something it would be a really good idea to get some design help & guidence from someone with experience. As a minimum, open-up some of your home electronics to see how it's put together & wired. You'll find one or more PC boards in everything.

Typically, you'd build one or two prototypes. That's one step closer to the final design. Where I work , we skip the breadboard and go straight to a prototype PC board. (When you are paying labor to build a breadboard, it's faster & cheaper to skip that step, even if you have to make the board twice. In fact, at a minmum, we usually have to make a few "cuts & jumps", and re-layout the board with the corrections before going into production. And, sometimes, we can't make the PCB to work and it has to be re-designed.

We seind our boards out to an assembly house to have them assembled (even if it's 5 prototype boards). They have the automated equipment (and skill & experience) to make a good (and good-looking) assembly. Automation is the only way to make a "nice" surface mount board assembly. We are a small company with many different products. In production, we typically send-out "kits" of 25-100 boards. Like anything else, the more you do at once, the lower the unit-cost.

Basically, you want to make your prototype as close as possible/practical to the final product, except for where mass-production techniques are not practical. For example, you might use an off-the-shelf cabinet with rub-on lettering instead of a custom manufactured cabinet with silkscreening.

Then before going into full production, you'd make a pilot run of the "final" design. This is your last chance to check-out the design & production (amnd possibly make final changes) before going into full production. Typically, you'll have some extra PC boards left-over from the protototype, since a small quantity of boards is about the same cost as one. If all goes well, these pilot-run units can be sold or used for beta testing.

Plenty of folks, like me, can design that custom board for you. Not hard at all if you have a working prototype. Can also make suggestions on doing it smarter and for getting it assembled.

You can see stuff I've done here
http://www.crossroadsfencing.com/BobuinoRev17/