Making plain PCB's "parallel or series in designation"

[Unreal_JMan]

I have 2 PCB's from radioshack that do not have series nor parallel designations, I believe that I can't bridge them together neither as the solder I have (60/40 solder) won't bond to , as many solders won't, the plastic between the copper rings. I am trying to finish my DDL driver while trying to see if I should just scrap the PCB's and get a breadboard or to try to bridge points together.

← image of driver on PCB

:thanks:
~Jeremy

 

[lasersbee]

You know.... I didn't understand one thing you are trying to say...
Pictures of your PCB "designations"....... might help...:thinking:
and maybe a clearer explanation...:thinking:

Jerry

 

[Unreal_JMan]

I'll try to clear this up, the PCB does not have copper lines that run in parallel or in series like I am accustomed to in my projects that come with PCB's that have lines for parallel or series. My PCB's copper side looks like this →

Sorry for any confusion
~Jeremy

 

[mfo]

Just carefully make a glob of solder link the two points together. That what I did I have the same exact PCB's.

 

[nikokapo]

:S

It is YOU who decides if the components are gonna be placed in series or in parallel.

 

[Unreal_JMan]

Tomorrow Ill send pictures of the component side of my driver, i had to use an extra wire link because one of the copper rings was missing where i started my driver


~Jeremy

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Let's keep it simple: connected wires in the wiring diagram conduct with each other, and likewise, metal that touches, conducts.

So with that in mind, make the perf-board (which is what you have) look like your wiring diagram by just connecting the holes or wires like the diagram appears.

 

[billg519]

I have used these in the past, often, I would just bend a component lead against the board on the copper side and once it was positioned to connect where I wanted, I then soldered away. Not a neat result, but functional. If you ever decide to make lots of boards, consider EAGLE software, half a day to learn it (free download), a laser printer, and some epson photo paper. You'll be set to iron-on transfer your layouts onto the pcb and etch. A good clean etchant with little undercutting is HCl + H202.
(Pool or Muriatic Acid and Hydrogen Peroxide.)

 

[PlasmaCube]

So with that in mind, make the perf-board (which is what you have) look like your wiring diagram by just connecting the holes or wires like the diagram appears.

Correct!

Just to reiterate, the boards that we all get from Radio Shack are not PCBs. A Printed Circuit Board is just that- a board that acts as an efficient electrical pathway for a circuit. That is, a specific circuit. Perfboard, on the other hand, is designed for prototyping use (along with stripboard and breadboards), and would be tedious for manufacturing purposes. Of course, many (myself included) have probably used it as a simple base on which one can solder circuits, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Also, as a side note, when you finish soldering connections and want to make the circuit as stable as possible (and don't plan to use the perfboard for anything else), you can scrape off the copper on the bottom of the board wherever you don't want it short-circuiting unintentionally.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Perfboard is great, by the way. It's like a breadboard, only more permanent. It's pretty expensive for what it is too, especially if you get it through radioshack.

 

[PlasmaCube]

Kind of as a side note, I've been thinking about and researching various methods of making PCBs, mainly using the toner transfer method. I can't seem to find any good place online to get copper clad boards for a reasonable price. There's always Radio Shack, of course, but it doesn't have much of a selection and they are by no means cheap. The best thing that I found was Web-Tronics.

Anyone know of a location that has a wide selection of boards, or even other items needed for etching (i.e. ferric chloride, the right photo paper, etc.)?

 

[billg519]

This is on ebay, seller has various sizes and thicknesses, SS and DS.

1/16" 062" SS 360in² Copper Clad Laminate Board FR4 PCB on eBay.ca (item 360150126931 end time 22-Oct-09 18:51:25 EDT)

Hope this helps,

Bill.

 

[mfo]

Kind of as a side note, I've been thinking about and researching various methods of making PCBs, mainly using the toner transfer method. I can't seem to find any good place online to get copper clad boards for a reasonable price. There's always Radio Shack, of course, but it doesn't have much of a selection and they are by no means cheap. The best thing that I found was Web-Tronics.

Anyone know of a location that has a wide selection of boards, or even other items needed for etching (i.e. ferric chloride, the right photo paper, etc.)?

Radioshack rips you off with whatever you buy.

 

[PlasmaCube]

This is on ebay, seller has various sizes and thicknesses, SS and DS.

1/16" 062" SS 360in² Copper Clad Laminate Board FR4 PCB on eBay.ca (item 360150126931 end time 22-Oct-09 18:51:25 EDT)

Hope this helps,

Bill.

Hey, that's not a bad deal at all, actually. With shipping it comes to $21.80, but with custom sizes and quantities, it's a awesome deal! With 15 4" x 6" boards, it comes to around $1.50 per board. Awesome!

Thank you very much!

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Not to dissuade you from making your own PCBs, but another thing to consider is to have them manufactured for you. It's less expensive than you may think, and you can combine designs into one order as well.

 

[billg519]

I received an order of the board I referred to above. The board is nice and has decent copper on it. (I got the 1/32 thick SS) For toner transfer, I tried Canon photo paper and it worked, but has to be washed off with water, this takes time. So, I tried Epson glossy photo paper 8.5 x 11, part # SO41141-120. I ironed it onto the board, and just peeled it back, only the toner stuck to the board, the paper did not. My etchant is HCl + H2O2, the boards etch rapidly and evenly with a little agitation of the bath. For single sided boards, if you have Eagle software (free download) and a laser printer (manual print settings to maximum darkness) it is quick, fairly easy, and rewarding to make your own boards. If the toner doesn't transfer properly, the board can be rubbed clean with steel wool so you can try again. Little errors can be fixed with a fine tip sharpie marker.