SparkFun Forums

[cscade]

I've been prototyping a number of home automation projects on breadboards. I've reached the point where one of them has the kinks worked out and is ready to be built for real.

I'm not concerned about project boxes/etc, all that is simple enough. What I'm wondering is, what do you all do about your external circuitry in this case? I have components that prohibit me from building a simple wire harness, like capacitors and resistors. Each of my home automation projects will be one-offs, so a custom PCB is really overkill it seems like (although it would be cool).

What I'd really like to have is a solder board (through hole) patterned similarly to a breadboard, in that holes are electrically connected in sets at 0.1" pitch. That would allow me to take an ATMEGA, and build up a board that has only what I really need on it, put it in a box, and have something that'll be very reliable for a long time.

Unless there's a better way? This is the first time I've ever put a prototype into long term use, so you can suggest anything!

[waltr]

I have purchased in the past prototyping PCBs that have plated through holes on a 0.1" grid. These have gotten harder to find (Radio Shack used to have them) and more expensive.
Here is what DigiKey has:
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll

[lyndon]

You can find them at Circuit Specialists pretty cheap.
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/9497

[Philba]

Not exactly what you are asking for but when ever I start a project, I find a case first. Then design the PCB to fit the case. There are a lot of premade cases that come with detailed drawings and even PCB outlines. BatchPCB is pretty inexpensive - that how I do one-offs.

[Redhatter]

Veroboard and its equivalents is very common in electronics shops... at least around this neck of the woods. Jaycar stock them for instance.

Other than that, there's the possibility of getting some Ferric Chloride, an etch-resist pen and some blank PCB material and doing it yourself.

That, or perhaps this may suit: dead-bug construction -- very common with homebrew RF circuits.

[galed]

BatchPCB is pretty inexpensive - that how I do one-offs.

BatchPCB is how i do it too. Painless and pretty fast. Limited to 8mil space/trace but I've never had a problem with that. Smallest drill available is 20mil, unfortunately, which is annoying but usually workable.

You can etch your own boards with a kit from radioshack or similar.

SFE actually has a bunch of prototyping products that would suit you:
(if sparkfun wasn't down right now, i'd send you a link... Products -> Prototyping

EDIT:

That, or perhaps this may suit: dead-bug construction -- very common with homebrew RF circuits.

Unless your circuit is trivially simple, you do NOT want to deal with point-to-point wiring.

[theras]

In the old days (before hobby electronics went surface mount), I used 0.1" matrix board like lyndon linked to, then soldered very find enamelled wire on the back to make connections. You could actually achieve very compact assemblies, as no routing space is needed between components. You could reliably build quite complicated circuits as long as you're careful with your soldering - I built a Z80 based processor board with address and data busses etc, which ran without problems. It's pretty tedious work but might be worth it if you don't want to design a PCB or wait for board turn around.

[brennen]

If you have a Radio Shack close to you, they sell boards that should work for you in several different sizes.