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Step 4Circuit Building
Short version:
Build the circuit, remember to cut the rails on your stripboard to separate segments.
Long version:
Now that the chassis is sorted out, the next phase is wiring up the circuit board. Measure the inside of the project box and determine how much room you can use for the circuitry. I used a piece about 2" by 2.5" and it fit great and was still easy to populate with components.
If you don't get a pre-cut piece of that size, the easiest way to cut it without using power tools is to score the edge to break it at with the x-acto knife, then break it over the edge of a table, holding both sides of the break firmly. You may need to break off more than you want with the first break.
To cut the traces on a stripboard, you can use a drill bit held in your hand and just turned into one of the holes until the metal is scraped away and broken. A close-up picture below shows the result.
I didn't have a plan going into this, but I basically just set up + and - rails and lined up the regulators on them. The regulators all use the input voltage from the transformer (18V AC ends up being around 28V DC) and common grounds, so they can be placed in a line, and then the output pin connections can be cut with the drill bit.
I wired the large capacitors off-board because I wanted them to protrude from the top of the chassis, and they just take up too much room on the PCB.
Solder the 220 ohm resistor to the LED. Then solder wires to the resistor and LED and connect the positive wire of the LED (the longer leg) to the output of the 5V regulator and the negative wire to any negative point on the board.
Testing the circuit is difficult, so just triple-check that everything is correct. Before you turn it on use a multimeter to check for shorts between ground and the input voltage, and check each output voltage with the input voltage and ground to make sure nothing is shorted out and would cause damage.
Build the circuit, remember to cut the rails on your stripboard to separate segments.
Long version:
Now that the chassis is sorted out, the next phase is wiring up the circuit board. Measure the inside of the project box and determine how much room you can use for the circuitry. I used a piece about 2" by 2.5" and it fit great and was still easy to populate with components.
If you don't get a pre-cut piece of that size, the easiest way to cut it without using power tools is to score the edge to break it at with the x-acto knife, then break it over the edge of a table, holding both sides of the break firmly. You may need to break off more than you want with the first break.
To cut the traces on a stripboard, you can use a drill bit held in your hand and just turned into one of the holes until the metal is scraped away and broken. A close-up picture below shows the result.
I didn't have a plan going into this, but I basically just set up + and - rails and lined up the regulators on them. The regulators all use the input voltage from the transformer (18V AC ends up being around 28V DC) and common grounds, so they can be placed in a line, and then the output pin connections can be cut with the drill bit.
I wired the large capacitors off-board because I wanted them to protrude from the top of the chassis, and they just take up too much room on the PCB.
Solder the 220 ohm resistor to the LED. Then solder wires to the resistor and LED and connect the positive wire of the LED (the longer leg) to the output of the 5V regulator and the negative wire to any negative point on the board.
Testing the circuit is difficult, so just triple-check that everything is correct. Before you turn it on use a multimeter to check for shorts between ground and the input voltage, and check each output voltage with the input voltage and ground to make sure nothing is shorted out and would cause damage.
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