How to Prototype Without Using Printed Circuit Boards

Step 2 Place your components on the circuit board

In this example, I'm using a 7 x 9 cm perforated circuit board from Seeed Studio; this board has numbers and letters on the top side indicating the columns and rows, and round copper solder pads around each hole on the back side. The letters and numbers come in handy when planning the wiring (Step Two), but any perfboard can be used as long as it has copper pads for soldering. I have also used stripboard with this technique, but it requires that you to cut the copper strips and letting the kynar wire carry the signals, defeating the purpose of the strips.

You should place your components to minimize the length of wire required. This will reduce the possibility of stray capacitance wreaking havoc with your circuit. To further deter parasitic voltages, place one .01 uf capacitor across the + and Ground beside each integrated circuit that you use in your design.

To hold the components in place, you can bend the pins outward slightly on the back side, or you can use a dab of quick setting glue on the front of the board. If you use glue, don't use it on the wire pins or you may not be able to achieve a secure and dependable electrical connection. Eventually you will be soldering each component onto the board, you so don't need a lot of glue, just enough to keep the component from falling off of the board during assembly.

Note: Use IC sockets whenever possible. Try to avoid soldering integrated circuits onto your board, and if you use sockets, make sure they are empty during assembly. Some ICs use CMOS technology that are very sensitive to static electricity charges.