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"Revolutionary electronic prototyping board designed for ease of use and flexibility. No jumper wires required!" So the inconvenience of using wires with a bre

"Revolutionary electronic prototyping board designed for ease of use and flexibility. No jumper wires required!" So the inconvenience of using wires with a breadboard is replaced by the need to solder all components?

kazinator 11y ago
This is more of an alternative to strip board than to solderless prototyping. The jumper wires that are eliminated are those that appear on stripboard designs; those jumpers are soldered in.
- jeffwass 11y ago
  Makes sense, but the actual crowd-funding link specifically shows a breadboard with wires for the comparison (in the details section). It does seem fairly complicated to map out the jumper rails, and especially since the rails run the length of the bird they can't be re-used unless they're cut, possibly limiting the utility. I would have thought at the stage you'd want to use this, it's not marginally more cost or time to just print your own low-volume PCB. Or just use the wires.
  - kazinator 11y ago
    I followed another link where someone reported that making that 3D printer controller Perf+ board (unpopulated!) took an hour and 15 minutes, claiming it compared favorably with making a PCB at home. No way! From the moment I hit "print" on a laser printer to having the PCB etched and drilled could probably be half an hour or even less. Also, I'm reasonably confident that the PCB will be free of issues, because I didn't take any steps whereby I manually transfer the details of the design to the item. Taking an existing CAD design for a Perf+ board, and painstakingly cutting the traces and making the solder joints is time consuming, and error-prone. You have to read the coordinates of the solder joints and cuts and then perform them in the correct place; you're a human CNC machine, basically. I rarely use prototyping boards for anything any more, unless it is extremely simple; I go straight to home-made PCB.

kazinator 11y ago

This is more of an alternative to strip board than to solderless prototyping. The jumper wires that are eliminated are those that appear on stripboard designs; those jumpers are soldered in.

jeffwass 11y ago
Makes sense, but the actual crowd-funding link specifically shows a breadboard with wires for the comparison (in the details section). It does seem fairly complicated to map out the jumper rails, and especially since the rails run the length of the bird they can't be re-used unless they're cut, possibly limiting the utility. I would have thought at the stage you'd want to use this, it's not marginally more cost or time to just print your own low-volume PCB. Or just use the wires.
- kazinator 11y ago
  I followed another link where someone reported that making that 3D printer controller Perf+ board (unpopulated!) took an hour and 15 minutes, claiming it compared favorably with making a PCB at home. No way! From the moment I hit "print" on a laser printer to having the PCB etched and drilled could probably be half an hour or even less. Also, I'm reasonably confident that the PCB will be free of issues, because I didn't take any steps whereby I manually transfer the details of the design to the item. Taking an existing CAD design for a Perf+ board, and painstakingly cutting the traces and making the solder joints is time consuming, and error-prone. You have to read the coordinates of the solder joints and cuts and then perform them in the correct place; you're a human CNC machine, basically. I rarely use prototyping boards for anything any more, unless it is extremely simple; I go straight to home-made PCB.