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I don't think this pays off for most people. Most circuits can be prototyped without printing boards. I use a combination of generic function boards, adapters f

I don't think this pays off for most people. Most circuits can be prototyped without printing boards. I use a combination of generic function boards, adapters for SMD components, DIP versions of components, etc. to be able to easily put together a working prototype on 100mil grid. Worst case, I use dead bug technique for a non standard component I don't have adapter for. For large projects I might be splitting the problem into multiple separate functions and have a prototype of each function separately, later to integrate all to a single board. For example, I am currently working on a controller that will control a heater, pump and couple of valves based on input from a bunch of very sensitive temperature sensor. I have two separate boards one for temperature measurement and one for 1kW of AC through bunch of relays, triacs, SCRs and so on. Each relay, triac and SCR is mounted on its own generic small boards (something like this: https://pl.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Chip-Quik/PA0185?qs=gjT6naH6P5K8V9uICM%2FouQ%3D%3D https://pl.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Chip-Quik/PA0185?qs=gjT6...), soldered in turn onto larger generic board (for example https://pl.mouser.com/ProductDetail/BusBoard-Prototype-Systems/PAD3U?qs=aFWAMG2wAbD34ED%2FYS5j5g%3D%3D https://pl.mouser.com/ProductDetail/BusBoard-Prototype-Syste...). All these are hooked up to a Nucleo board where I develop my software. Once I have working prototype it makes no sense to spend time trying to make a half-assed board. I would very much prefer to design much better looking, much tighter tolerances board based on tolerances accepted by the PCB manufacturer and wait for it for couple of days. If I really needed to work on the circuit in the meantime I still have the prototype. While waiting for a nice shiny board I can still working on software, find bugs, etc.

Stratoscope 6y ago
> dead bug technique For anyone unfamiliar with the term, dead bug construction is where you put the integrated circuits upside down (like a dead bug) and solder wires and other components directly to their leads. Here are some photos and discussion: https://www.google.com/search?q=dead+bug+construction https://www.google.com/search?q=dead+bug+construction
- lmilcin 6y ago
  Most those photos are other techniques. What I call dead bug is specifically to solder chip to a prototyping board by inverting the chip and soldering wires directly to the chip pads. http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/11/15/fine-pitch-bga-deadbug-soldering/ http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/11/15/fine-pitch-bg... I don't put photos of my prototypes on the Internet, but this is how it, more or less, looks like (only I use board with holes): http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/10/24/who-says-bga-packages-are-hard-to-solder/ http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/10/24/who-says-bga-...
askvictor 6y ago
> As bottom line – I am not going to start make all my PCBs at home. I don’t think it is worth it in 95 % of the cases. I tried this experiment for fun and for educational purposes.
londons_explore 6y ago
Unless you value your time at < $5/hour, it's always more money efficient to just pay for a PCB for a prototype rather then getting into dead bug soldering. There is no such thing as a "quick" dead bug project, and the time taken is always more than the time to lay out a pcb plus its cost.
- lmilcin 6y ago
  You probably misunderstood. Dead bug does not mean creating entire circuit out of PCB. Dead bug is a single chip you put on its back (hence, dead) so that you can get EASY access to its pad. This is only very small number of cases (I did TWO this year), for everything else I have selection of adapters and development tools to make my life easy. It doesn't cost a lot more of effort to solder a single SMT chip this way. I already solder everything else to the board anyway so cutting couple pieces of wire to tack them one by one does cost maybe couple additional minutes for a small size chip, and then I can go to working on the rest of the prototype.

Stratoscope 6y ago

> dead bug technique For anyone unfamiliar with the term, dead bug construction is where you put the integrated circuits upside down (like a dead bug) and solder wires and other components directly to their leads. Here are some photos and discussion: https://www.google.com/search?q=dead+bug+construction https://www.google.com/search?q=dead+bug+construction

lmilcin 6y ago
Most those photos are other techniques. What I call dead bug is specifically to solder chip to a prototyping board by inverting the chip and soldering wires directly to the chip pads. http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/11/15/fine-pitch-bga-deadbug-soldering/ http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/11/15/fine-pitch-bg... I don't put photos of my prototypes on the Internet, but this is how it, more or less, looks like (only I use board with holes): http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/10/24/who-says-bga-packages-are-hard-to-solder/ http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/10/24/who-says-bga-...

askvictor 6y ago

> As bottom line – I am not going to start make all my PCBs at home. I don’t think it is worth it in 95 % of the cases. I tried this experiment for fun and for educational purposes.

londons_explore 6y ago

Unless you value your time at < $5/hour, it's always more money efficient to just pay for a PCB for a prototype rather then getting into dead bug soldering. There is no such thing as a "quick" dead bug project, and the time taken is always more than the time to lay out a pcb plus its cost.

lmilcin 6y ago
You probably misunderstood. Dead bug does not mean creating entire circuit out of PCB. Dead bug is a single chip you put on its back (hence, dead) so that you can get EASY access to its pad. This is only very small number of cases (I did TWO this year), for everything else I have selection of adapters and development tools to make my life easy. It doesn't cost a lot more of effort to solder a single SMT chip this way. I already solder everything else to the board anyway so cutting couple pieces of wire to tack them one by one does cost maybe couple additional minutes for a small size chip, and then I can go to working on the rest of the prototype.