• So, we all build prototype-grade circuits...

    Which means you end up building "on" something.

    Most people who've used breadboard for a while quickly come to hate it for it's poor reliability (also odd things - apparently the capacitance is so high that some breadboard arduino's won't work unless you omit the loading caps on the crystal). Of course, any SMD stuff needs to be on breakout board. So breadboard, not so great.

    Strip-board is better, but the kind with long strips requires you to cut copper with xacto-knives, and the result looks like utter shit. You're dependent on breakout boards for any SMD stuff, except that you can sometimes lay SMD resistors/caps between strips.

    An even better kind is what I call "proto board" - this is like strip-board, but the strips are already broken up into groups of 4, so it's like breadboard. It may have traces running between rows of pins carrying power or ground.

    I have some very nice protoboard from back when state of the art equipment was DIP parts, and that's how it was prototyped. What makes this nicer, is that it's double-sided, with plated through holes - this makes it better than most of the available protoboard. Ofc, same problem with SMD's.

    There is also a garbage form of protoboard which has NO connections between the pins, so all it does is stick things down, so wiring is a nightmare. This stuff belongs in the trash. Unfortunately, is is VERY common.

    Now, as it happens, Gordon has seen the light (as we all know very well; Espruino is awesome). Beyond that, also in prototyping, on the original board, with his integrated SMD prototyping area. Which is just wonderful, except for the little detail of it being attached to a $40 Espruino. My prototypes aren't that good ;-)

    But imagine for a moment a hybrid prototyping board. This would have rows of pins in groups of 4 in some sections for general work and DIP stuff, but also some SOIC16 pads, with the pins broken out to strips with holes. Some SOIC8 ones too. Pads for some common transistors. Power and ground (maybe even an extra power rail) distributed around the board. The board could be designed so that "sections" with specific functions could be chopped off if not needed.

    What has brought this to my mind again now is that DirtyPCBs will make 10 boards 10cm on a side (ie, just under 4x4) for $25. That's affordable, and a 4x4 hybrid protoboard would (designed well) make several devices.

    What sorts of outlines and general considerations does this bring to people's minds?

    Ideas on how to arrange things for maximum versatility for someone who works with both SMD and throughhole parts?

    Obviously, it's going to have a pico header (using the pins, so you can use the space under it if the project doesn't call for a pico.

    The motivation for this was the fact that it's pretty common for me to want, say, an SMD chip wired up to a few SOT-23's and some passives, with a regulator, and right now that's meant breakout boards and protoboard and ratsnests of wires, or me giving up and doing a home-fab board.

    In the SMD areas, you could have different stuff on the two sides, too...... I like this.

About

Avatar for DrAzzy @DrAzzy started