ALio Proto Board is a prototyping board designed for electronic hobbyists who want to make prototypes containing SMD and through-hole components without using an extra breakout board. ALio is compatible with the traditional proto board while including all the features and benefits of traditional proto board.

There is an open-source tool called Perfy which allows visualizing and laying out connections to generate plans of where to solder, bridge, and cut on a Perf+ board, but I didn’t find it very useful for assembling a project in an ad-hoc manner.

What I Learned

The Perf+ did allow me to construct a prototype without using a single jumper wire. Wires can take up a lot of space. No wires means a smaller, cleaner looking board.

Connections made via Perf+ are not very visual, and I found the board much harder to troubleshoot as a result.

I found it useful to mark the board for some common signals. One of the first things I did was hook up and mark the +V and GND bus lines with a marker for easy identification later.

Cutting bus lines worked well enough with a sharp utility knife. Magnification was invaluable for confirming the trace was cleanly and completely cut.

Where Does the Perf+ Fit?

The Perf+ may have a place as an alternative to a PCB for small quantities of finished units that are not expected to need any changes or rework. The result is wire-free and clean-looking, which may be worth the added effort of planning the layout and connections with a tool like Perfy.

The Perf+ can also be used as a straightforward perfboard alternative with the added bonus of making simple bus connections very easily. Knowing when to stay away from complex routing on Perf+ in favor of the occasional jumper wire (or point-to-point soldering direct to leads) absolutely makes things easier to troubleshoot or modify later.

Windows/.NET editor for Perf+ prototyping perboards.
https://github.com/Myndale/Perfy