Electronics prototyping is an important part of electronics device development. Prototyping means to build and test an early version of) an electronic circuit. Prototyping your product is all about learning. Each time you create a prototype version you will, or should, learn something new. Start with the most simple, low cost way to prototype your product. This posting gives you overview to different ways to build and prototype electronics circuits.
This video reviews several of the electronic circuit prototyping techniques. It is a good overview if many different techniques.
Electronics on the Floor: Five reasons not to use printed circuit boards for projects
How you begin prototyping your product’s electronics depends on what questions you are trying to answer.
If you have broad questions about whether your product will even work, or whether it will solve the intended problem, then you may be wise to begin with an early works-like prototype based on a development kit such as an Arduino or Raspberry Pi. Then wire some external functionality like sensors to it with jumper wires and/or add-on boards as needed.
If there are no big questions about your product’s functionality then for professional electronics design you should probably move right to designing a custom PCB. Most large companies developing products begin with a custom PCB. This is the fastest route to market, although not likely the cheapest. If you are an electronics hobbyist or need to build one-off device for a specific use quickly, then some other methods might be more suitable.
Alligator clip test cables
Wires with alligator clips are useful in electronics lab for making temporary connections. Those alligator wires can be used to make simple temporary circuits when you need to connect just few components together.
Alligator Clips Electrical DIY Test Leads
Alligator Clips – Electrical Tutorial – HWFCI
How sucks the cheap alligator clip compared with the 10 times price one
Hook Test Leads vs Alligator Clip
Jumper wires
Dupont type jumper wires are extremely handy components to have on hand, especially when prototyping with a development kit such as an Arduino or Raspberry Pi. Jumper wires are simply wires that have connector pins at each end, allowing them to be used to connect two points to each other without soldering. You can use them to connect easily development kit boards together, to breadboard or to sensors.
#12 Five Tricks for working with Dupont wires
Arduino Prototyping Basics #17: Jumper Wires
Arduino prototyping basics Using jumper wires 3/8
Breadboard
Many electronics projects use something called a breadboard. A breadboard is a rectangular plastic board with a bunch of tiny holes in it. These holes let you easily insert electronic components to prototype. It is easy to push in wired component and it is easy to remove a component if you make a mistake, or just start over and do a new project. The term breadboard comes from the early days of electronics, when people would literally drive nails or screws into wooden boards on which they cut bread in order to connect their circuits. Luckily today there are better options. Modern breadboards are made from plastic, and come in all shapes, sizes, and even different colors. Read How to Use a Breadboard for more information.
How to Use a Breadboard
Cutting Perfect Jumper Wires (for breadboard)
Point to point wiring
Point-to-point or hand wiring is traced back to the time when electrical assemblies employed wire nuts or screws to hold wires to an insulated ceramic or wooden board. The modern version of point-to-point construction uses tag boards or terminal strips. It involves soldering components to the electrical assembly.
Point-to-point circuit board wiring is ideal when building a prototype or a customized, one-of-a-kind board. Point-to-point circuit board, which in essence is a hand-wired board. It has low capacitance between conductors since the connections are separated by air. Point to point wiring can be seen typically on tube amplifiers and simple DIY circuits.
Dead bug prototyping
Dead bug prototyping is a way of building working electronic circuits, by soldering the parts directly together, or through wires instead of the traditional way of using a printed circuit board (PCB.) This type of circuit is often a quick way to get going on a project, and is a good way to test stuff, before investing in printed circuit boards. You are often making interesting looking 3D circuits, rather than 2D circuits.
Freeform circuits
Freeform electronics are a way of building working electronic circuits, by soldering the parts directly together, or through wires instead of the traditional way of using a printed circuit board (PCB.) You are often making interesting looking 3D circuits, rather than 2D circuits.
What is a freeform circuit sculpture? It is the art of creating a sculpture from electrical components using brass rods or wire to build the circuit into form. This is an aesthetically pleasing and highly compelling practice that typically doesn’t include circuit boards or enclosures, although they are sometimes still used. Web pages Dead Bug Prototyping and Freeform Electronics and Twelve Circuit Sculptures We Can’t Stop Looking At have nice looking artistic examples of this kind of circuits.
Freeform Circuitry // #TBT
Veroboard
Veroboard is a brand of stripboard, a pre-formed circuit board material of copper strips on an insulating bonded paper board which was originated and developed in the early 1960s. It was introduced as a general-purpose material for use in constructing electronic circuits and is very useful for constructing small to medium size prototype circuits. The generic terms ‘veroboard’ and ‘stripboard’ are now taken to be synonymous. In using Veroboard, components are suitably positioned and soldered to the conductors to form the required circuit. Breaks can be made in the tracks and jumper wires are added as needed. The versatility of the veroboard/stripboard type of product is demonstrated by the large number of design examples that can be found on the Internet.[
Circuit Board Prototyping: Breadboards, Padboards, Stripboards and More
Manhattan style circuit construction
“Manhattan Style” is a technique for constructing electronic circuits by gluing pads or traces to make “islands” of separate conductivity on top of a base material. The “Manhattan style” is a very old method of circuit construction. It’s especially popular among radio amateurs for high frequency circuits because it has a solid ground plane that helps to reduce interference and noise. To build Manhattan style you need a copper clad board (one-sided is OK). The first step is to make small cutouts in the copper for the component pads and cut the board to a good size. Some builders do not make cutouts, but glue small pieces of circuit boards on the copper to get “isolated islands”. Cut out small pieces of copperboard (from another piece of board) and glue them onto the main copperboard to serve as component mounting platforms.
Extreme prototype board wiring techniques
Printed circuit boards
Printed circuit boards are the norm in most modern electronic products. A printed circuit board electrically connects, through mechanical support, electronic components through the use of conductive tracks or pads etched from sheets of copper that are laminated into a non-conductive substrate. Electrical components, such as capacitors and resistors, are then soldered onto the printed circuit board. Typically printed circuit boards are designed with PCB design software and manufactured by circuit board manufacturing companies. But it is also possible to make your own circuit boards.
Making of PCBs at home, DIY using inexpenive materials
DIY PCB Toner Transfer (No Heat) & Etching
346 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Manual Pick And Place Turntable Makes Board Assembly Easier
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/03/manual-pick-and-place-turntable-makes-board-assembly-easier/
Surface mount devices were once upon a time considered a huge imposition for the electronics hobbyist. Tiny, difficult to solder by hand, and barely even labelled, many wondered whether the pastime was about to hit a brick wall entirely. Instead, enterprising hackers and makers set about learning new tricks and techniques to work with the technology, and we’ve never looked back since. [Seon] is one such enthusiast, and has built a useful turntable for making manually picking and placing boards easier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scHSrFdWn5k&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
Learn Bil Herd’s DIY Surface Mount Assembly Process
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/02/learn-bil-herds-diy-surface-mount-assembly-process/
You can do your own Surface Mount Technology based PCB assembly with just a handful of tools and some patience. At the heart of my SMT process is stopping to inspect the various steps all while trying to maintain a bit of cleanliness in the process.
Surface mount or Surface Mount Technology (SMT) is the modern way to assemble Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) and is what is commonly seen when opening a modern piece of tech. It’s much smaller than the older Through-Hole (TH) technology where the component leads were inserted into holes in PCB, and act we called “stuffing” since we had to stuff the components into the holes.
A few specialized tools make this a lot easier, but resourceful hackers will be able to pull together a solder paste stencil jig, vacuum tweezers, and a modified toaster oven with a controller that can follow the reflow profile of the solder paste. Where you shouldn’t skimp is on the quality, age, and storage of the solder paste itself.
Tomi Engdahl says:
You can now PRINT PCBs! Creating a homemade PCB with the Voltera V-One PCB Printer!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8u4izLA-SCo&feature=youtu.be
Voltera V-One PCB Printer on Elektor.com: http://bit.ly/Voltera-more-information
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY PCBs At Home (Single Sided Presensitized)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wAer7a3tU4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hands On With The Voltera V-One PCB Printer
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/05/hands-on-with-the-voltera-v-one-pcb-printer/
Creating your own PC board is a rite of passage for many. These days, though, you can order super inexpensive boards and have them in very little time, so it doesn’t always make sense to build your own. Still, some people like the challenge, and others don’t want to wait even a few days. Probably everyone has dreamed of a 3D printer-like machine that would just crank out beautiful PCBs. The Voltera V-One isn’t quite at that level of sophistication, but it isn’t too far from it. [Great Scott] shows us how he built two different boards using the system in the video below. While the results were impressive, you can also see that there are several limitations, especially if you are not designing your board with the machine in mind.
Tomi Engdahl says:
how to make a radio to listen to the airport control tower
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GDqFA5xQwIc&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
PCBite kit with 4x SP10 probes and test wires
https://sensepeek.com/pcbite_20
Tomi Engdahl says:
What A Beautiful Analog Synth Sculpture! Eirik Brandal – Plubee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4KkuLmC9xE
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/28/bga-soldering-and-inspection/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/27/a-pcb-out-of-a-quarter/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Best Practices for Electronics Prototype Manufacturing
https://www.electronicdesign.com/industrial-automation/article/21156536/tempo-automation-best-practices-for-electronics-prototype-manufacturing?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS210224061&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Understanding PCBA manufacturing complexity is crucial to identifying—and mitigating—the main drivers of lead time, cost, and predictability for many designs. What elements of the PCBA manufacturing process are key to creating a blueprint for success?
Many electronics engineers have an “I’ll know it when I see it” way of dealing with problems when designing prototype circuit boards. However, when working with a contract manufacturer (CM) for printed-circuit-board assembly (PCBA), there’s nothing to “see,” and as a result, not much insight on why a board was or will be complex to manufacture.
Understanding PCBA manufacturing complexity is crucial to identifying—and mitigating—the top drivers of lead time, cost, and predictability for different PCBA designs. For the design engineer, these complexities can be generalized using the concepts of “build” (i.e., “What does it take to complete each process?), and “recovery” (i.e., “What are the steps needed due to a process failure?”).
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Dry Film PCB Fabrication Tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyBgbNPrWg8
Learn to fabricate a PCB using the Dry Film Method! Dry film PCB fabrication is similar to what known PCB manufacturers use.
Making a Circuit Board From Scratch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Umk5aG8Y4
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/162659-8-bit-breadboard-cpu
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Macro Pad Ditches The PCB With Slick Wiring Guides
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/02/3d-printed-macro-pad-ditches-the-pcb-with-slick-wiring-guides/
Reddit user [duzitbetter] showed off their design for a 3D-printed programmable macro keyboard that offers a different take on what can be thought of as a sort of 3D-printed PCB. The design is called the Bloko 9 and uses the Raspberry Pi PICO and some Cherry MX-style switches, which are popular in DIY keyboards.
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/ls5gvv/keypad_with_3d_printed_pcb/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Beginner’s Guide to Soldering Electronics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Jf8cebwCs
Tomi Engdahl says:
How To Solder BGA on PCB Board?
https://www.eeweb.com/how-to-solder-bga-on-pcb-board/
BGA soldering is very reliable if done using the correct procedure, so we introduce GA Soldering on PCB board, BGA Inspection and BGA Rework.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/09/full-diy-a-unix-clone-on-ttl/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electroninks CircuitJet PCB printer – direct from Autodesk Eagle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miuwjnf0ImU
Looks real easy. Only need a chemical lab, special carrier material, curing ??, no holes, splendid.
Typically, conductive inks have a high resistance… any measurements you would care to share?
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY PCB Toner Transfer (No Heat) & Etching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVhSCEPINpM
DIY PCB Toner Transfer (No Heat) & Etching
No need to use an Iron, transfer easily and fast!
No need to soak in water to remove paper, just peel and etch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
No-etch circuit boards with your laser printer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwwA1d2s2OQ
Use silver adhesive to make circuit boards on your laser printer
Tomi Engdahl says:
Voltera V-One Desktop PCB Printer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRxll6Ho7gE
The Voltera V-One creates two layer prototype circuit boards on desk. Gerber files go in, printed circuit boards come out. The dispenser lays down a silver-based conductive ink to print circuit right before your eyes. Assembling traditional and additive boards is easy with the V-One’s solder paste dispensing and reflow features. Simply mount your board on the print bed and import your Gerber file into Voltera’s software.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using DLP 3D printer for PCB etch – surprising results
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qeq7ZgUOuE
I’ve made an experiment in order to see if DLP printers can be used to create the mask for PCB etch, and I was surprised by the results. I could now make homemade prototypes with very small SMD components.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Laser PCB direct print ( Come fare le PCB con il laser ) Standalone Arduino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpzLhL944-U
Tomi Engdahl says:
Heatless (cold) Toner Transfer (for PCB)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBIxvwZ_0og
Very simple technique to transfer a LASER print to a copper-clad board without the use of heat (iron/laminator). With only a solution of ethyl alcohol and acetone, the laser toner will stick to the copper. Get your printed circuit board (PCB) ready in a few minutes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PCBs done quick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eRdbvGXkio
There’s been a lot of hubbub on the internet about making PCBs using these new PCB printers. They sound all cool. They’re only thousands of dollars, they take less than an hour, have okay precision and seem to produce tolerably durable boards.
WHY?
Making PCBs isn’t rocket science. People’ve been doing it for decades at home. Heck, my first PCBs were made using some mid-90′s radioshack kit.
In fact, they can be made cheaper, more durably, and faster using traditional methods!
Materials:
(1) FR4 (or CEM) 0.060 1 Oz Copper Single Sided boards, available from ebay.
(2) DuPont Riston. Available from tech-place or ebay.
(3) UV Mercury Vapor Light, usually used in terrariums.
(4) ~42% Ferric Chloride, available from ebay and other shops.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Just print a PCB (HOW TO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvPqqd03yRM
In this video I share how I stopped struggling with toner transfer and now I just make my boards for a few dollars at the local mall.
UV printers are an amazing tech that’s gone unnoticed by the DIY community for some reason.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Direct PCB Printing with a Modified Laser Printer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWUul62irY
With a modified Lexmark E260 Laser Printer you can directly print on copper clad boards! There are some difficulties but for small single sided boards it works fantastically!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flex Pcb Prototype-How To Make It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kRl0NgbZSw
There are different types of flexible circuits like the double-sided, metal layer, and the rigid-flex circuits
1. Basic steps of Making Flex PCB Prototype at Home 1.Make use of copper-coated film
2. Use a solid ink printer
3.Print on Pyralux
4. Etch it
5. Populate the board
2.Advantages of Flex PCB Prototype ♦ Flexibility
♦ Saves on weight and space
♦ Anti-vibration advantages
Tomi Engdahl says:
You can now PRINT PCBs! Creating a homemade PCB with the Voltera V-One PCB Printer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u4izLA-SCo
In this video I will be testing out the Voltera V-One PCB printer and create a homemade PCB version of one of my older PCB projects in order to find out whether such a PCB printer is a good replacement for proper PCB manufacturers. Along the way we will discover all the advantages and disadvantages such a printer comes with. Let’s get started!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top 5 PCB Printing and Prototyping machines for your desktop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI7QcsH4O3g
pcb prototype, PCB printer, Desktop CNC Mill, Desktop CNC, pcb maker, pcb production
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dip Soldering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ8IAw4jKvY
Dip Soldering Process for Small Business
PCB LEAD CUTTER MACHINE AFTER SOLDERING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j62odt3I1aQ
Its machine suitable for after soldering PCB lead cutter machine
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to solder pcb using dip soldering method #Martin audio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKsh5rzm-g8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Our First Solder Pot For Tinning Wires
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KjGa2UH5SA
A solder pot is one of those little tools I’ve been meaning to purchase to tin the wires we use in our Raildig products, but over time you get pretty fast with a flux pen and regular soldering iron, so I kept putting off this purchase. When we got a couple of new large orders in from the Ztrack Distributor though, I thought the time was right to get our first solder pot.
Bit of a spoiler here, I’m now kicking myself for waiting so long to buy this pot!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frantone Circuit Board Manufacturing 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBtK-PesGsU
Tomi Engdahl says:
The First Frantone (From 1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNrXpn_YwbM
The Debut Of Pedal Mom! The first in my new series of videos about – well, Pedals of course! This one is all about the first one I made – the prototype for the first Frantone pedal which was called the Fuzzywuzzy that I cobbled together from parts bought off the shelf at Radio Shack way back in the Spring of 1994. Enjoy!
http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings2.html#pcbs
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why build an entire computer on breadboards?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCbAafKLqC8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Just soldering this naked electronic circuit . I hope that my video will motivate You to make something similar, it is fun ! Whole video is here : https://youtu.be/HbCuVCZ3QKc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Polarity Tester
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqYethdRhzg
Tomi Engdahl says:
Repairing the live stream supercomputer panel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI_zgZz-V40
Thanks to the wonders of eBay being China’s electronic component dumpster, a fully factory sealed antistatic bag of 1000 flashing LEDs managed to have quite a high failure rate.
It was suggested that I exchange the faulty blue ones for red ones to show the progressive failure across the panel over time.
The piece of silicone tube I’m using to grip the LEDs for extraction while heating both pads simultaneously, is standard aquarium style silicone tubing. It’s perfect for removing 5mm LEDs.
The PCB is single sided to facilitate easy maintenance. Which turned out to be a good thing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mohit Bhoite’s Latest Freeform Circuit Sculpture Is a Compact LED VU Meter for Your Desktop
https://www.hackster.io/news/mohit-bhoite-s-latest-freeform-circuit-sculpture-is-a-compact-led-vu-meter-for-your-desktop-ff1b441d1c95
Built around the TI LM3915 display driver running a color bar graph LED unit, this sculpture is simple yet elegant.
Mohit Bhoite’s circuits aren’t like most: Rather than using a flat printed circuit board, they use solid copper wire links to act as both traces and structure — creating free-standing sculptures in which the components seem to float in mid-air. Previous designs have included a desk assistant powered by a Particle Photon microcontroller board which later received a servo upgrade and a live-view audio spectrum analyzer — the latter providing inspiration for his latest creation, a more compact VU meter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Manual & Semi-automatic SMT placement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9bRd8wS6GU
Manual SMT assembly from Fritsch
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to make a PCB prototyping with UV soldermask – STEP by STEP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EctuSTL7-w
How to make a PCB prototyping with UV soldermask for ARDUINO
Tomi Engdahl says:
Self-Assembling Wires
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeHWqr9dz3c
An exploration of a fascinating self-organizing system.
Created by the Stanford Complexity Group
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/news/laser-cut-solder-mask-72ef178d9447
Tomi Engdahl says:
Manual wave soldering with Wenesco wave solder pot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyGa9J_qPUE
No wave soldering！It only needs Dip Soldering Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88LB3U0Ww3E
Tomi Engdahl says:
#260 Most used tools, tips and tricks to spend your money wisely
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZtkbUc2i_Y
People say that the use of tools is the most significant difference between Humans and animals. This is why I will show you 8 tools I consider most important for our electronics hobby. And I will discuss the choices to make, where you can save your money and where it is wise to spend a little more.
I will cover:
• Power Supply
• Pliers and strippers
• Soldering
• Hot air
• Microscopes
• Multimeter
• Oscilloscope
• 3D printer
Tomi Engdahl says:
Printed Circuit Bling – An Open Source Art PCB Toolchain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lomLQOFW8U
Custom PCB scope labels and the world’s first PCB time lapse!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Esico 75 dip soldering demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_GioQ4dfgs
This is a quick pcb dip soldering demonstration using the Esico 75 solder pot, Kester 951 Flux and a through hole pcb.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The process of assembling the pocket-sized debugger for monitoring serial data.
PCBs provided by JLCPCB: https://jlcpcb.com/PCH
https://www.facebook.com/groups/electronichobycircuits/permalink/4179884358702908/
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is breadboard and how to use it?
Animated Tutorial about basic construction, applications and use of Breadboard in electronics prototyping. https://youtu.be/dyleFhCSGEY