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
343 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to produce SMD soldering stencils the cheapest way (DIY)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7IuQfHVwDc
Simple soldering video of my Octoclick PCB.
The first part of this video shows how you could produce your own soldering stencils. Just need a laser cutter and a piece of polyester tape.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Soldering SMDs with a FLAT IRON?! Homemade PCB assembly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39ij7f1OWtc
DIY hot plate soldering iron can be found her
https://makermoekoe.com/2020/04/28/maker-moekoes-kind-of-soldering-iron/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Draw Logic Gate with CircuitScribe Silver Ink Pen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbWOyiVCrfg
▹Material Used:
- A09T (AO3400) N-MOSFET
- A19T (AO3401) P-MOSFET
- 0603 Red LED SMD
- 1k5 0805 SMD Resistor
- 0 Ω 1206 SMD Resistor as jumper wire
- CircuitScribe Pen
- 3M Glue
- toothstick
Engineering ART!
Glorious!
This is really cool what if you printed the ink for rapid prototyping!
This is not a how to, it is just a fun to do. It is entertaining it is like art. There is no use in a painting it is easier and faster to make a photography
It’s easier and faster with just a breadboard lol. Well, I guess these are surface mounts, so a breadboard isn’t really an option
Tomi Engdahl says:
PIIRILEVYJEN VALMISTAMISESTA
http://ijl.mbnet.fi/piirilev.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s the stern warning every new hacker has heeded: don’t use 90 degree traces on a PCB, or your teeth will fall out and you’ll go blind.
The reality, of course, is quite different. We explored this in an informative piece which explains what really goes on.
https://hackaday.com/2019/06/26/whats-the-deal-with-square-traces-on-pcbs/
Tomi Engdahl says:
If the last year and its supply chain problems have taught us anything, it’s the value of having a Plan B, even for something as commoditized as PCB manufacturing has become. If you’re not able to get a PCB made commercially, you might have to make one yourself, and being able to DIY a dual-layer board with plated-through vias might just be a survival skill worth learning….
https://hackaday.com/2021/06/11/open-source-method-makes-possible-two-layer-pcbs-with-through-plating-at-home/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2015/04/21/vmm-electronics-prototyping-method/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/06/22/flexible-prototyping-for-e-textiles-that-doesnt-cost-an-arm-and-a-leg/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/06/23/silicon-jumpers-make-this-wire-free-breadboard-programmable/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Some Of The Many Ways To Build AM Transmitters And Receivers
https://hackaday.com/2021/06/25/some-of-the-many-ways-to-build-am-transmitters-and-receivers/
AM radios are relatively simple devices, and building one is a good way to start exploring the world of radio communications. [GreatScott] does exactly this in the video after the break, building both a transmitter and receiver.
At the most basic level, AM radio works by generating a carrier wave with an oscillator, and then modulating the amplitude with an audio signal. Around these parts, the venerable 555 timer is always brought up whenever things get to oscillating; so you’ll no doubt be happy to see [GreatScott] decided to give it a shot for his first experiments, testing two popular 555 transmitter circuits. One uses the control voltage pin to input the audio signal, while the other uses the reset pin. The CV-pin version worked slightly better, but it was still just barely possible to distinguish a voice over a standard commercial AM/FM receiver.
Building a Super Simple AM Radio Transmitter & Receiver! Keeping Wireless Audio Communication easy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khXwzBW2sHI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khXwzBW2sHI
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flipper’s Electronics: How it’s Made and Tested
https://blog.flipperzero.one/electronics-testing/
Electronics and plastic casing parts of Flipper Zero are manufactured at different factories. Today we will visit the electronics factory and take a look at the automatic PCB testing.
There is always a non-zero defect rate when it comes to high-volume production. Some produced PCBs might turn out faulty, some might have barely noticeable defects like degraded radio performance. Defective Flippers must not get to users. To ensure this, all components undergo two stages of testing in production: individual electrical testing of each board and then testing of the entire assembled device.
In this article, we are going to focus on the first stage – automatic electronic testing of individual Flipper Zero boards.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Campbell making solder paste look like sorcery. (Decadently graphic content. Extreme closeup.)
Soldering a tiny SMD chip with paste and hot air
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rgcupYOnvBo&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
Iron Becomes SMD Hot Plate
https://hackaday.com/2021/07/04/iron-becomes-smd-hot-plate/
Few things have changed our workshops more than surface mount components. In 1980 it would have been strange to see a hobby bench with a microscope, hot air equipment, tweezers, and all the other accouterments that are a necessity today. [Electronoobs] wanted a reflow hot plate and decided that he could repurpose a consumer laundry iron for the job. You can see the results in the video below.
Homemade Reflow Hot Plate for SMD Soldering – 3000W
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7blZigaaaA
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/news/clothing-iron-transformed-into-pcb-hot-plate-0a0eef59ccb0
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://kinsten.co/?page=chem
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/22/3d-print-a-pcb-the-hard-way/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/12/08/printed-circuits-1940s-style/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.quick-pcba.com/pcb-news/how-to-clean-a-circuit-board.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is a PCB?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJr-kHy6STg
A Printed Circuit Board is the backbone of all the modern day electronic devices. Let’s explore what a PCB is and how these tiny circuits are manufactured. This video explains how a PCB is made with help of Gerber file, chemical etching and UV process all starting from a copper plate using THT technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AtomSoftTech’s AtomIC Family Opens with a Pair of Compact, Breadboard-Friendly Level Shifters
https://www.hackster.io/news/atomsofttech-s-atomic-family-opens-with-a-pair-of-compact-breadboard-friendly-level-shifters-f6e1e9157330
Designed to mimic DIP-packaged ICs, the AtomIC family is due to launch in the near future — as a means to expand breadboards’ capabilities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why build an entire computer on breadboards?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCbAafKLqC8
More on breadboards: https://www.eater.net/breadboards
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Use a Wire Wrap Tool
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/working-with-wire/how-to-use-a-wire-wrap-tool
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is point to point wiring better than PCB?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wFMv0Y8TsCc&feature=youtu.be
Years ago there was no such thing as a printed circuit board and everything was wired with what’s known as point-to-point. Today it’s unheard of but this viewer wants to know if perhaps we’ve lost something.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/tag/manhattan-style/
Tomi Engdahl says:
there is even a Manhattan style of doing amps…https://www.google.com/search?q=Manhattan+style+of+doing+amps&client=avast-a-2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi90sTnwefyAhXBBN4KHasEAdMQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1024&bih=470#imgrc=chsy9kEPubW5VM
Tomi Engdahl says:
Point to point is how most things were wired before microelectronics and robotic assembly became commonplace. It’s a totally viable method of building circuits, and when well done, it’s an art form that is aesthetically pleasing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PCB is in my opinion a better option in most cases than point to point wiring.
Shorter leads, less impedance. Also can be less stray capacitance if you’ve properly chosen the right thickness of the PCB , proper layout, proper trace size.
Also building time cut buy 60%, and once you have a Gerber file you can easily order more board which again speeds up manufacturing. PCB ARE NOW SUPER CHEAP. Once you start getting into SMD you can also cut down on cost. A 1% tolerance SMD resistor which has the same quality as a through hole will cost you 50% less. This is true with just about every component at this point. Most manufactures are slowly moving away from axial.
Tomi Engdahl says:
M4 Breadstick Is A Tasty Prototyping Alternative
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/06/m4-breadstick-is-a-tasty-prototyping-alternative/
A few years ago, [Michael Rangen] set out to change all of that by creating a long and skinny development board that spaces out the I/O pins and simplifies wiring, making every circuit beautiful and easier to take in visually. The current version is an adaptation of Adafruit’s ItsyBitsy M4 Express. It has 20 I/O pins, all spread out along the length and numbered around the horn like an IC. [Michael] dipped this breadstick in 24 tiny RGB LEDs, all of which are on a dedicated com bus.
https://hackaday.io/project/180819-m4-breadstick
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Electronics Overview Guides New Hackers In The Right Direction
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/06/this-electronics-overview-guides-new-hackers-in-the-right-direction/
Many of us don’t have a formal background to build off when taking on new hacks, we have had to teach ourselves complex concepts and learn by doing (or more commonly, by failing). To help new hackers get off the ground a bit easier, [PhilosopherFar3847] created a fantastic starter’s resource on electronics, The Electroagenda Summary of Electronics.
[PhilosipherFar3847] created Electroagenda with the goal of helping amateurs, students, and professionals alike better understand electronics. The Summary of Electronics, one of the more recent additions to the website, is split across 26 sections each breaking down a different electrical concept into easy-to-understand facts with no math or unfamiliar jargon.
https://electroagenda.com/en/a-summary-of-electronics/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/03/troubleshooting-a-method-for-solving-problems-the-right-way/
Tomi Engdahl says:
These Are a Game Changer for PCB Production
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gicoRcQYhlA
With Mobo REV03 released, we’ll need some way to test them as they come off the line! In this video, I dive into designing and assembling a couple boards that will automatically test them and ensure they’re production-ready!
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Many Ways To Solve Your Enclosure Problems
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/15/the-many-ways-to-solve-your-enclosure-problems/
Most projects around here involve some sort of electronics, and some sort of box to put them in. The same is true of pretty much all commercially available electronic products as well.
Despite that, selecting an enclosure is far from a solved problem. For simple electronics it’s entirely possible to spend more time getting the case just right than working on the circuit itself. But most of the time we need to avoid getting bogged down in what exactly will house our hardware.
The array of options available for your housing is vast, and while many people default to a 3D printer, there are frequently better choices. I’ve been around the block on this issue countless times and wanted to share the options as I see them, and help you decide which is right for you. Let’s talk about enclosures!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Embrace The New, But Don’t Forget The Old
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/25/embrace-the-new-but-dont-forget-the-old/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kinetic Synth-Kebab Sculpture Plays Punk Sequentially
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/04/kinetic-synth-kebab-sculpture-plays-punk-sequentially/
What’s better than an Atari Punk Console synthesizer? How about four Atari Punk Console synthesizers. And what better way to present them but as brass wire art sculptures. We’d have forgiven [iSax] if he’d stopped at four brass wire synths, but he took things to another level with his kinetic sculpture that does double duty as a mechanical sequencer. Called the Cyclotone – The Mechanical Punk Console Sequencer, it features wood, brass, brushes, and 555 timers.
Cyclotone – The Mechanical Punk Console Sequencer
A rotary circuit sculpture with four 555 Atari punk console synths made in
https://hackaday.io/project/181880-cyclotone-the-mechanical-punk-console-sequencer
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.mclpcb.com/blog/pcb-trace-width-vs-current-table/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nifty Chip Adapter Does The Impossible
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/09/nifty-chip-adapter-does-the-impossible/
The semiconductor shortage has curtailed the choices available to designers and caused some inventive solutions to be found, but the one used by [djzc] is probably the most inventive we’ve yet seen. The footprint trap, when a board is designed for one footprint but shortages mean the part is only available in another, has caught out many an engineer this year. In this case an FTDI chip had been designed with a PCB footprint for a QFN package when the only chip to be found was a QFP from a breakout board.
Chip on board on board on board
https://twitter.com/dzjc2/status/1441247634656665607
Tomi Engdahl says:
Solder Paste Stencilling That Doesn’t Suck
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/13/solder-paste-stencilling-that-doesnt-suck/
Working with solder paste stencils can be a real faff, they rarely sit flat and move around when you so much as breath on them. [Unexpected Maker] airs his frustrations, and comes up with a simple solution, he simply makes a 3D-printed jig to align the PCB panel and applies his shop vacuum cleaner and hey presto!
If you’re ever been tempted to switch from frameless to framed solder stencils, then you’ll notice they can be rather awkward to work with. The usual online vendors have plenty of listings for stencil frame holders, but they do all seem to us, exactly the same, and more suited to stencilling T-shirts, than working with tiny PCB footprints.
The problem with unframed stencils is one of clamping and registration to the PCB, which framed stencils fix, when used with a jig that can dial in the rotation and translation errors.
Solder Paste Stencilling – This really sucks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbHJ6JBdSCs
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
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/electronichobycircuits/permalink/4754982014526470/
So ,after code was uploaded I removed MCU from Arduino Uno and i conected all components directly to MCU (Atmega328) . It take quite some time to solder this. Here is whole video:
https://youtu.be/P5Rt0atwXAc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Labyrinthian Circuit Sculpture Evokes Moods With Sound And Light
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/20/labyrinthian-circuit-sculpture-evokes-moods-with-sound-and-light/
We can’t help but wonder if [Eirik Brandal] was evoking such Wilde thoughts when he wrote to tell us about ddrysfeöd, an electronic sound and light sculpture which he called “uselessly applied electronics.” Given the mood created by the video below the break, we have to agree that it is indeed quite artful. But if it serves a purpose to inspire and cause wonderment, is it really useless? Let the philosophers philosophize. On to the hack!
ddrysfeöd
electronic sound and light sculpture using esp32
https://hackaday.io/project/182215-ddrysfed
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/10/09/nifty-chip-adapter-does-the-impossible/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top 3 LED Projects for Beginners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmLCQOB4OVo
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP8266 as Window Sensor with years of battery life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxbuO1zWo3w
0:00 Intro
1:07 Requirements
1:27 The idea
3:06 ESP8266 basics
3:57 Simulation in CircuitJS
6:32 Circuit design in KiCAD
9:04 SMD-Components
9:58 PCB-Design in KiCAD
11:34 Assembly and SMD-soldering
13:07 Programming and software
13:39 Test run and current consumption
14:59 Housing and installation
16:38 Improvement ideas
https://esp8266-server.de/Reedkontakt.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.pcb-3d.com/tutorials/how-to-calculate-pth-hole-and-pad-diameter-sizes-according-to-ipc-7251-ipc-2222-and-ipc-2221-standards/
How to calculate PTH hole and pad diameter sizes according to IPC-7251, IPC-2222 and IPC-2221 standards?
This article shows how to calculate PTH (Plated Through-Hole) Hole and Pad Diameter sizes according to IPC-7251, IPC-2222 and IPC-2221 standards
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/302850/what-order-of-magnitude-should-i-expect-the-parasitic-capacitance-to-be-for-a-so
I’m trying to account for some error in measurements for a circuit I have produced physically and simulated in spice. The only suspect seems to be the solderless breadboard as the error seems to increase with frequency.
2-3pF row to row, and 20pf rail to rail, but checkout this video…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GIscUsnlM0&feature=youtu.be
Probably a bigger issue with BBS is often the flying leads and longer legs on resistors etc. The extra inductance will also give you issues at higher frequencies. That and fairly high point contact resistance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Heavy-Copper PCB Hack Chat
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/08/heavy-copper-pcb-hack-chat/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Streamline Your SMD Assembly Process With 3D-Printed Jigs
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/09/streamline-your-smd-assembly-process-with-3d-printed-jigs/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smaller Is Sometimes Better: Why Electronic Components Are So Tiny
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/08/smaller-is-sometimes-better-why-electronic-components-are-so-tiny/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/03/liberating-the-esp8266-from-its-development-board/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prototyping Your Way To Better Prototypes
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/13/prototyping-your-way-to-better-prototypes/
If you’ve ever made a prototype of something before making the “real” one or even the final prototype, you probably already know that hands-on design time can’t be beat. There’s really no substitute for the insight you will glean from having a three-dimensional thing to hold and turn over in your hands for a full assessment. Sometimes you need to prototype an object more than once before investing time, money, and materials into making the final prototype for presentation.
This is [Eric Strebel]’s second video in series about making an eco-friendly wireless phone charger. He made a paper prototype in the first video, and in this follow-up, he refines the idea further and makes a chipboard version of the charger before the final molded paper pulp prototype. The main advantage of the chipboard version is to design the parts so that each one will be easier to pull from its mold in a single piece without any undercuts.
CardBoard Prototype: wireless charger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1lsEYVnI6I
Designing an Eco friendly mobile device wireless charging stand. Building a Cardboard mock up to refine the form and understand the manufacturing feasibility of the part.