As part of a project (a remote-controlled wheelchair) I made the breadboarded circuit shown in the middle part of this image: http://abm.wso.net/pictures/circuit.jpg
As you can see, it’s a fairly simple circuit and I would like to reconstruct it in a more compact and permanent form. (I imagine everything would fit on something like a 4 x 6" PC board). I have been reading about the various technologies I can use and the two simplest seemed to be 1) soldering the components into a strip board (" Verroboard"?) Or using wire wrap technology. I have done a little soldering but never used wire wrap. Can someone recommend the easiest way to go? In particular, is wire wrap more reliable than soldering ? would I have to buy an expensive wire wrap tool?
Related question: what about an enclosure in which to put my circuit board? I looked at in the digikey catalog and there are thousands! Suggestions?
Generally speaking, wire-wrap is used for prototyping, so you can easily change connections/components.
It’s actually somewhat of a still-used precursor of the breadbord (although i’m sure it has it’s advantages in certain cases)
Point is, I’d solder it to a veroboard (dunno what it’s actually called in English) since it provides better resistance to the environment (vibrations etc) plus you don’t need to buy any wire wrapping tools, though those shouldn’t be too expensive
Thanks very much for the reply. Assuming that I solder the components into a Vero board, how do I then get the board into some kind of box?
regards,
Joe
If you were to tighten the layout up on your breadboard a bit you could use the PCB version of the breadboard and just transfer the parts across and solder it together. An example of what I’m talking about is here jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=616649 if the link works. Then you buy a plastic box large enough to fit the board, which you can cut to a smaller size once your circuit is built up on it, and attach the board to the cover with plastic hardware or hot melt glue or rtv.
