Recommendation for RF Prototype "Vector Board" with groundplane needed

Bare copperclad FR4 and solder.

John

I am trying to stay away from etching and "dead bug" style!

--
Joe Leikhim K4SAT
"The RFI-EMI-GUY"©

"Treason doth never prosper: what\'s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

"Follow The Money"  ;-P

PCB fab isn't that expensive. Design the board you want (i.e. strip size, position, etc) and have someone make it. You get a discount with multiple boards, so you'll have some for future projects too.

Farnell used to stock a proto-typing board from Vero with a "collander ground plane" on one side. I did use it for prototyping high frequency circuits and it worked pretty well. I was mostly using surface mount components and I would cut up the copper rings (on the other side of the board) around the holes for the DIP parts and use the residual segments as solder pads for the SMD parts. Other people have also used it

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

DIY using a PCB fab house..

This is how I do it:

The layout is created on a PC, laser printed, taped to the board and drilled. Top copper is then cleared from around the holes with a drill bit.

I design and make my own PCB for that sort of thing, It only takes an hour or so, much quicker than having to order something and wait a day or so to get it.

Leon

"RFI-EMI-GUY" ...

There used to be a system with small selfadhesive PCB strips, glue on one side, copper on the other. You stuck it wherever you liked it on the copper side of a blank PCB. You cold cut the strips to length. It was often used by radio amateurs, good enough for RF, more more stable than 'dead bug' or spiderweb mounting. Can't find any link to it on the I-net.

I imagine you can make something like that yourself by cutting pieces of vector board or single sided proto-PCB (possibly already with a So16 or DIL pattern), and putting a selfadhesive layer (sold by 3M or so) on the back. Or just glue them with superglue.

Arie de Muynck

Somewhere around here I have a drill bit that makes pads.

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
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     It\'s what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.

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On Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:31:32 -0400 in sci.electronics.design, RFI-EMI-GUY wrote,

Put a piece of copper tape on the reverse side where you need it.

I think I just fainted.

Jim Thompson Inscribed thus:

Dou-nut drill ! :-)

--
Best Reagrds:
                        Baron.

Maybe this will help?

?name=V1056-ND Then you can just use double sided board but you have to jumper each connection.

Why? PCBs are cheap these days. You can get 4-6 pieces of a 2-side, plated-through board in a week or so for well under $100, or 4-layer for a little more. You can load up one board with several circuits, some handy surfmount adapters, odds and ends, things that practically pay for the board. As DJ notes, you get several copies. If your time is worth minumum wage, it's usually a good deal.

You can even include voltage regulators, pots, test points, all sorts of stuff to make it easier to test the circuits:

ftp://66.117.156.8/Z250A.jpg

John

If you really want to do fairly simple RF-type stuff quick, start with a piece of copperclad and glue these down. Foam mounting tape works well:

and wire things up. Kapton tape is great for miscellaneous insulation.

Here's the start of a little test circuit:

ftp://66.117.156.8/NE3509M04.JPG

You can do stuff up to a GHz or so this way.

John

I wasn't even thinking of that. Design a plain vectorboard! Without mask or silk (not needed with a vectorboard), even a single panel can be as low as $21.

That assumes, of course, that you can't find what you're looking for commercially, and you really need what you're paying for.

Me, I'd just pop some 5mil SS clad into the etch and tape it to some plain unetched SS clad (copper side towards the 5mil) but then again I'm set up for home fab.

But I suppose a small breakout board through batchpcb (or a larger board through someone else) would be an inexpensive option too.

That's what I meant. This is usually when the brigade of DYI guys comes charging out with "make your own!", as if space and time are free to the person. This time it's "Get them made"... Something I've been saying for years. Why the sudden shift in attitude? I like it.

[snip]

I've been thinking of making some smaller versions of...

which I concocted in the mid '70's to breadboard chip designs with kit parts.

(I still have the films ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
     It\'s what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.

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Like this?

- Find some single sided 0.062 G10/FR4 scrap.

- Layout the board with your favorite PCB design softare.

- Print the component view on ordinary paper.

- Tape the board to the printed component view.

- Use an automatic (spring loaded) center punch to mark the holes.

- Drill all the required holes.

- Make a router bit out of a 1/8" drill. Leave a center spike for alignment. This is tricky. Be prepared to make several drills.

- Clear the area around the lead for all components that are NOT connected to ground. No need to leave a solder pad on top side.

- For overhanging components, where you can't solder to the ground plane, run a fine piece of wire through the hole, and solder to the ground plane.

- Connect the components on the bottom side. I like to use the component leads, with clear sleeving for insulation.

- Solder the ground connections on the component side.

If you want to get fancy, you can print the component outline (silk screen) to T-shirt transfer paper (iron on). I do this on both sides of the board as it makes troubleshooting much easier.

Large surface mount components can be handled using copper tape from the local stained glass window supply house.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558