I'm using a very elegant "in-between" technique which combines the
flexibility of perfboard wire with the shielding and relative precision
advantages of copper-clad.

It's also very cheap!

I buy rolls of adhesive copper tape of various widths from a stained-glass
supplies store. I'll use the wide tape for covering one side of the PCB
with the ground plane. Then, on the other side, I'll construct traces of
the
size and placement that I want with small pieces of copper tape.

If I need to make a correction, I can usually add or cut away more foil.
If I need to join pieces of tape electrically, a small dab of solder along
the edge works nicely.

Copper tape allows me to do double sided work at will without the
need for chemicals or the danger of using an electric drill to rout away
copper.

I've been able to bang out one small circuit per weekend and usually get
it right the first time, if not the second.

Try it! You'll be pleasantly surprised.

The Eternal Squire

Roy Lewallen wrote in message
...
A good way to connect the components is to simply bend the component
leads over. Often, they're long enough to reach between connected
components. If not, short bare wires can be added. It can be done quite
neatly, and the result is very durable. But if beauty is important to
you, you should probably go to the trouble of making a PCB.

This method shares a problem with conventional one- or two-sided
non-ground plane PCBs in that proper bypassing and "grounding" requires
some skill and knowledge. It's easy to end up with "ground" currents
from multiple circuits sharing a common conductor, which can often lead
to crosstalk and oscillation. This becomes more of a problem with
increasing frequency, but because virtually all modern semiconductors
have substantial gain at very high frequencies, it can still be a
problem even when the operating frequency is low. I personally favor
"ugly" construction, in which components are mounted over a solid ground
plane. This reduces the impedance of inter-circuit ground connections so
is considerably more forgiving of less-than-optimum layout.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

James W wrote:
When working with simple perfboard (just holes, no 'traces' connecting
the holes) how does one connect the components together? I'm guessing by
using jumper wires for point-to-point wiring on the backside, but that
seems a bit ugly.

- jim




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