No matter how good your project is, how good a circuit designer you may be or how much thought you have put into your project, if the final circuits in your project are not sturdy enough, stable enough and strong enough your project is bound to fail.
Electronic projects start from an idea which turns into a circuit which is tested first in a simulation software and then is tested on breadboard (this is the right approach in my opinion). After successful testing on breadboard, it is time to make the finalized circuit. PCB (Printed Circuit Board) is the best choice available if you are familiar with making PCBs and have all the necessary tools and sutff.
However if PCBs are not your strong suit or you think that you will only need to make ONE-COPY of the circuit then why not try making your circuit on Vero-Board/Stripboard. Vero-Boards allow rapid circuit designing and have allow for future modifications. But simply soldering on components without regard to their position and function in circuit and wiring them in spaghetti fashion ain’t the right way to do it. Most of the Vero-Board circuits that I have seen are very poorly made, with no design consideration and no thought given to where a component may be placed.
I am listing here a few software which will help in designing a circuit on Vero-Board before actually designing it:
- https://sites.google.com/site/libby8dev/stripes
- http://3dreplicators.com/New%20Front%20Page/Documentation/Tools/Stripboard%20designer.htm
- http://code.google.com/p/diy-layout-creator/
- http://veecad.com/
Though nothing beats designing the layout of a circuit on paper and brainstorming a few layout ideas before starting out, but software like these can help if you are not a paper/sketch guy. I myself have tried the DIY Layout Creator and the Stripboard Designer but I still prefer the old fashioned way of paper design.
Just remember; when designing for PCB or Vero-Board first place components to places where they will be most appropriate for usage (like connectors on the side/border), then place the components according to the schematic and then finally place the remaining components as close to their destinations as possible.
[The rules that I follow myself]
Galleries of a few of my Vero-Board Projects/Circuits:
- AVR Fuse-Bit Fixer [Gallery]
- L297-L298 Stepper Driver -Vero-Board [Gallery]
- only two for now, I have images of more things to upload… check back later..
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