I use solderless breadboards for testing my circuits. The hole size is 1mm and the distance between holes is 2.54mm. It will be much easier to design a printed circuit if I can stick to these dimensions for my components. There are 2 sides to the board and integrated circuits go down the middle of the board. This set up would be familiar to most on this forum.
I use dip components and I want them on my printed circuit board. With dip ICs their pins are 2.54mm apart which makes it very convenient for placing them on the breadboard. The ICs also have a width from the pins on one side to the pins on the other. Not sure what this width is for a standard solderless breadboard. This will need to be the width I use in my design. Does anybody know what it is so that I can pick the right component?
How can I set up a grid on the above design? Thanks.
Have you looked? In the PCB editor there is a dropdown and you can select 2.54 mm = 0.1 inch as the grid unit. The spacing between DIP IC rows is generally a multiple, usually 7.62 mm or 15.24 mm, also on the grid.
You can find the width by measuring the footprints. You will find the footprints in the Footprint Packages labeled DIP. Most are either .3 in. (7.62mm) or .6 in. ( 15.24mm).
To be certain, you need to find Data Sheets for the components you require.
As already written above, those old IC’s are usually designed around a 2.54mm (0.1") grid, just like breadboard, stripboard and matrix board.
You can also draw a line pattern on one of the user layers as a guide to your physical breadboard layout. This can especially be helpful if you want to use some of the more elaborate generic PCB’s, such as the “Elex” model shown below.
I used to put stuff too close together on such PCB’s, then had to add more parts and had to make a big mess of it while adding the last 20% or so of the parts. Making a preleminary layout in KiCad can be a big help in planning the layout. If you run out of space, you just select a rectangle and move the offending parts.
Also: In KiCad V7 you can use PCB Editor / Place / Add Image to directly put such an image as background on a layer. It is a bit fiddly to calibrate though. Drawing a “real” line pattern on a grid is probably a better method. If you want to experiment with this, then also make use of the “user layers”, their color and the opacity settings (double click on the colored rectangle before the layer name in the appearance manager).
Thanks for that. It is 7.62 mm which is 3x2.54.
Yes I have made a lot of circuits using these boards. Many times there was a fault somewhere which was very difficult to find. One of the worse was a 240vac voltage(low current) to close to a dc line causing an induced voltage on the dc line.
Many times now I just leave my circuits on the breadboard. Then much easier to find faults.
Just a further question Paul if you don’t mind. The info I have about getting a printed circuit made from my design is that it costs only a few cents a board. But wouldn’t this mean that you have to order a minimum number of boards in the first place. No maker is going to give you a single board. Do you or anyone else on this forum no anything further on this. Thanks.
There are many cheap pcb manufacturers who will make small numbers of your design for a few pounds/dollars. They bulk together multiple orders in production to reduce their costs. There are some limitation to their cheapest offers - usually on size and number of layers but if your design is less than 10cm x 10cm and two layers, you might be pleasantly surprised at how cheap it is to get a board made. We are talking around $2 for 5 boards for the cheapest. A well known US based firm will do you 3 copies for $5 a square inch but that’s with gold plating included. Your biggest expense will probably be postage. The downside is that you will have to wait for delivery but this is generally within a couple of weeks to Europe. Have a look here for comparison of costings and capabilities. https://pcbshopper.com/
Some of these are based in Europe, some in the US but most are based in China. Aisler deserves a mention as they contribute to KiCad development but I’ve used several of the cheap manufacturers and have been happy. Some will do part or full assembly which is handy if you want to try out a tricky SMD part like a BGA or something with a very fine pitch but worry you don’t have the soldering skills.
In the pcbshopper form note that for many if not all manufacturers, silkscreen on both sides isn’t more expensive, and often soldermask colours other than green are not more expensive but will take a bit longer. Quantities should generally be multiples of 5.
Anyway once you have your shortlist go directly to their sites to explore their pricing structure.
I think it is highest time to take a step forward and start to design PCBs for your circuits.
40 years ago, when I was using ICs in DIP packages I didn’t used breadboards (they didn’t existed or were too expensive) but I’ve got one A4 one-sided laminate. I cut from it piece by piece and made my PCBs myself (using pen refill with the ball removed to paint tracks directly at PCB and then etching them in FeCl3).
Our local manufacturer has two kind of offers:
One is like you expect. The advantages are that:
- you can use all their possibilities,
- when you want to order the next time the same PCBs you pay much less as you pay only for PCBs and not for production preparation as they have all files saved for you.
The second is for prototypes. These orders are realized in 5 days. You can order even one 3x3cm PCB but in limited technologies.
Only 1mm or 1.5mm thickness and only 2 or 4 layer PCBs. They make costs of it smaller by merging orders together. The disadvantage is that they don’t save your project for next time orders (logical as it was merged with other projects).
You pay some fixed amount per order + for the PCB size (about $5 for 100cm2)
Typically once per moth they have ‘PCB day’. Prototype orders that day have this fixed part of payment much reduced (from standard about $20 to $2…3). Thanks to having more orders that one day they can reduce their costs.
Global manufacturers (I have never used) get so many orders that they can have prices reduced each day and much more than this our local manufacturer.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.