Prototype Construction Tips

[cbmeeks]

I'm going to look at getting some genuine Kynar wire soon. Just need to find some that doesn't require me to mortgage my house. LOL

So, what strippers are you guys using? Especially for the 30AWG stuff. I use either my WW tool or a $4 cheapo pair that isn't very comfortable to use.

Also, anyone here try using CAT5 cable (solid core) for any soldering projects? Seems like it would be too brittle but it's pretty cheap considering CAT5 cable is often sold by the foot and you get 8 wires in that foot.

[Druzyek]

I use CAT5 for protoboards and it works great. The one advantage it has over smaller wires I tried is that it is too big to slip through the holes in the board, so it stays put when you are trying to solder it.

[Mike Naberezny]

cbmeeks wrote:

So, what strippers are you guys using? Especially for the 30AWG stuff. I use either my WW tool or a $4 cheapo pair that isn't very comfortable to use.

I've been using a pair of Craftsman 45660 for about the last 5 years and have been happy with them. The jaws have good alignment and they are still sharp enough to strip wirewrap wire after all that (hobby) use. I received the Craftsman wire cutters as a gift. Before then, I use a couple different pairs made by Xcelite and had good luck with those also.

[Oneironaut]

Breadboards and CAT-5 wire.
That's kinda my thing.
Prototypes exceeding 40MHz.

Brad

[Floopy]

Mike Naberezny wrote:

top.jpg

What's the name of the DIP socket? I have never seen one like it.

[Mike Naberezny]

Floopy wrote:

What's the name of the DIP socket? I have never seen one like it.

I think that one is an Aries 28-526-10 ZIF socket. There's a normal DIP socket soldered to the board. ZIF sockets are expensive so I only have a few of them. When I am developing, I stick a ZIF socket into the normal DIP socket temporarily. This lets me easily change out EPROMs (or usually my EPROM emulator's cable). I then move the ZIF socket to the next project when I'm done.

[GARTHWILSON]

cbmeeks wrote:

I'm going to look at getting some genuine Kynar wire soon. Just need to find some that doesn't require me to mortgage my house. LOL

So, what strippers are you guys using? Especially for the 30AWG stuff.

See my 6502 primer's "Answering WW questions and doubts" page, at http://wilsonminesco.com/6502primer/WireWrap.html . There's a picture about halfway down the page. (Now I just need to find out who makes the tool Radio Shack was selling, to give a manufacturer and part number.)

[Floopy]

Mike Naberezny wrote:

There's a normal DIP socket soldered to the board. ZIF sockets are expensive so I only have a few of them. When I am developing, I stick a ZIF socket into the normal DIP socket temporarily. This lets me easily change out EPROMs (or usually my EPROM emulator's cable). I then move the ZIF socket to the next project when I'm done.

Nice, I think I may do the same. Although I get my ZIF sockets for a lot cheaper (about 1.30$ a piece, quality being alright). My chip puller is putting strain on the legs of my experimental Eproms.
Thanks for the tip!

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Mike Naberezny wrote:

Floopy wrote:

What's the name of the DIP socket? I have never seen one like it.

I think that one is an Aries 28-526-10 ZIF socket.

Expensive little bugger!

[DerTrueForce]

I couldn't get my ZIF socket out of my first prototype(desoldering braid hasn't worked for me so far), so I used a double-wipe socket, but I don't push the EEPROM all the way in, just enough for it to hold in there, so I don't have to involve my IC puller. It stands quite tall, but that's in a board that won't be portable at the moment.
I'll probably end up putting an F-RAM on the final board instead of an EEPROM, and write it initially using the built-in monitor of the 65C265.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

DerTrueForce wrote:

I couldn't get my ZIF socket out of my first prototype(desoldering braid hasn't worked for me so far), so I used a double-wipe socket, but I don't push the EEPROM all the way in, just enough for it to hold in there, so I don't have to involve my IC puller. It stands quite tall, but that's in a board that won't be portable at the moment.
I'll probably end up putting an F-RAM on the final board instead of an EEPROM, and write it initially using the built-in monitor of the 65C265.

POC V2.2, when it gets built, will use one of the attached for the ROM. It's only slightly larger than a standard DIP-28 × .600" socket.

[drogon]

It may be worthwhile noting that this sort of perfboard is quite alien this Eastern side of the Atlantic... Or maybe it's just th culture of the environment I started out in, who knows, as after nearly 40 years in electronics the first time I encountered it was a few years back when I was sent a new Raspberry Pi "proto plate" from Adafruit which had (to me) a most odd arrangement of pads and tracks.

Where I was, if you wanted to prototype something, or even build something more permanent than on a breadboard, using veroboard (stripboard) was the done-thing.

And a quick search (on RS and Farnell), doesn't find any either (or I just don't know the right name for it) - plenty of stripboard (or Veroboard as a generic name as they're a popular manufacturer of it) which is what I was brought up on - which is what I recently built up my little 6502 project on, because, why not?

The last wire-wrap 6502 I did was on RS part number: 435-434 - still being sold today: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/eurocards/0435434/ and I'd have bought it, (and soldered wires to it, having lost all my wire-wrap kit years ago), if it weren't for the cost.

I remember lots of magazine articles too (Everyday electronics, Practical Electronics, etc.) all using stripboard too - giving the track break patterns on one side, components on the other - even Fritzing now has a stripboard layout...

So maybe this is another European/US difference in the prototype electronics department - any insight to stripboard use in the US?

6502 on stripboard: https://unicorn.drogon.net/ruby-03.jpg
Cheers,

-Gordon

[Martin A]

drogon wrote:

The last wire-wrap 6502 I did was on RS part number: 435-434

Urgh that one's expensive!

For Eurocard size boards from RS, I'd be using the RE060-HP or RE200-HP boards at about 1/5 of the price.

[drogon]

Martin A wrote:

drogon wrote:

The last wire-wrap 6502 I did was on RS part number: 435-434

Urgh that one's expensive!

For Eurocard size boards from RS, I'd be using the RE060-HP or RE200-HP boards at about 1/5 of the price.

Matrixboard!!!

So there you go - just knowing the right name is half the battle - search for perfboard- nothing. Ah well.

I'll still use stripboard though - mostly because I have a stack of it here, still...

Cheers,

-Gordon

[Mike Naberezny]

BigDumbDinosaur wrote:

POC V2.2, when it gets built, will use one of the attached for the ROM. It's only slightly larger than a standard DIP-28 × .600" socket.

I had not seen "EJECT-A-DIP" (28-pin, 40-pin) before. Neat, so it's a machine-tooled socket with additional locking tabs that can also eject the chip. The datasheet says it is recommended for high-vibration environments.

When I saw this, I immediately thought of "DIP plugs" (like CWR-130-40-0000). They are ribbon cable connectors that plug into a normal DIP socket. They're commonly used with EPROM emulators. A 40-pin DIP plug is also used on the Commodore SuperPET. That computer consists of a normal Commodore 8032 board and a large expansion board. The expansion board interfaces to the 8032 board by a ribbon cable that plugs into the 8032 board's 6502 socket with a DIP plug. After I put up my SuperPET pages, a few people asked me if I could fix their SuperPETs and shipped them to me. On two occasions, the DIP plug came loose from the 6502 socket during shipment. If it turns out that the EJECT-A-DIP is mechanically compatible with a DIP plug, that could be a nice upgrade to keep the DIP plug locked in.