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Keith Williams
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Keith said:Joerg says...
"white board"?
Commonly used term for white plastic borads with holes in them,
designed to allow solderless breadboarding by plugging wires
and components into the holes. Pictures here:
[ http://www.globalspecialties.com/solderless.html ].
[ http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/8099 ]
Ah, I've always called these things "EL sockets". IIRC, EL was the
company that first made these things in the early '70s. I hated them
then. After graduating I never had to look at one again.
Has a rather undeserved bad reputation because of morons who
force thick-lead components into the holes and weaken the
spring contacts. Later another engineer has intermittent
contacts and concludes that whiteboards are all junk.
I don't see their purpose. They may work for some really simple
circuits, but it's not difficult to solder up a bread-board of similar
complexity. I *hate* chasing intermittent connections. Time is
important.
Some engineers/technicians make whiteboard circuits that are all
neat parallel runs of color-coded wires with 90 degree angles
hugging the board. Others like to make a gentle arc from one point
to another. Some simply make a rat's nest.
Whatever I tried it turned into a rat's nest. I remember losing
compensation on 709s with these things. Ouch! Them things get *hot*.
Whiteboards are not suitable for high speed or low capacitance
circuits and are clumsy for large designs, but they are great for
prototyping small chunks of a design before adding them to a PWB.
Not IMO. You can have 'em.
If you want to try something *really* interesting, try a SchmartBOARD.
[ http://www.schmartboard.com/ ]
[ http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=products ]
Those are more interesting. Much pricey though.
My last few PCB designs I went straight to PCB. There were a few
circuits that I was concerned about. *Those* worked perfectly. I F'd
up the simple stuff. Though where I did screw up, the wires were all
on the outer planes. Dumb, but easily recoverable.