Chris said:
You can see where this is headed. I feel a hobbyist should stick with
soldered connections. A good place to start for newbies is a
perfboard with a layout similar to the protoboard you're probably
already using to check circuits out. Radio Shack sells a perfboard
with 4-pad 0.1" spacing, just like your protoboard. It's the same
size as their small protoboard, and you can transfer your circuits
right over from one to the other. If you've got a small soldering
iron, some solder, and some 24- or 26-gauge solid wire, you can do
this easily. It will also give you some additional practice in
soldering.
Good advice above.
There are other methods which can be combined in any way you like.
The goal is to connect two or more points (nodes) with another
electrically. Exactly how it is done is less important.
I often take a piece of copper laminate (pcb material) and clean it
with a kitchen sponge, the abrasive type.
Then I use a sharp tool, like the end of a file, and make grooves in
the copper surface, dividing it into small squares.
I make more squares than I expect I will need.
When you experiment you need space, so try not to cram things together
too much.
Then I can solder components between these copper "islands".
Modern surface mount components can be used, and older components too,
by cutting and bending the wires and soldering them to copper islands.
By avoiding holes we save ourselves a lot of extra work and machinery
for drilling. Or expensive prototype boards with pads and holes.
(but this type of board is also a good alternative, it is just a little
more expensive than buying pcb material in some surplus shop)
In this way I can experiment, move and change components, and the
circuit will be in a usable state afterwards.
I bought a solderless protoboard once, but I never use it, because I
hate having to take circuits apart and rebuilding them a second time.
By experimenting by soldering you get a result which is directly
usable, or if you want to save your experiments.
The same circuit can come in handy later, so I save all experiments.
I might also need a special component which I can take off an earlier
experiment.
Circuits which are to be used are placed in a box, so it doesn't matter
much what the circuit board looks like, it is the function which is
important.
Forget about wire-wrapping. It is a very complicated way to connect two
points electrically, it is expensive, needs special sockets, wire and
tools, and is simply antiquated. You cannot use modern smd components
with wire wrapping. We as hobbyists or experimenters will need to use
both smd and old components for a few decades, until there are no more
wire components in the surplus shops and in our shelfs.
So use a method which can use both types of components.
Later you will need to learn about etching and making custom made pcb's
for yourself, but that is for circuits you need to produce more than
one of, or if you need to miniturize a circuit.
Etched pcb's are not suitable for experimenting so you still need the
methods above for experimenting.
Some people skip the experiments with real components and use a SPICE
simulator in the computer to experiment, test a circuit, then design a
circuit board, print out, etch it into copper laminate, build the
circuit.
Others think it is more fun to sit at the workbench with a soldering
iron in hand, building as you like for the moment, see what happens