TUTORIAL Designing Stripboard Layouts - Part 2

[BuddytheReow]

In part 1, we talked about the basics of stripboard, how they work, and some general tips on designing a layout. For part 2 I thought it would be a good idea to write up a "build along" post for a simple, 1 transistor circuit. For this example I will use the Copper Clad Fuzz. For those of you this is pretty much an Electra distortion and IMO should be one of the first things you try out on a breadboard to get your feet wet with regards to circuit building. Below is the schematic we will be working with. We will be building this circuit stock without any mods. Of course if you find mods you like feel free to branch off and discover your own tone that works.



Before we continue further I want to mention that there will be multiple posts here since there will be a number of pictures/screenshots to walk you through the process. Please hold your comments/questions for a little while today as I do this writeup.

But Buddy, isn't there multiple ways to layout a circuit just like a breadboard?

Great question! Since I love you guys so much I figured I would give you 2 separate layouts for the same circuit so you can see the multiple ways to skin a cat. Heck, you might even learn a thing or 2. For this tutorial I think it's a bit more important to show you my thought process while putting these together. Hence, the many forthcoming pictures.

OK. First things first. Let's get a nice clean board ready to go. Your first step should be what size to make your board. Refer to Part 1 for board sizes dependent on the enclosure you want to put this in. For this circuit I chose a size, almost at random, that would definitely fit in a 125b or 1590b. Our working board will be 15x12. My first step will be determining where I want my power to go. I chose + right in the middle of the board for starters and GND right on the end. Ground points are much more important than you'll realize and you'll definitely need a lot of them in pretty much any given circuit. Jumper wires can provide more ground points and I'll cover that later on.

I'll be switching back and forth between our 2 layouts, so I will refer to them as A and B. Let's start with the power block using D100 and R100, but designing around C100 and C101. See above schematic for ref des. Like a breadboard, I like to throw the filtering caps in the power rails and then forget about them, so I am going to make the power rails rows A and C. The question is how do I get there from the above. In A, I decided to move my + power down a few rows so I can work vertically.

In B I am going to work more horizontally, but end up in the same area. If you can't see the polarity of the diode, it's there but note that there is a cut under the diode. Using a cut is a great technique to work horizontally.

Then just add the filtering caps into our newly created power rails.

Once we have our power section done here, it's good practice for me to get the CLR and a LED hookup point. In A I worked vertically and B horizontally with an added jumper wire. For A, I wasn't concerned about the "official" power rails, but did mind the polarity protection. In B, we have also now created a separate 9v rail with polarity protection.

Now that power and LED is up and running let's focus on the input section of this circuit. Most circuits have a pulldown resistor and coupling capacitor before going into the first stages. We'll get to the later in a moment. Looking ahead at the schematic, we see a lot of ground points being used, but we've taken up nearly half the space already before even powering our transistor. To solve this problem, a simple jumper wire is added.

For the input I chose to go in between the power hookups since there is a gap in between them. Keep in mind that you want to make this as compact as possible early on because it can spread out really fast in terms of unused holes. From the input, we tack on R1 and C4 going to ground.

If I remember correctly, I think the maximum number of pics per post is about 10, so I will continue on separately. Stay tuned...

 

[BuddytheReow]

Jumping ahead just a bit, we need to consider where we're going to put our transistor and the hookups to/from it. The pinout if looking at the flat face of the 2n5088 is EBC so I will keep that in mind, but also flip the transistor around to show you what you can do in either scenario. When deciding where to place Q1 you'll need to allow room for any components going in, a way to power the darned thing, and any feedback loops (primarily in opamp based circuits). It will take you a few tries in your first go around to get this piece right since you'll run out of room somewhere down the line. Be patient and keep practicing.

We'll need access to power and ground here. It seems like they're out in the middle of nowhere, but give yourself some space to work with. We can always revise our layout later on (foreshadowing, perhaps?) In A, we can give ourselves a clean slate with 2 cuts severing the strip that has + power.

From here, we need to connect our input signal to the base of Q1 via C1. This is the closest to the left edge of the board I can work with here. R2 is also added to power the collector.

At this point, I decided to hook up the emitters to their respective ground points via R4 and C3. Note that in A I'm using both GND tracks and in B I'm just using the jumpered ground track. Notice that in A we're pretty much out of room on the top GND row, but there are some unused holes. These would be great candidates for you jacks and the GND going to the stomp switch.

 

[BuddytheReow]

Tips and Tricks

Let's talk about R3 for a moment and how to lay it out. I thought it would add value explaining this scenario we find ourselves in more often than we think. We're trying to connect a single resistor between C and B in the below layout. A 1/4 resistor, when laid flat, takes up 4 holes but we only need to go across 1. How can we do this? I used a fresh board for demonstrative purposes.

The way I see it here you've got 3 options. The simplest answer is simply to throw the resistor in there, but leave it as a standing resistor. The perfectionist in us won't like this method for aesthetic reasons only. There is no harm in going this route.

Another way would be to go vertically and using a jumper wire.

And the last way would be to go a bit more horizontal, but this time using a jumper wire and a track cut.

Remember, like a breadboard, there are multiple ways to go get to the same result.

 

[BuddytheReow]

Using the tips and tricks above, I'm going to demonstrate using the 1st and 3rd methods I mentioned to put in R3.

In A I used the standing resistor method. In B I used the horizontal method. Also note that in B I had to move Q1, R4, and C3 around horizontally in order to get this method to work. This is the beauty of using software for layouts and this will happen a lot more than you want it to while designing your layout. It can be incredibly frustrating hitting a brick wall trying to get your layout to work. Just keep practicing at it will get easier. I promise

Alright. Now we've got Q1 powered, biased, and signal going into it. Now let's focus on getting the signal out of there so we can work on our next block via C2. In A, I've got some real estate on the bottom, so I'm going that route. In B, I'm going to go up to a fresh track. I could have kept the length of C2 shorter via a track cut, but the problem with cuts is that it's a bit extra work getting the board together in practice. IMO, they're a necessary evil with stripboard and I try to keep them to a minimum.

We're at the home stretch now with just 2 more components. In this case, the diodes. Then we work on output. In A, I work from the bottom row up to my jumpered ground point. In the schematic, they are asymetrical diodes (different forward voltages). In this scenario it doesn't matter the polarity of the diode, just as long as they're oriented in opposite directions. In B, I went downward to my other ground track. The intersection of C2 and the diodes creates our output. The volume potentiometer is simply a voltage divider, so we only need to worry about pin3 of the pot. The schematic calls for B100k.

You'll also notice (if you're really paying attention) that now our circuit is complete, it's time to do some cleanup. Every time I make a layout I use the maximum dimensions listed in part 1 as a guide and scale down from there as a starting point. I had an extra column in each layout (column15) and removed it. The goal is to make things as compact as possible as you're working. You can see this isn't the best of layouts, but it works as a first go around.

More cleanup and IMO most importantly, labelling. This step is crucial for 2 reasons. First, if you were to post it anywhere somebody else will need to know how to make a full layout. Secondly, and I've done this in the past, if you were to put this project down and then actually make the layout later on, you won't remember the number of cuts, traces, offboard wiring, etc. It's good practice to make this as complete and transparent as possible. That being said, I got a little lazy with labelling layout B, but you get the idea. The labelling in A is more correct.

Any comments, questions, or concerns let me know.

Happy Holidays, y'all!

BuddytheReow

 

[MBFX]

My favorite part of designing vero layouts is trying to cram as much as possible in a small space. I found a 3x10 Electra that kicks ass

 

[Ginsly]

Superb, man!! Thanks for taking the time to do this, it's truly appreciated.

In DIYLC, could you let us know what sizes you're using for the components? When I gave it a shot recently, things weren't fitting in the way they would on a real stripboard - resistors would show as vertical unless stretched across MANY rows, etc. I resized things back and forth and got close, but maybe there's a reliable set of size parameters you use for the board and each specific type of part?