Veroboard - Is it worth it? Where is a good place to get some?

[perfboarder]

Have very subjective weird opinion.

Always choose perfboard, specially the thick perf like double sided chinese green board. Why?

+ Thick, of course. Hard to bend.
+ The pads is just right size, and hard to lifted.
+ Its easier to solder right angle pots, or if you hardcore faster, you can do solder from component side. Remember, its double side.
+ Art of perf is bend that leg and use as trace.
+ You can do veroboard style in perfboard, without cut the pads. But you must connect point to point. Its easy, just bend left or right.
+- Perf layout is easy convert to pcb, so its good start if want to move real pcb build. Although you cant always have vertical component like in beauty vero layout.
- If you put wrong component, more work to correct that.

Its back to preference, what make you comfort and fast to build.

 

[HamishR]

PCB is the way to go for the more complex pedals like the bigger Friedman ODs or even the Klones IMO. But the whole reason I got into building pedals was to experiment and try to make the pedal suit my use, not just make clones. Swapping parts out on a PCB is not really advisable. It can be done but is fraught with peril.

I started building vero layouts from copying those online. I thought I could never draw one up in my wildest dreams! But then once you get into it you find ways of "improving" layouts, and before you know it you're designing your own. I have lots of little preferences in vero layouts - I like the wires to come off the board where the connections are, so for example I like to have the Gain pot wiring top left of the board because that's where the Gain pot will be.

I have zero education in electronics, yet after building amps and then pedals I have learnt so much from places like this. And specifically because of this forum and the help of Chuck and everyone I have been able to actually tweak various designs to become so much better for my playing than anything available commercially. And Vero is the only option for me (so far) to build and experiment with the very tweaked designs.

Vero is very forgiving and with practise easy to solder neatly onto. Have a clean, fine point on your iron and you shouldn't have any trouble. Swapping out parts is easy. I suspect that if you have only ever built PCBs you will initially find Vero a challenge but after a while you will wonder how you ever did without it!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

vero can give you neater layouts but parts placement can be confusing when you try to compare a vero build to a schematic. good building and troubleshooting experience either way.

Indeed!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

What substrate material is used in the Tayda Strip Boards? They don't say. I was buying some nice strip boards on Amazon that were made from epoxy-glass, but they are no longer available. Last batch I bought there are on some cheaper phenolic-type material. The boards work ok as long as they're dry. They soak up water like a sponge during cleaning and are useless until they're completely dry.

 

[mdc]

I'm not sure what the tayda board is made out of, but I just ran an offcut under the tap and it doesn't seem to have soaked up any water.

 

[rmfx]

Vero and proto are fun. I like taking misdrilled boxes or parts sitting around too long to make something. As said prior, it feels like a free pedal if you have a standard assortment of parts already sitting around.

If the appearance of the wiring matters, all the extra wires make that a fun challenge.

 

[mdc]

@spi thanks for the recommendation on the busboard brand boards - I ordered a few sheets and it seems very nice, much more substantial than the tayda stuff. @Chuck D. Bones it's marked as being 'FR4 glass-epoxy PCB' if that's what you're after.

 

[BuddytheReow]

Stupid noob question. Are veroboard and stripboard the same thing? Looking at Tayda right now...

 

[Jovi Bon Kenobi]

Stupid noob question. Are veroboard and stripboard the same thing? Looking at Tayda right now...

as far as I know, Vero is just the trademarked name for stripboard. They are one and the same

 

[BuddytheReow]

as far as I know, Vero is just the trademarked name for stripboard. They are one and the same

thanks!