Tips from a DIY Electronics Noob

I have been doing DIY electronics (building modular synths) on and off for 3 years and have learned a bunch of small tricks along the way. Because I am completely untrained, have never taken a class or read an electronics book, a lot of these tricks took me a while to learn on my own.

1. From Schematic to Stripboard

Everything I build comes from schematics online. I have no idea how to design a complex analog circuit. There are a few steps you should take as a noob when building a circuit from a schematic.

1. Make sure the schematic is tested, look on forums for success stories.
2. Read the schematic a few times, even if you do not understand what is going on, it is a good idea to understand the flow from input to output.
3. Breadboard the circuit.
4. Once the circuit works on the breadboard, do not take it off. You can use the working breadboard circuit to debug your soldered circuit when it inevitably does not work.
5. Use a stripboard layout tool like DIYLC to plan out your circuit. DO NOT just start soldering blind.
6. Once you have created the layout, take a break for a day then check it against the schematic again. You most likely missed something. It is not worth the hassle of fixing it post-solder.
7. Only now should you start soldering.

2. Troubleshooting a Stripboard

Okay you soldered the circuit but it does not work. While the probability is high that you have just soldered something incorrectly, stripboard has a few quirks that you can try to account for before you start desoldering components.

1. Run a razor blade between each copper strip on the stripboard.
2. Use a metal brush to brush away the residue left by the razor blade.
3. If that does not work, use the highest alcohol content isopropyl and brush it on the back of the striboard. Wait for it to dry fully before plugging it in.
4. If all of that does not work, the problem is probably with your layout.
5. If you think your layout is correct, start checking the voltage of the op amp pins, compare them with your breadboard. you should at least be able to start isolating where the problem is based on that.

3. Invest in a Good Soldering Iron

Trust me on this. Using a cheap $20 soldering iron will most likely make your life a nightmare. When I was using an Amazon special, it was like I was fighting with the circuit. Once I bought a low end Hakko iron, soldering became a joy.

4. Make Your Own Breadboard Peripherals

Dealing with input jacks, power headers, potentiometers on your breadboard is a hassle. They either do not go in all the way, pop out, or the large pins will hurt your breadboard (you should get a good breadboard, I use these). You are doing DIY electronics, so you should create your own peripherals to handle these issues. It definitely took me a while to understand this one and have only recently started doing it. I do not have a good solution for potentiometers, but for power headers and jacks, I made this:

You definitely want to use perfboard for this, not stripboard.

5. Higher Quality Stranded Wire is More Important than Solid Core.

Getting crap stranded wire on Amazon is not worth it. The strands are weak, the shielding is weak, it’s style is weak. Just get good stranded wire from Tayda or something. Solid core just has more structural integrity and have found that cheap solid core works fine.

When I say cheap, the price is really the same, you can just get higher quality wire from places like Tayda.

Webrings

-prev-

random

-next-