18 Comments
Apr 17, 2023·edited Apr 17, 2023

Agree completely on the importance of an oscilloscope; I tried building without one and trying to 'analyze' my way through the inevitable problems but it's just a huge waste of time, except for maybe the most trivial of projects. Having grown up in the era of desktop oscilloscopes, that's what I went looking for at first; but aside from the cost, the mere table space was an issue for me. So even though it goes against everything I was taught... in the end I went for a PC-based USB oscilloscope from Pico. Takes up practically no additional desktop space (assuming you have the PC there already); and in some ways has an easier to navigate UI than a real desktop device. Just something to consider.

Thanks for the article!

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Re: soldering iron: there are several aftermarket/opensource soldering stations that take Weller RT tips. I am using one by vlk on tindie, a friend is using Soldering RT1- both work as well as original Weller station.

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Is it important to have something that moves air away from where you're soldering, so you don't breathe in nasty fumes?

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I'm having trouble finding a source for the solder you recommend. There's one on amazon where the description matches but photo doesn't, making me skeptical that it will be correct.

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Would you be able to share your source for the small needle-tipped dropper bottle? They look pretty nice.

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Feb 18, 2023Liked by lcamtuf

My main issue with perfboard is the lack of ground plane. For analog and higher frequency stuff, I vastly prefer manhattan/dead bug style. Jim Williams is the master of this. Otherwise for connecting modules from aliexpress or what have you to make some gadget, yeah perfboard is great.

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I wrote a short post about different types of circuit boards here https://www.quaxio.com/circuit_boards/. While breadboard+perfboards are the most common boards for experimenting or hobby builds, knowing the names of the other boards can come in handy.

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I’d also recommend a logic analyzer from Saleae and an ESR meter for testing caps

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Very useful. What do you look for in a perfboard? What are some examples you use?

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