Soldering Prototypes with Enamel Magnet Wire (2020)

peteforde an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I truly do not understand the appeal of proto board. Certainly tastes are individual and like any skill worth practicing, you do get better at it... but it's just such a miserable way to work. IMO, again.

Not only can you now order a real PCB for under $10, but somewhere along the way I realized that I could just buy extremely large pre-cut wire kits and treat them as the consumables that they truly are.

I'd rather go back to wire-wrapping. Every time I think "this is a great opportunity to use up a proto board!" I end up covered in flux goo and wondering what on earth I was thinking.

The real problem with proto board is what happens when you inevitably need to change your circuit. Again, it's miserable and suddenly your perceived speed gains are simply gone.

I think that the most exciting thing in prototyping right now is Stephen Hawes experiments with a) creating a PCB with premade vias that can be used to prototype anything and b) using a fiber laser to make your own PCBs.

Truly one of the most inspiring creators today.

	▲	kilpikaarna 20 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		While I agree with you about protoboards (especially the non-strip kind, which seem to be the predominant ones nowadays), I feel like, for anything but the most trivial circuit, drawing the schematic in CAD, picking footprints, laying out a board, doing paper printouts for verification and sending it off to a manufacturer is easily a full working day or more. It also runs the risk of scope creep -- your quick and dirty prototype suddenly turns into "a product" and you start thinking about form factor and enclosures and extra features. And over a week later when your minimum order quantity arrives, you discover your mistake and can add five more boards to the junk pile... UV laser exposure feels like the correct way to go about doing small scale prototyping imho.
	▲	michaeljx an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Any recommendations on pre-cut wiring kits?

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omgtehlion an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'd recommend a spoon-style tip* instead of using a fresh drop of solder each time.

[*] like these https://www.jbctools.com/cartridges-category-4-design-Spoon-...

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taneq an hour ago | parent [-]

Looks kind of like a fountain pen for solder!

	▲	omgtehlion an hour ago \| parent [-]
		And works like one ;)

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simojo 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is orders of magnitude more complicated and risk prone than wire wrapping due to the possibility of cold joints, but as I understand it, this look is what people dig these days (just watch any EE youtuber). I too used to think that soldering on porto board was a great way to go about prototyping sans SBB, but you can't ignore the bomber connections that wire wrapping gives you.

	▲	vhiremath4 18 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Might be a dumb question, but isn’t the risk of cold joints proportional to your skill in soldering in general? Important context: I am definitely a noob to soldering

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Animats 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Most people today use Kynar hook-up wire for this sort of thing. Even WalMart stocks it.

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crb3 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Go carefully there. Kynar tends to wilt at soldering heat. Press insulated wires together when they're still hot and suddenly they can be kissing; a 1-diameter short is easy to overlook when you're inspecting your work.

I find it worthwhile to use teflon-insulated wire here. When I'm building a prototype, the last thing I want to have to distrust is my construction.

	▲	Animats an hour ago \| parent [-]
		True. Kynar is good for toughness around square-cornered wire wrapping posts. Teflon will survive a touch of a soldering iron. I found my wire-wrapping gun recently. If I put in new C batteries it might work.

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aurizon 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I used to work for Schenectady Chemicals in 1968 we developed solderable self fluxing polyurethane coated enamelled wire, it was an immediate hit and soldered well. Times have changed and I left them in 1978, but it might be an item to look for as I found it very handy.

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ranger_danger 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

When we had to bypass the onboard UARTs: https://0x0.st/PbKT.jpg

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omgtehlion 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This pic is quite unsettling, I didn't understand why at first, but this blue wire pinched under the bolt...

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tylerflick 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Is this really easier to work with than bodge wire (wire wrap)? Asking because I still have a few rolls and would rather not waste money.

	▲	russdill 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I have 31 AWG wire. I wouldn't use anything else for PCB rework. Bends so easily, no stripping necessary, and the roll will never run out.

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rasz a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I have a good example - Piotr Grzesik's prototype of 486 SBC recently covered on Hackaday https://hackaday.com/2026/01/08/m8sbc-86-is-an-fpga-based-ki... and HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46578601

https://imgur.com/gallery/486-homebrew-computer-lsUiWdw#dIBt...

Looks like something that shouldnt work at all :)

	▲	jacquesm 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Indeed, by rights that shouldn't work. But it does and he threw in an ISA bus just for the heck of it and that works too. And all of this at a very respectable clock speed. Mad props.