1.27mm pitch pad boards / matrix boards - UK source or better SMD proto ideas?

[bd139]

I've been experimenting with SMD prototyping for a few weeks now. I was working with TH stuff dead bug previously but it's really expensive and takes a lot of space storing parts which I just don't have. Now I'm doing ugly SMD stuff which is just as quick and just as functional for one-shots, prototypes etc. I don't want to spin a board necessarily for this stuff. Really I'll build a few things like this, stick them together and only spin a board if I'm happy with the outcome. Unfortunately the only 1.27 pitch boards I have are Roth ones and they actually have holes in them. Due to this, there's hardly any adhesion on the pads and if you even fart near them with a soldering iron, they lift instantly. I'll remove pads with a knife under 0805's by hand anyway.

Carnage here on an early experiment I did - the "555 hello world" circuit. This took around 10 minutes to throw together:



Ergo does anyone sell 1.27mm pitch boards in the UK/EU which don't have holes?

Or alternatively are there better solutions? I've tried dremel, scoring etc - forget it - too much effort. I'm not sitting in front of Eagle/KiCad for two hours or doing toner transfer to do a board either.

[KL27x]

I'm not sitting in front of Eagle/KiCad for two hours

Methinks you are doing it wrong. There's a copy and paste function! If you can't bother to toner transfer this, I wonder what you toner transfer, at all?

I try to keep a scrap of this stuff on hand. But I do it vero-style. It comes in handy on occasion, but you need good eyes to use it. The tiny pitch makes it just one big shine to my naked eye. If not for microscope, I wouldn't find it nearly as handy.

36 mil x 36 mil square pad. Just one thing to "make." And 10-12 mil traces. In Eagle, anyhow, you don't have to do a schematic. Just break schematic and copypasta.

*Yep. I still have two small pieces. A few square inches on 7 mil thick FR-4 will last me for many years. Usually I am using it to bodge just a part or two.

[capt bullshot]

Mouser has some nice boards from BPS:
BPS SMTpads-3U-Thin (or similar), it's a double sided NPTH board with a solid plane bottom and a 1.27mm grid of pad top. Every 4th pad has a NPTH drill, you can place a piece of wire there to get a connection to the plane if required. If not, it's just a pad with a small hole in the middle, the hole usually doesn't harm.

Anyway, I don't like it anymore. Not because of it is a bad board or whatever, but rather because prototyping with SMT parts in this way costs more effort than 2.54mm THT parts.

Edit: here's a picture of such a board used in a prototype: http://wunderkis.de/idiode/index.html

[capt bullshot]

As I said, I don't like prototyping SMT on a pads grid board too much,
this is better (more effort and time in total, but way more easier to solder and assemble):



And you get the schematic "for free" as you have to do it anyway (I recently switched to kicad when creating such stuff).

[chickenHeadKnob]

Since you are in jolly olde I am surprised Mike Harrison's (mikeselectric) combination throughhole/smt board hasn't been mentioned yet, check here:
http://www.whitewing.co.uk/protoboard.html

Haven't tried these  myself. I am with capt bullshot and prefer custom boards

[plazma]

I use 1,27mm pitch board from Aliexpress. It is through plated and double sided http://plazma.kapsi.fi/pictures/temp/1.27mm_proto_board.jpg

[CJay]

Halfway house?

http://icstripboard.co.uk/

I do like the thought that there's 1.27mm pitch board though, didn't know that and will be ordering some to try out