Construction Tutorial

This article gives you a general overview of how to build a board. It's very important to precisely follow all the instructions given in this article. On the next page you will find an example where you can see in which order you usually construct a board. It is recommended that you read the example article which gives useful examples of all the construction tips.

Ok, let's start with the Construction Tips:

• Install the components on the side that doesn’t have electronic tracks, such that the component’s leads protrude through the holes to the back (the side that does have tracks).
• Start with the components that have the lowest physical height profile. This way you decrease difficulties related to working with components of uneven heights, as taller components may interfere with installing the shorter components.
• Note that certain components will have a particular orientation in the circuit, so they must be installed in the right direction (e.g. transistors, diodes, ICs (Chips) and electrolytic capacitors to name a few).
• When soldering try to put the soldering bolt on the leads of the components for no longer than a few seconds to avoid heat damage.
• The circuits can only be completed properly by soldering each component’s leads to its appropriate track (since you need to provide conductive joints between the tracks and the leads via the soldering process). So in light of this, glue or similar adhesives that just attach the components to the board will not help, as they will not form the appropriate conductive joints and thus won’t complete the circuit.
• Make sure you don’t accidentally form unnecessary soldering joints between tracks or leads of the components (whether between leads of the same component or different components) as this will alter the circuit and so it will not operate correctly. For those new to soldering, it is okay if solder flows along the track as long as it doesn’t connect anything.
• If Integrated Circuit (IC) sockets are used we highly recommend soldering the sockets first without the ICs. Then when all soldering is complete install the ICs into the appropriate socket. This way you can avoid heat damage to the IC so the worst you could do is to melt a socket rather than damaging the IC. Note that there should be a notch on the socket to indicate the direction the IC should be inserted. Ensure that the direction of the socket matches the indication on the board so as to avoid confusion when it comes to inserting the IC itself into the socket.
• If you have a Multimeter you can use it for measuring the connections you made. Set it up to Resistor measure mode and put the measuring rods to the two tracks or leads you want to check. If you made a short circuit the display will show something around zero. Otherwise it will display higher value (maybe it will show nothing at all because the Resistor is too high to be measured by the Multimeter).