I recently bought some cheap Chinese prototyping pcbs from eBay and thought I should pass on a little warning. They smell like the old Radio Shack boards while soldering but a few hours later I tried going to bed but found my nose completely clogged. It was so bad I woke myself up coughing. The next day my nose was still clogged but a decongestant cleared it up. I've been soldering for over 30 years and never had any reaction like that before. The remaining boards went right into the trash. Here is what they look like.
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Bad story, but nobody should be using Pertinax boards anyway - it's one of the things that should be consigned to the pages of history 🙂
Normally you want what's called FR-4 (fibreglass) base material instead of phenolic paper ("pertinax"). I don't really use protoboards any longer, but from a quick ebay search I can see that not all the sellers are equally honest about what they are selling. Basically I see three variants:
- The light brown ones (middle) are Pertinax and these I would avoid at all costs (not just for the reason the O/P mentioned, but they also tend not do too well with high heat, so if you ever need to desolder parts you might lift traces more easily). This is the stuff that smell like "old PCBs" (because they are 😛 )
- The beige/yellowish ones (bottom) are probably OK, but I have seen some examples where the quality is pretty rough, so here I would be a bit cautious.
- The green ones look like real FR-4 and these I would go for myself. Obviously YMMV and no guarantees etc. as I haven't tried them all, but at least the green colour is some indication to me that what you are buying is OK and "fit for purpose".
Haven't checked any prices and so on, so no idea if the green ones are much more expensive but if you've tried e.g. having to fix lifted traces on a board you tend to very quickly forget about the extra money 😀
- The light brown ones (middle) are Pertinax and these I would avoid at all costs (not just for the reason the O/P mentioned, but they also tend not do too well with high heat, so if you ever need to desolder parts you might lift traces more easily). This is the stuff that smell like "old PCBs" (because they are 😛 )
- The beige/yellowish ones (bottom) are probably OK, but I have seen some examples where the quality is pretty rough, so here I would be a bit cautious.
- The green ones look like real FR-4 and these I would go for myself. Obviously YMMV and no guarantees etc. as I haven't tried them all, but at least the green colour is some indication to me that what you are buying is OK and "fit for purpose".
Haven't checked any prices and so on, so no idea if the green ones are much more expensive but if you've tried e.g. having to fix lifted traces on a board you tend to very quickly forget about the extra money 😀
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That sounds pretty unpleasant, good to warn others here.
I've had good experiences ordering things like this from Ali Express. They have tons of prototyping boards like this in fiberglass like a typical PCB construction. Any reason not to use those?
I've had good experiences ordering things like this from Ali Express. They have tons of prototyping boards like this in fiberglass like a typical PCB construction. Any reason not to use those?
All the green FR-4 looked like it had pads plated on both sides. I know these boards are cheap and thin by the keyword here is prototype. Now that the circuit works I'm laying out a real pcb. 🙂
Actually I like phenolic paper for fast prototyping. It's easy to cut, it's easy to lift traces to create clearance, it's cheap. And they come in many patterns.
But I stick to Rademacher's ones from reichelt. Thanks for the warning.
But I stick to Rademacher's ones from reichelt. Thanks for the warning.
I still use Pertinax boards, tons of them.
Easy to cut, punch, drill, main advantage is drills last forever, important if you make many a month like I do (Guitar amp manufacturing).
If they were good enough for Marshall/Fender/Ampeg/Roland/Peavey/etc. for *decades*, plus countless DVD player makers, Cassette players, TVs, etc. , also in classic Veroboard, then they are good enough for me.
Drilling Glass DESTROYS drill bits.
And worst case, I much prefer to breathe phenolic paper vapours than ground glass, any day of the week.
FWIW I just stopped for a cup of coffee and checking DIY Audio, amidst drilling 9 Bass preamps, 13 Guitar preamps, and 9 combined 100W poweramps + PSU
All phenolic paper, of course 😉
Easy to cut, punch, drill, main advantage is drills last forever, important if you make many a month like I do (Guitar amp manufacturing).
If they were good enough for Marshall/Fender/Ampeg/Roland/Peavey/etc. for *decades*, plus countless DVD player makers, Cassette players, TVs, etc. , also in classic Veroboard, then they are good enough for me.
Drilling Glass DESTROYS drill bits.
And worst case, I much prefer to breathe phenolic paper vapours than ground glass, any day of the week.
FWIW I just stopped for a cup of coffee and checking DIY Audio, amidst drilling 9 Bass preamps, 13 Guitar preamps, and 9 combined 100W poweramps + PSU
All phenolic paper, of course 😉
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