T&L Publications

I think that term was coined by the amateur radio guys. Strangely enough and as far as circuit operation goes, they say there is no better way to construct a circuit (from a pure electronic operation stand point). The guru of Op-Amp design, Bob Pease always scribbled his design plans on 'toilet paper' and dead bugged them for testing!

Dead bugging is the way I started, I just didn't know it at the time. Actually there are some really good examples
out there, I just wish I could re-find the one I am thinking of. It was at a Ham's site. Until then, here are a couple
to look at:

Dartmouth Prototyping PDF
Deadbug for Dummies
Picture
Place where I found the last 2 links

Enjoy!

CeaSaR

Lenp wrote:Dead Bugging?

Slang term usually used to describe the pin-to-pin wiring of a DIP style chip without a circuit board board. The DIP chip, when on it's back, resembles a "dead bug". Good example is here:



from this link:

http://tinkerlog.com/2009/12/12/geeky-advent

Also used to describe a process where a chip is glued "pins up" onto a circuit board to add a function or replace a part like so:



Wikipedia describes the method in Point to point wiring descriptions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-to-p ... nstruction

And yeah, I've done that on occasion.

Vern

Manhatten style is the next generation up from Dead bug. It's sort of a combination of Dead Bug with solder pads added. Small (1/4" dia.) pads are cut from a single sided circuit board and glued to the main single sided copper clad board where ever a solder pad is needed. They are glued with the pad substrate to the copper side on the main board. Now you have nodes for component junctions and and components to ground. I have prototyped with this method in the past and its really pretty neat. I have seen pictures on the web of some Amateur radio projects and they were really quite impressive and looked VERY professional in their lay out. The only problem is that once you enter the VHF realm (>100 MHz), the pad capacitance to the main board can become a problem. But with careful layout, these occasional critical points can be avoided.
Theres a fair amount of info on this method by Google.

Check my PDF link above, page 4. They also call that style "ugly board". That same guy I referenced above swears
by that method for his Ham projects (nope, still can't find his link).

CeaSaR

Those are great pics. Not hard to imagine "dead bug." I've not heard it called "ugly board" - beauty's in the eye of the
beholder! I've also not heard the name "Manhattan style" either, but when I learned of the technique the small pads
were called "islands." They were pieces of double-sided phenolic "bitten off" with a nibbler tool and soldered down.