protoboardsoldering
What's the proper way to solder with bus wire on perfboard.
I used perfboard for the first time on a project recently. I designed a great layout and started soldering the components to the copper pads; the joints were perfect and beautiful. Then I realized I still needed to add the connections. So I put the bus wire down and was successful in getting the device working, but it was pretty ugly underneath.
For things that require RoHS, I've been using a version of lead-free popular with assembly houses- Sn99.3/Cu0.7 2% flux, which seems to work okay.
The joints are not quite as shiny as the beloved Sn63/Pb37 with RMA flux, but quite acceptable.
Left two joints are lead-free, right joint is Sn63/Pb37.
Insert and solder pins, tin the wire ends, and wrap it round the pins a couple of time before soldering. For strain relief, put the wires against the board and secure them with pieces of solid wire inserted in a couple of adjacent holes and twisted a few times on the other side, to keep the stranded wires in position.
Best Answer
One suggestion I can give is to use the thinnest wire possible, and to cut your wires to the exact length you need to route them around your perfboard.
Another clever technique, which I have not personally tried, is to make a "Wiring Pen" as in this instructables