Soldering Prototypes with Enamel Magnet Wire (2020)

I truly do not understand the appeal of proto board. Certainly tastes are individual and like any skill worth practicing, you do get better at it... but it's just such a miserable way to work. IMO, again.

Not only can you now order a real PCB for under $10, but somewhere along the way I realized that I could just buy extremely large pre-cut wire kits and treat them as the consumables that they truly are.

I'd rather go back to wire-wrapping. Every time I think "this is a great opportunity to use up a proto board!" I end up covered in flux goo and wondering what on earth I was thinking.

The real problem with proto board is what happens when you inevitably need to change your circuit. Again, it's miserable and suddenly your perceived speed gains are simply gone.

I think that the most exciting thing in prototyping right now is Stephen Hawes experiments with a) creating a PCB with premade vias that can be used to prototype anything and b) using a fiber laser to make your own PCBs.

Truly one of the most inspiring creators today.

I'd recommend a spoon-style tip* instead of using a fresh drop of solder each time.

[*] like these https://www.jbctools.com/cartridges-category-4-design-Spoon-...

One thing I like for prototyping with through hole parts is Verowire pen which kind of combines wire wrap with soldering. It uses thin wire in self-fluxing insulation. You can use the pen to wrap a bunch of components that go in series without wasting time for trimming the wire to length. Then you solder over the wraps and bite off the runs that shouldn't be there (e.g. when you wired a diode you remove the wire between its contacts).

This is orders of magnitude more complicated and risk prone than wire wrapping due to the possibility of cold joints, but as I understand it, this look is what people dig these days (just watch any EE youtuber). I too used to think that soldering on porto board was a great way to go about prototyping sans SBB, but you can't ignore the bomber connections that wire wrapping gives you.

I used to work for Schenectady Chemicals in 1968 we developed solderable self fluxing polyurethane coated enamelled wire, it was an immediate hit and soldered well. Times have changed and I left them in 1978, but it might be an item to look for as I found it very handy.

Most people today use Kynar hook-up wire for this sort of thing. Even WalMart stocks it.

When we had to bypass the onboard UARTs: https://0x0.st/PbKT.jpg

I have a good example - Piotr Grzesik's prototype of 486 SBC recently covered on Hackaday https://hackaday.com/2026/01/08/m8sbc-86-is-an-fpga-based-ki... and HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46578601

https://imgur.com/gallery/486-homebrew-computer-lsUiWdw#dIBt...

Looks like something that shouldnt work at all :)